Lucia di Lammermoor

Trapped between a brother’s political ambitions and a love forbidden by family feud, Lucia secretly pledges herself to Edgardo, her family’s sworn enemy. While he’s away, her brother Enrico forges a letter to convince Lucia that Edgardo has betrayed her — and forces her into a marriage of political convenience to save the family’s crumbling fortunes.

Edgardo returns just as Lucia signs the marriage contract, cursing her before vanishing in despair. Pushed past her breaking point, Lucia descends into madness on her wedding night, killing her new husband in a horrifying, blood-soaked aria that ranks among opera’s most harrowing scenes. Edgardo, learning too late of her innocence and ruin, takes his own life at her tomb — united with Lucia only in death.

Donizetti’s masterpiece blends bel canto’s most demanding vocal writing with raw psychological drama, climaxing in the legendary “Mad Scene” that has tested — and made the careers of — history’s greatest sopranos.