The autographed score of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the IIC-NY
on the occasion of the new production at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Riccardo Frizza.
The precious manuscript will be on display from
April, 22 to May, 20 2022
10AM to 4PM
Italian Cultural Institute 686 Park Avenue, NY
Lucia di Lammermoor is undoubtedly, together with L’elisir d’amore, the most famous opera by Gaetano Donizetti and the most performed throughout the world. Thanks to a 1985 donation by the Perolari family, the city of Bergamo was able to acquire the autographed score of this opera, which was first performed at the San Carlo Theatre in Naples in 1835. The precious manuscript, preserved in the vault of the “Angelo Mai” Civic Library and Historical Archives in Bergamo, is seldom exhibited, and this is its first international loan. The score, consisting of 181 bound sheets in a volume measuring 370×270 mm, will be placed on display inside a special climate-controlled showcase specially created.
“Lucia di Lammermoor is a masterpiece – remarks Fabio Finotti – both in the original novel by Walter Scott and in Donizetti’s adaptation. It confronts us with extremely topical issues: women, their silences, their suffering, and the censorship inflicted on themselves for centuries. Lucia di Lammermoor somehow is Freud before Freud.