A story of love and tragedy played to a packed Rye Creative Centre on Thursday September 25 as Barefoot Opera triumphed in revisioning Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor. As well as showing just how vital the venue is to the arts in Rye, here was also a surprise announcement about about a new community opera based on our town, led by an internationally acclaimed composer.
Donizetti’s opera plot is not for the faint-hearted. The complex Scottish story is
loosely based on the novel The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott. It is a dark
real-life story of love, family pressure and tragedy in the Dalrymple family which
Walter Scott heard as a boy from his maternal great aunt, Margaret Swinton.
In Donizetti’s opera the heroine Lucia, mourning her recently deceased mother, falls in love with and becomes secretly engaged to Edgardo, a sworn enemy of her brother. She is forced to reveal her engagement when she is presented with a forged letter, allegedly from Edgardo, saying he loves another woman. Her brother Enrico then produces his approved suitor. Lucia is distraught and begins to lose her mind. The family priest sedates her to help her to get through the arranged wedding ceremony. Lucia experiences the wedding celebrations in a drug fuelled haze during which Enrico forces her to sign the wedding contact which protects his family fortune. Edgardo bursts in at this point claiming that he and Lucia are already sworn to each other. Edgardo is shown the contract with Lucia’s signature, and he is forced to leave.
Cursing Lucia, Edgardo storms out tearing her ring from his finger. In a psychotic moment, while the guests are celebrating, Lucia murders Arturo, her newly married husband, in their nuptial bed. In the small hours of the next morning, Edgardo comes to the tomb of his ancestors planning to take his own life. The wedding party arrives in the graveyard lamenting Lucia’s own perilous state. Edgardo rushes to see her just as the priest appears to announce Lucia’s death. A distraught Edgardo swallows a bottle of pills and dies.
The St Leonards-based company Barefoot Opera, brought together ten remarkably
talented soloists and musicians to portray this tragic story with fiery pathos, intense focus and dynamic energy. The singers acted as well as they sung. The musical ensemble of sax, accordion, double base bass, piano and small percussion amply filled the role of a symphony /pit orchestra that would normally accompany this opera. Members of the Marsh Choir provided the chorus with powerful stage presence. The staging reflected
Lucia’s mental turmoil. She entangled herself in a coiled LED white rope which
represented electrical signals in her brain as she gradually losses control of her reality.
Beren Fidan’s powerfully moving Lucia is equally matched by the rest of the cast and some of the musicians doubling as singers. In this company everyone is thoroughly engaged with each other and the audience to convey highly complex heightened emotions. The performance of two and a half hours takes us to emotional extremes. The company sustains a perfect balance between soloists, musicians and chorus under Laurence Panter’s musical direction. This balance is further supported thanks to the superb acoustics of the Rye Creative Centre.
It would be a great loss if this very special theatre space is not protected for the future of the performing arts in our region. The room was packed. There was ample parking. There was a well-stocked bar. The audience was alive with appreciation for a world class performance on a Thursday evening, and Rye residents could even walk home if they wanted to.
Jenny Miller, founder director of Barefoot Opera, also surprised the audience just before the interval by announcing an exciting new partnership with the acclaimed composer Dominique Le Gendre. Together they will develop and produce a new community opera The Chronicles of Rye for Autumn 2026.
Image Credits: Matthew Johnson , Jeff Grice , Barefoot Opera .