Parlando: The COC Blog

By Gianmarco Segato
Adult Programs Manager at the Canadian Opera Company

American coloratura soprano Anna Christy makes her COC debut this spring in the title role of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The 2008 English National Opera production by director David Alden was largely developed around her considerable vocal and acting talents. It was such a success that ENO quickly revived it in 2010 and now we’ll have the thrill of seeing it here in Toronto.

Gianmarco Segato, the COC’s adult programs manager, recently sat down with Ms Christy before she arrived in Toronto and here’s a portion of their conversation. For more, check out the "Losing Herself in Lucia" interview which can be found at coc.ca/COCRadio.

Had you sung Lucia before the 2008 premiere of the ENO production we’ll be seeing in Toronto?

The first time was in 2004 at Opera Omaha, in Italian. Then I had to learn it all again in English, and in the higher key for London. At the time the higher key fit me a little bit better. Now that I’m singing it again in Italian for the COC, we’re lowering it back to the key that most people sing it in, so it does feel a little bit different.

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Opera Under 30 tickets for Lucia di Lammermoor, Salome and Dialogues des Carmélites go on sale Saturday, April 6 at 10 a.m. Read on to learn more about one of our Opera Under 30 ambassadors and improve your opera knowledge. Never miss a sale by signing up for our special Opera Under 30 email list.

Who?

Lyndsay Promane, 20
Student at University of Toronto, Faculty of Music

1. What was your first introduction to opera?
When I began classical vocal training, I found a recording of Beverly Sills as Rosina singing “Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville and was blown away. My next discovery was Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis’ album “Baroque duets”. Those artists acted as a springboard for me to discover opera and art song.

2. How did you find out about the Opera Under 30 program?
My brother took me to my first COC opera (Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables) and he purchased our tickets through the Opera Under 30 program. I’ve continued to buy tickets this way ever since.

3. How many COC performances have you seen?
I’ve seen all the performances from the 2012-2013 season so far.

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Artistic inspiration comes from many sources, and when Lucia di Lammermoor director David Alden and set designer Charles Edwards first discussed their concept for the opera, they decided to set it in the early Victorian period. And as the opera is loosely based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor, Scottish and Gothic influences came into play as well.

In Edwards’ travels, he came upon an English manor home, Normansfield, and knew instantly that this would be the source of inspiration for the set. Dr. John Langdon Down and his wife Mary founded a private hospital in the building after purchasing it in 1868. 

Down studied and classified a condition that later became known as Down’s syndrome and he lived and worked in the building, converting it to an asylum for patients with Down’s syndrome and various mental health challenges.

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