Lucia di Lammermoor – Donizetti

Using Amanda Holden’s elegant new text, Alden communicates the work with startling directness, finding drama where few suspected it existed.
Sunday Telegraph

Amanda Holden’s English translation cleverly preserves the chime of Cammarano’s verses
Opera

This translation was written for David Alden’s production at ENO. The cast at its first outing in 2008 included Anna Christy, Barry Banks, Mark Stone and Clive Bayley;  Paul Daniel conducted. The production was revived in 2010.

Larghetto – Regnava nel silenzio

LUCIA

Deep in the dark and silent night,
faintly the moonbeans glimmer…
painting the fountain with sparks of light,
making the water shimmer…
Sometimes a groan of agony
echoes through the air,
you see her, look by the water, ah!
Her spirit is standing there, ah!

Tragic and cold she stares at me,
softly her lips are moving;
gently her hand is beckoning,
pleading with me to join her.
Languid and pale she waits for me
then slides beneath the flood;
and those cold waters, once so clear,
are stained with scarlet blood!