In their Act II duet, then, Lucia starts out with the power – she has been resisting Enrico for almost a year and Enrico is desperate. In the brief orchestral introduction to the act, Ostwald begins, as he does each scene, with a brief tableau in which we see Enrico (Jordan Shanahan) stretched over his desk, glaring into his dark future. Nevertheless, he tries to be gentle with Lucia, even as he hands her a forged letter from her lover. How does he feel about this betrayal? At least in this production, we wonder. Of course, Enrico is forced to deliver the line "you betrayed your own blood for a vile seducer" tenderly, crouched next to Lucia, vitiating the contrast between their music. But the whole scene was much more compelling in Ostwald's interpretation than it usually is.

Lucia is still the mainstay of the opera, however, and the soprano playing the part is the one singer who is conventionally allowed some freedom from the written music. Saundra DeAthos scored heavily on all counts. She is a strong actress, and is especially good at working with other actors, singing to them in her solos and listening to the words sung to her. (Sometimes too much so: her act 1 narration, "Regnava nel silenzio" should take Lucia into a trance-like state where she forgets about her companion, Alisa.)

DeAthos has the vocal prerequisites for Lucia, including a strong, on-pitch upper register. She interpolated several extreme high notes into the score, all of which came out ringing and bright and unforced. She also ornamented her cabaletta, "Quando, rapito in estasi." Good for her. And she phrased naturally, though she could continue to work on some of the details. For example, the forward motion at the climax of the narration could be more pronounced, and the roulade at the end of "Il pallor funesto" could probably be a little fleeter and lighter.

But enough of pickiness. On to the mad scene, that treacherous eighteen minutes of soprano athletics. The trick, of course, is to portray Lucia's madness vocally, not merely in pantomime. Even in DeAthos' performance, I got tired of watching her cock her head and twine her unbound hair around her fingers. She was much more effective in a moment when she whited out the color of her voice, making it seem to fade and wither, losing the vibrato and tone. With Sloss to support her, she was unafraid of modifying tempos and phrasing freely. That was what kept this scene afloat. DeAthos built to a brilliant, vocally exhilerating close. If she continues to sing this part, she could easily become a smashing, world-beating Lucia in the next few years.

Edgardo, surprisingly, is as much a "susceptible" romantic as his lover, though he is rarely played that way. Harold Gray Meers has the perfect high tenor for the role and, though he is a little stiff as an actor, gave a credible account of the Lord of Ravenswood. In the brief larghetto of his duet with Lucia "Sulla tomba che rinserra," he had that faraway look that says "doomed hero." He sang with impressive legato, a piercing tone, and he took all of the more difficult vocal alternatives in the score, showing off a powerful upper register. His phrasing would benefit from a little more tempo modification and from discovering ways to make some of the important words stand out.

As Enrico, Shanahan was not an expressive actor but he has a tremendously powerful voice that will stand him in good stead with artistic directors. He had some excellent vocal moments, including a stage whisper in the betrothal scene that sounded like a whisper. His Act 1 aria came off stiffly, but he was much more at ease thereafter. He and Myers made the rafters ring in the cabaletta of their Act 3 duet.

Merola program graduate Todd Robinson took the role of Raimondo Bidebent and sang quite beautifully. The lowest register was not powerful, but his sense of line was compelling. Chad Millar was a properly foppish, vocally undistinguished Arturo; Michael Mendelsohn, a good Normanno. The chorus was generally with it, and the orchestra, playing a reduction that basically eliminated some doublings, was superb. David Sloss gave a sensitive reading of this marvelous score.