For a swimmer, it's the Olympics or the English Channel. For an actor it is Hamlet. But for a coloratura soprano, the pinnacle and challenge was and is Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia de Lammermoor. It is an opera whose trills, turns and top tones defy the deftest voices. The stilted dramaturgy of the libretto can reduce the most colorful actress to a drab cardboard gray.
Why do the opera at all? Because when Lucia is sung brilliantly, it is an unparalleled showpiece for great singing. New York has heard nearly every soprano of importance...
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