Old-fashioned drama & a modern gloss: Cecilia Stinton’s production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Holland Park with Jennifer France’s debut in the title role

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Tabitha Reynolds (ghost), Jennifer France – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor; Jennifer France, José de Eça, Morgan Pearse, director: Cecilia Stinton, conductor: Michael Papadopoulos, City of London Sinfonia; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 18 July 2025

Set firmly in the 1840s and full of narrative detail, this was a Lucia that combined immediacy with vivid musical theatrics and a sense of drama.

Opera Holland Park‘s new production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor which opened on Friday 19 July 2025 was something of a family affair. It was directed by Cecilia Stinton who first worked for the company as director of the Young Artists’ performance of Verdi’s La Traviata in 2018 and since then she has directed Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville for the company. Similarly conductor Michael Papadopoulos was the repetiteur on the same Young Artists’ La traviata and he has worked on the music staff subsequently, conducting his first main stage production last year with Handel’s Acis and Galatea.

But Lucia di Lammermoor is nothing without its heroine. Jennifer France made her Opera Holland Park debut in 2015 in Jonathan Dove’s Flight and since then has dazzled with Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Zerbinetta in Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos and as Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen. Whilst tenor José de Eça first sang with the company as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca last year having earlier that year sung in concert with the company. And the Scarpia in that production of Tosca was Morgan Pearse, a baritone known as much for his Handel and Mozart as later repertoire.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Jennifer France, José de Eça – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

The cast was completed by Joseph Buckmaster as Arturo, Blaise Malaba (who sang in the 2019 Young Artists production of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera) as Raimondo, Charlotte Badham (who was Cherubino in the 2021 Young Artists performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and subsequently sang Jo March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel). David Webb, who was Richard Dauntless in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Ruddigore in 2023 was Normanno.

Designs were by Neil Irish, lighting by Tim van ‘t Hof and movement by William Byram. The City of London Sinfonia was in the pit, playing a slightly reduced orchestration, the mad scene used the traditional flute, there were a couple of small cuts but it was done substantially complete.

Stinton and Irish set the piece in the early 19th century, roughly at the time of the opera’s creation. The political clash that is at the heart of Scott’s novel and Cammarano’s libretto replaced by an economic one. The Ashtons’ declining old money being dependent on Lucia’s marriage to a Victorian plutocrat. Paul Hastie’s surtitles glossed things, somewhat, but it worked.

Irish’s set was largely fixed, with tombs on the forestage and the main stage populated by fragments of arches which echoed the architecture of Holland Park House itself. Costumes were detailed, giving us a clear idea of era, class and status. Stinton’s production was realised in vivid detail, sometimes distractingly so. There were suggestions of applying the female gaze to the plot, though Stinton did not go as far as Katie Mitchell at Covent Garden in her disruptions to the dramaturgy. Certainly, this Lucia was feisty and self possessed, and formed a strong bond with her companion, Alisa, whilst around her all the men were unsatisfactory, including Edgardo who was a self-regarding hothead.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Morgan Pearse – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

Stinton’s biggest innovation was to introduce the ghost of the young woman killed by a jealous lover described by Lucia in her opening aria. This ghost played a surprisingly active, not to say distracting, role in the drama. Like Katie Mitchell at Covent Garden, Stinton showed us Arturo forcing himself on Lucia during the Wolf’s Crag Scene, though thankfully (unlike in Mitchell’s production) this episode was relatively brief. For the final scene of the opera Lucia’s body was brought onstage and placed on one of the tombs on the forestage. José de Eça’s performance at this point veered into melodrama including, rather frustratingly, singing (or rather crooning) his showpiece ‘Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali’ to the floor, and ending up, Romeo-and-Juliet-like, laid next to Lucia’s body.

Making her role debut, Jennifer France’s Lucia was affecting and wonderfully detailed, a fully realised performance. France’s voice has a clean line to it, her coloratura was crisp and sharp, with brilliant detail. She had the power needed for the role, and could imbue her tone with a remarkable amount of steel at times (rather recalling one description of Nellie Melba’s voice as being like a silver trumpet). The clean lines of her voice made you long, sometimes, for a little more Italianate tone, a vibrancy and amplitude. This was very much a coloratura approach to Lucia rather than a lyric one, and in that this was a performance that harked back to the 19th century ‘Nightingale’ approach to the role that had its origins in the first Lucia, Fanny Tacchinardi Persiani.

In Act One France was delightfully impulsive, girlish and very self possessed, yet created some wonderfully filigree sounds in her arias. As things turned darker in Act Two, the steel in her tone appeared and this Lucia was no pushover. Her mad scene was wonderfully realised. I don’t know which key she sang it in (Donizetti wrote it in F, but the common one is E flat, so that high notes can be interpolated), but her approach to the cadenzas was very traditional, yet this was also a highly detailed picture of a young woman unravelling.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Joseph Buckmaster – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

José de Eça’s Edgardo was in complete contrast to France’s Lucia. If France brought a sense of the 19th century nightingale to her performance, de Eça’s sturdy, dark-hued tenor looked at the role from the point of view of later Italian opera. The 20th century approach to bel canto was honed by the generation of singers who developed Verismo. De Eça seemed unwilling to give us much middle ground, his voice was either full on or mezza-voce. He can undoubtedly singing magically quiet, but these moments were sparingly used. The result was an Edgardo where the musical performance reinforced the dramatic portrayal of him as an impulsive hot-head.

Suitably Byronic in appearance, de Eça managed to suggest this swoon-worthy quality whilst reinforcing Edgardo’s thoughtlessness, particularly in his intervention in the marriage scene at the end of Act Two. In Act Three he gave a terrific account of ‘Tombe degli avi miei’ so it was disappointing that in his final cabaletta, theatrics triumphed over musicality. But there was never, as with some fine tenors I have heard in this role, any suggestion that de Eça lacked the necessary firepower at the end of a long evening. In many ways it was an impressive performance.

Morgan Pearse, who we have heard recently in impressive form in Bach, Handel and Puccini, brought a remarkable lack of bluster to Enrico. Pearse’s Enrico was a weak man forced to desperate measures. Not a particularly pleasant character, Pearse showed himself fully at home in the bel canto style and his contributions to Act Two were highly appreciated. He had a way with this music, combining musicality with style and a sense of drama. Then in Act Three, in the Wolf’s Crag scene, he matched José de Eça note for note to create a piece of thrilling bel canto drama (despite Stinton’s best efforts to distract us with the ghost, Lucia and Arturo).

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Blaise Malaba – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

I am never sure about Raimondo, whether he is culpable or naïve. Blaise Malaba projected a fine solidity and sense of purpose. There was an old-fashioned quality to Malaba’s singing and perhaps he was too solid at times, but it was a secure and dependable performance of role that offers few rewards. Charlotte Badham was a feisty Alisa, giving us a sense of the major role she played in Lucia’s life despite that fact that Donizetti gave her very little of substance to sing.

Joseph Buckmaster’s role as Arturo was somewhat expanded, and we saw him making initial agreement with Pearse’s Enrico during the overture. Buckmaster had the Victorian plutocrat’s swagger down to a T. It was clear that rather than marrying Lucia for love, as he talks about, he was in fact buying into the Ashton family’s historic pedigree. David Webb made Normanno, the huntsman, into something like Enrico’s secretary and a nasty piece of work this Normanno was too. It is not a huge role, but Webb made it really count.

The chorus were fully part of the drama and it felt as if every member had their own character and back story. Distractingly so, at times. Did we really need all that by play with the wedding cake in Act Two, and there were times in Acts Two and Three when reactions by individual chorus members threatened to pull focus. But overall, this was a terrific performance with a thrilling chorus sound and a feeling that every member of the chorus was fully invested in the drama.

The orchestra fielded fewer strings than would be idea and marginally less brass than Donizetti calls for, but then his orchestration can over dominate when modern orchestras play it, unless they are treated to a firm hand or are placed in a pit. Michael Papadopoulos brought style and confidence to the performance. Initially, perhaps, he allowed the orchestra its head a bit too much, but this settled. He brought a nice flexibility to his accompaniment whilst his time-keeping never felt overly kapellmeister-ish. You sense that his relationship with Donizetti will develop, but this was an impressive achievement and his support for the singers was implicit throughout.

Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor – Jennifer France, Charlotte Badham – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Ali Wright)

There was much to enjoy about the performance, and as the production beds in some of the more distracting elements will settle. Stinton brought a sense of the female gaze to the story without doing too much violence to the dramaturgy, giving a chance for Jennifer France’s very traditional Lucia to have the right setting, and surrounding her with men whose weakness we could both sense and understand. The result was a Lucia that combined immediacy with vivid musical theatrics and a sense of drama.