Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T20:05:04.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lucia di Lammermoor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Mark Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London EC3
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Some 40 years had passed since the death of Mozart, and Donizetti had made a name for himself with Anna Bolena and L'Elisir d'Amore. His music is certainly more fragile than Mozart's and his originality lies in his use of melody which is masterfully constructed to evoke humour, sentimentality and tragedy. In Lucia his musical canvass is, perhaps, the greatest he ever painted. Based on a story by Sir Walter Scott, it tells of the love of Lucia for Edgar of Ravenswood, who is the last of a rival household. In order that the Lammermoors' fortunes can be retrieved, Lucia's brother, Lord Henry Ashton, arranges for her to marry a politically influential figure, Lord Arturo Bucklaw. Ashton arranges that a forged paper indicating the infidelity of Lucia's lover is passed to her. She believes herself deserted and unwillingly consents to marriage with Bucklaw. On sealing the contract with her signature at the wedding, Edgar appears, having returned from France to claim his Lucia. Convinced that she has betrayed his love he damns her and throws the ring she gave him at her feet. The effect of this is to drive Lucia insane, she slays her husband and dies of her sorrows. Edgar waits to duel with Lord Ashton outside the castle. But Ashton flees, leaving Edgar in solitude. Edgar is then told by a procession of Lucia's death. He kills himself in sorrow.

Type
The psychiatry of opera
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.