In the Metropolitan Opera鈥檚 new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, the singers tackling Donizetti鈥檚 bel canto pyrotechnics aren鈥檛 the only ones being pushed to the limit. Simon Stone鈥檚 audacious present-day staging, which moves the action to a declining town in America鈥檚 Rust Belt, incorporates several innovative technical elements to tell Lucia鈥檚 story and conjure its setting as vividly as possible, and the Met鈥檚 backstage wizards are pulling out all the stops to make it happen.
AS THE WORLD TURNS
The 57-foot-diameter turntable built into the rear stage wagon has been a key part of the Met鈥檚 theatrical machinery since the Lincoln Center opera house opened in 1966, and has been used by numerous productions over the years. Normally, two or more scenes will be pre-set on different sections of the turntable, and it will be rotated to change the scene. In Stone鈥檚 Lucia, however, the turntable is used much more extensively to create not static scenes but an immersive environment, with characters moving from location to location within the town while it rotates in sync. In fact, for the entirety of Act I, the turntable never stops moving.
To accomplish this, stagehands must continually roll large pieces of scenery onto and off of the turntable while it鈥檚 moving at varying speeds, timing everything precisely so that the right set elements arrive鈥攕afely鈥攁t the right place at the right time. To help achieve this, a graphic monitor that shows the turntable鈥檚 exact rotational position has been added to the stage manager鈥檚 desk so that he or she can call technical cues at just the right moment. The movement of the turntable must also be rehearsed carefully with the singers, who have to remain oriented as they鈥檙e whisked in front of and past the audience, and as they make their exits at very different places from where they entered.
OPEN CONCEPT
To make matters even more nerve-racking for the technical crew, Lucia uses no cyclorama or other masking, meaning that the Met鈥檚 entire, sprawling backstage area鈥攊ncluding vast wings on either side of the stage and sometimes even the loading area at the rear, extending nearly to Amsterdam Avenue鈥攊s visible from the auditorium. This means that many scenery changes, lighting operations, and other normally unseen activities are done in full view of the audience, requiring the stagehands to be costumed and providing a unique opportunity to see them do their work.
STAGE AND SCREEN
Perhaps the most immediately striking element of the production is the huge, 48 脳 19鈥揻oot video screen spanning the full width of the proscenium above the stage, which provides additional perspectives on the action. Sometimes, pre-recorded video sequences allow the audience to see into Lucia鈥檚 mind: In the famous Act III mad scene, for example, when the heroine hallucinates her beloved Edgardo before her, the pair are seen together onscreen, while onstage below, Lucia is alone.
More inventive, though, is the incorporation of live video, shot onstage as part of the performance and transmitted simultaneously to the screen above. Using this system, Stone is able to show close-ups, giving the audience a more intimate view of the characters鈥� interactions and emotions鈥攁nd even of Lucia鈥檚 activities at moments when she鈥檚 not visible onstage. This zoomed-in perspective is also helpful in communicating some elements essential for maintaining the contemporary setting. For instance, the forged letter that Lucia鈥檚 brother Enrico traditionally produces to convince her that Edgardo has forsaken her has been updated to a doctored social-media photo of him with another woman, visible to the audience via a close-up view of a smartphone.
To capture the live video footage, two performers equipped with Steadicam rigs roam the stage framing the shots, while Met video experts in a control booth remotely adjust the technical settings, such as focus and exposure.
MAD PROPS
The contemporary setting also means that many props unusual for an opera company are required, and the close-up video footage means that all of the set dressing must be realistic down to the smallest details. Just for the Rust Belt town鈥檚 mini-mart, for example, the Met鈥檚 props team must arrange hundreds of individual magazines, bags of potato chips, candy bars, and various other wares for sale. They also had to fabricate a working conveyor belt for customers鈥� groceries. For the wedding scene, there are two banquet-size tents that have to be set up on the fly, along with all the decorations one would expect at such an event. And this is not to mention the three real automobiles that make appearances鈥攁 Ford pickup truck, a Nissan Sentra, and a vintage Ford Pinto, all of which have been modified so that some of their parts can be easily removed onstage at Lucia鈥檚 family鈥檚 chop-shop. All together, it makes for one of the most intensive props shows in the Met repertory.
