“What particularly interested me about Lucia di Lammermoor was the superb dramatization of Walter Scott’s most popular 19th-century novel, The Bride of Lammermoor. Yannis Kokkos says.

The international Greek director, who also signs the scenography and costumes for this new opera production, is based in Milan. We talked on the phone with him a few hours before the premiere of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in La Scala Theaterwhat happened yesterday.

Having already “tested” the result at a very successful dress rehearsal that excited the audience, he seems to relax listening to our conversation, which takes place in Greek and French. Mr. Kokkos has lived in Paris since 1963 with his wife, Anne, and, like for many years, Anne Blanchard is his closest collaborator in directing and dramaturgy. “Everywhere in the world we are together,” he says very affectionately, adding, “Anne has a great understanding of characters and relationships with actors. After all, she was also an actress.”

This production of Lucia di Lammermoor was supposed to open the 2020/21 season at La Scala, but the pandemic changed the schedule, interrupting rehearsals. Now, two years later, Mr. Kokkos is returning to Milan, La Scala and the Italy he loves so much, with a brilliant pair of lead roles: the soprano Lisette Oropesa as Lucia and Juan Diego Flores as Edgardo, a duet that shines elegance. , his craftsmanship and style.

“My direction, very theatrical, required such a high level of actors, lyricists, not only musical, but also with knowledge of theatrical manners. But Donizetti originally subtitled Lucia di Lammermoor with the term “tragic drama,” comments Mr. Kokkos. “The time that has necessarily elapsed between the first rehearsals and this premiere has finally helped me to penetrate deeper into the meanings of the play, the face and structure of the characters of the main characters.”

A victim of convention

Thus, unlike the submissive Lucia the Lammermoore bride in Scott’s novel, his Lucia has a strong personality but is a victim of family conventions and social structures. The men who adore her – her brother as well as her lover – at the same time as they care for her, oppress her with their desires, their weakness and their political ambitions.

I think that Lucia is a woman who is looking for her freedom, who has a fist, but she is imprisoned in conventions.

“I tried to bring the work into the modern era, because the position of a woman in a society that restricts, oppresses or exploits her is a constant problem,” the director explains. “However, I did not seek to transfer it to a time period that encloses the action in an artificial “shell” that deprives the work of its complexity. I tried to freely present a timeless perspective in European society immediately after the First World War, when the economic context was difficult and there were still feelings of anxiety.”

This was made possible thanks to Lisette Oropesa, who is “beautiful both as a lyrical singer and as an actress,” he comments. “And this is important to me, because I think that Lucia is a woman who is looking for her freedom, who has a fist, but is imprisoned in the framework of conventions. Her only choice is to either kill Arturo or go insane – a madness made up of shards of happy memories and horrifying images. All this makes up the world of her freedom, a world parallel to the present.

The aesthetics and experience of Yannis Kokkos as a director, costume designer and set designer are already known and loved in The Rock. “I am always happy when I work here, because the artistic conditions, especially the technical part of the construction of scenery and costumes, have theatrical will and knowledge. Everything is done at the highest level,” he emphasizes.

Equally impeccable was his collaboration with chief musician Riccardo Sagi. “From the very beginning, we agreed that there should not be a pause in the performance, but there should be a continuous flow that will maintain the intensity of this operatic masterpiece,” says Mr. Kokkos. “All people eventually follow the path that leads them to fatality, to death. The main thing in this work is to treat it like riding a loose horse.

This position was challenging from a directing standpoint because each act had to follow the next at a fast pace, with no interruptions. But the play is not written that way, and each scene takes place in a different setting. Thus, Mr. Kokkos has created a scene that completely changes when individual elements are added. “Every time the curtain opens, a new image appears. It was a very demanding and difficult job,” he emphasizes.

Up to 5/5.