Gaetano Donizetti’s hand-written score of “Lucia di Lammermoor” will be on display at the NY Loves Lucy exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York from 22 April to 21 May 2022. This is the first time this precious and rarely exhibited manuscript has been lent abroad. Consisting of 181 sheets bound in a volume measuring 370x270mm, it will be displayed in a special climate-controlled showcase.
“Lucia di Lammermoor is a masterpiece”, underscored the Director of the Institute, Fabio Finotti, “both in the original novel by Walter Scott and in Donizetti’s recreation of it. It speaks to us of a subject that could not be more topical: of women, their silences, the suffering and censure inflicted for centuries. In some respects, Lucia di Lammermoor is Freud before Freud. The Italian Cultural Institute in New York is proud to host this testimony of a universal work of genius”.
The event was organised in collaboration with the Angelo Mai Civi Library in Bergamo, to mark the new production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, conducted by Riccardo Frizza. The city of Bergamo was able to purchase the hand-written score, which is now kept at the Angelo Mai Library, thanks to a donation in 1985 by the Perolari family. Donizetti’s opera was first staged at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, in 1835.
