Lucia di Lammermoor in Avignon : young and beautiful singers on April the 24th.

I set off to Avignon with great expectancies to see three young singers I already  knew  in an opera with a staging I had also seen three times in Marseille.

 I was thrilled to see Zuzana Markova,  Florian Sempey  and Julien Dran again. It was also such a pleasure to discover another promising tenor who replaced Jonas Kaufmann at the Met some time ago :Jean-François Borras.
The four of them had the leading roles and were very successful last Sunday.

I was not deceived : the performance was beyond my expectancies: fabulous for the young soprano who has a lovely voice and so many abilities in the high range plus style and elegance with trills and variations. On top of all these vocal abilities she is such a beauty and acts with moving and retained expressions in her  long  madness aria. The young Florian Sempey shares also great musicianship qualities and seems to be a born actor. He was a stunning Ashton, violent and merciless with his sister and then  managed to be touching in the madness scene, showing real compassion for his lost sister. As for the very tall and slim Julien Dran, it was a pleasure to hear his light tenor voice in Arturo. He also shared same elegance in acting and singing. As for Edgardo-Jean-François Borras, he was I think the big discovery for us: such a rich voice with easy tops and lots of dramatic expressions in his singing! 
The sextet was smashing because the conductor is a real one for Donizetti, romantic and energetic at times with a sustained tempo which was matching  with the beautiful singing and the ensemble: what with a poetic, autumnal touch which got on well with this upsetting family love story. It is a rather simple but efficient staging very true to the libretto for a change!
 This  Avignon -Lucia became for the time being a real jewel,  musically superior to my last one at La Scala.

Chef d'orchestre Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli
Metteur en scène Frédéric Bélier-Garcia
Décors Jacques Gabel
Costumes Katia Duflot
Lumières Roberto Venturi
Chef de choeur Aurore Marchand
~
Lucia Zuzana Markova (remplaçant Julie Fuchs)
Alisa Marie Karall
Edgardo Jean-François Borras
Enrico Florian Sempey
Raimondo Ugo Guagliardo
Arturo Julien Dran
Normanno Alain Gabriel

Florian Sempey is a great memory of mine here !

This production is on live streaming :on May the 3rd.
http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/festivals/avignon/une-passion-destructive-pour-lucia-di-lammermoor-a-l-opera-du-grand-avignon-238507