Opera Scotland

Lucia di Lammermoor 1975Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Lucia di Lammermoor

A further series of performances of John Copley's generally excellent staging, launched the previous September, should have seen this classic of the 'Scottish' repertoire securely established in Scottish Opera's regular programme. But it was only revived once more - though at least that revival, unlike this one, opened out the grievous cuts which had made the great quality of the work so difficult to assess.

There was no shortage of good singers in the cast, dramatically led by Roderick Brydon. The new Lucia, the Berlin-based American coloratura Catherine Gayer, was working quite intensively in Scotland at this time, with Hermiston to be created at the next Edinburgh Festival, beside her hiome company's visit in Lulu. She had also given performances of Elegy for Young Lovers and Magic Flute the previous year. Her voice, light and fluttery, was unusual for the role, but she gave a dramatically-etched characterization that worked well. The New Zealand tenor Richard Greager was making the first of several appearances with the company, and proved an excellent bel canto stylist. Robert Lloyd made a youthful and velvet-voiced Raimondo.