Israeli Opera's ‘Lucia’ is painfully reminiscent of Oct. 7

In its second revival, directed this time by Omer Ben-Seadia, Emilio Sagi’s 2012 production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor returns to The Israeli Opera for the third time, in this year’s belated season opening, to a cheering audience.

Soprano Hila Fahima in the title role was heartbreaking in the “mad scene,” and when she came on stage in her blood-stained white gown, the powerful image painfully reminiscent of the horrific images of the October 7 Hamas torture and massacre of young Israeli women.  

There is nothing modern in this production, yet, as the opening opera of this unusual season, it was exactly what we needed  – a beautifully sung tragic melodrama depicting an age-old love story with hints of a political dimension to the plot.

Israeli-born soprano Hila Fahima – who began her career at the Israeli Opera Meitar Studio before joining the Deutsche Oper Berlin and later the Vienna Staatsoper ensembles – is moving and convincing as Lucia, singing with a purity of tone and an excellent sense of drama.

Her coloratura flows easily yet stays true to the drama, coming to a pinnacle in the second act’s famous mad scene. Fahima’s tragic Lucia was greeted with enthusiasm by the audience. Sweet and naïve in the first act, she moved me to tears in the second act, supported by an excellent cast. 

Lucia di Lammermoor is a known story of a young woman manipulated by men who treat her as an asset in a political game of power, pride, and hypocrisy. Forced by her brother into marriage with Arturo, Lucia is the sacrificial victim, and madness is her only way to escape the men who seek to control her life.

Edgardo (her lover, sung by the Italian tenor Oreste Cosimo) and Enrico, her brother (baritone Ionut Pascu), face each other across a divide that is both historical and ideological as well as monetary. 

Moral responsibility

However, by the time the curtain falls, you cannot help thinking that the moral responsibility for Lucia’s tragic end is communal and that her blood is on the hands of an entire society. 

In an interview published ahead of this production at Israel Hayom, director Ben-Seadia said that Lucia symbolizes women’s global struggle for freedom, love, and the right to be responsible for their own future. 

Ben-Seadia, who returned to Israel a short time before the war in order to work on the opera, said that she is dedicating this production to the heroic IDF women who attempted, for months, to warn of the coming danger.

Sunday night, the Israeli crowd thanked her and the rest of the production’s fantastic crew for bringing us a lovely night at the opera, even in the midst of these horrifying times.

Lucia Di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) Libretto Salvadore Commarano after Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of LammermoorConductor: Carlo Montanaro Director: Omer Ben-Seadia (revival of 2012 production directed by Emilio Sagi) Soloist: Lucia – Hila Fahima; Edgardo – Oreste Cosimo; Enrico – Ionut Pasco

Lucia Di Lammermoor is at the Israeli Opera through January 15. Sung in Italian with English and Hebrew subtitles.