The World's Most Famous Operas

Lucia di Lammermoor...

Music by: Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) Rendered into Arabic by: Samir Shikhani

An opera in three acts, adapted from Sir Walter Scott's novel "The Bride of Lammermoor"; first produced in Naples in 1835.

The Characters:

• Lord Enrico Ashton • Lucia, his sister • Sir Edgardo Ravenswood • Raimondo, spiritual guide of Lammermoor • Normanno, captain of the Lammermoor guard • Lord Arturo Bucklaw • Alisa, Lucia's companion

Act One

Scene One: The noble houses of Lammermoor and Ravenswood have been bitter enemies for many long years. Edgardo Ravenswood is the sole member of his family left alive: his father was killed, and the castle he inherited from his forefathers was wrested from him. Yet the fortunes of the house of Lammermoor were not faring well either.

In the first act we see Enrico Ashton, head of the house of Lammermoor, discussing with his captain of the guard Normanno and with his spiritual guide and old tutor Raimondo his shaky future: he has not only lost his fortune, but he is little welcome at the royal court. There is no solution to his problem but to marry his only sister Lucia to a man who unites wealth and influence at the royal court of Scotland. That man is Lord Arturo Bucklaw.

But Lucia has refused to marry Lord Arturo. The old guide Raimondo tells Enrico that Lucia cannot think of love while she is in mourning for her mother. Normanno, however, declares his belief that Lucia loves someone whom she meets in secret. When Enrico asks whether he knows this person, Normanno answers that he is none other than the family's enemy, Edgardo Ravenswood. He and his men have searched for him everywhere but

come upon only the faintest trace of him... Enrico cries out in anger: "She must be forced to wed Lord Arturo!"

Scene Two: A spacious garden near the castle. Here are Lucia and her companion Alisa by the fountain in the middle of the garden, the meeting place with Edgardo Ravenswood. Lucia's soul is full of fancies, and here she is telling her companion that this fountain was the scene of a crime in the distant past, and that the place is haunted by the ghost of the maiden whom her treacherous lover stabbed there. Lucia adds that she herself has seen the ghost, which warned her of the painful end of the love between her

and Edgardo... But Lucia quickly changes her tone, saying that when she sets eyes on Edgardo all these black fancies melt away.

Edgardo enters and Alisa withdraws... He says gloomily that this meeting of theirs will be their last, for he