Lucia di Lammermoor Opera Vocal Score Series – Vocal Score based on the Critical Edition by Gaetano Donizetti Voice - Sheet Music

BDSCalgary

lucia di lammermoor

This is a most excellent edition. Firstly, the opera is in all the original keys Donizetti wrote it in. That makes a huge difference in the mood of the opera as it progresses. The famous mad scene is in F not E flat (and in the French version, completely changed in many ways from the original, also overseen by Donizetti with the changes written by him, kept in the key of F). What is also interesting is in the notes. It provides examples of the cadenza that would have been sung during Donizetti's lifetime, not the standard flute/voice, duet we are accustomed to hearing. Quite a different feel to the music, and far more intimate (and with such a cadenza the closing measures of the first part of the madscene are retained, giving it a very pathetic and touching, almost weeping end to that portion; in a way a far greater improvement to the flashy cadenza we hear today). I have happened to collect the condenzas used by Jenny Lind and other singers of that day before the great flute duet was popular, and even though most of them did venture to the high E flat (by then the key of F was hardly used) none ended on any high notes, but with that cadenza ended down where Donizetti wrote it. And the final high E flat we are used to was NEVER USED. It was seen as vulgar to end on such a piercing high note. Interesting as nowadays, if a soprano doesn't end with a high E flat she is seen as "not Lucia material." The score is excellent and well worth going through.