Set in a work site, Lucia di Lammermoor tells the tragic tale of Lucia Ashton, a young woman in love that brings destruction to everything it touches.
Lucia is secretly in love with Edgardo, the enemy of her brother, Enrico. When Enrico discovers their romance, he tricks Lucia into believing that Edgardo cheated on her while on a construction service trip. Heartbroken, she is forced by her brother into an arranged marriage with a wealthy contractor, Arturo. During the wedding celebration, Edgardo returns, cursing Lucia for her perceived betrayal. Driven to madness, Lucia becomes delirious and murders her husband, Arutro, on their wedding night. She dies soon after, destroyed by the madness. Realizing Lucia is dead, Edgardo takes his own life, in hopes to reunite with Lucia in death.
Act 1: Construction
The opera begins on the first floor of a lively construction zone. Wearing their PPE, including headphones projecting the sounds of the opera, The audience navigates the site as the cast sings and moves through the space.
Lucia meets Edgardo and they fall in love. They long for each other but Enrico, Lucia’s controlling brother, will not let them be together. He hovers around her and, plots to deceive Lucia and destroy her relationship with Edgardo. The floor vibrates with the sounds of construction—foreshadowing the tragedy to come. As the cast disappears, guests rise to the second floor on a lift in hope to escape this twisted family dynamic.
Level 2 Floor Plan
Scale 1/16”=1’-0”
Act 3: Deconstruction
Up the stairs, the third floor lies in ruins. Lucia’s mind is shattered and she has lost all sanity. The space is chaotic, with remnants of the life she hoped to build scattered, walls crumbling—mirroring her disintegrating love and life.
Consumed with grief and being driven to madness, Lucia sings a haunting song, imagining herself reunited with Edgardo. She is unsatble and her voice fragile. As the music spirals, she kills Arturo, hoping to forget the trap she fell into. She dies of insanity, and brings the building into ruin as she is trapped in an unfulfilled dream of love.
Heartbroken, Edgardo, sings his final sing before taking his own life. He hopes that through his death he can reunite with Lucia. The audience exits through a funeral home, immersed in the lingering weight of tragedy.
Level 3 Floor Plan
Scale 1/16”=1’-0”
Design Influences
Drawing inspiration from the 2022 performance of Lucia di Lammermoor at the MET, this production uses many of the design elements and inpirations of Lizzie Clachan.
In the Simon Stone Direction, Lucia Di Lammermoor was reinterpreted in a modern context - setting the story in America’s Rust belt. Lucia’s world is full of economic decline, opioid addiction, and social decay. Stone describes it as “the wasteland of free-market capitalism”—a kind of Anytown, U.S.A., populated by characters grasping for an American Dream that has passed them by. The reinterpretation drew parallels between Lucia’s personal tragedy and broader societal issues like economics, broken relationships and substance use. The stage design was completed by Lizzie Clachan and incoperates innovative props, the use of live and prerecorded video, set rotation and an open concept set blurring the boundries of each setting. This production is has adapted Simon Stone’s modern take of Lucia di Lammermoor. The Block St. Centre production, creates a construction wastland and demolition site. It explores greed and family pressures.
MET -> This Production
SCREEN
There is a 48 × 19–foot video screen spanning the full width above the stage, which provides additional perspectives on the action. The screen shows both pre-recorded video sequences allow the audience to see into Lucia’s mind and live action shot onstage as part of the performance and transmitted simultaneously to the screen above. This allows for more details of the set, and intame feel, and seeing what is happening that is not visible from the audience.
In the same way, this production ulitizes screens located on tvs and projectors throughout the set.
PROPS
The contemporary setting calls for obscure props and the live video calls for attention to detail both in the props and dress. They designed magazines for the mini mart, created a conveyer belt, and brought 3 cars on the stage. The props are a light source and add to the lighing and overall feeling of the opera.
You will notice obsure props and detailed items moving through the set. Much of this set blends in with the construction enviroment of the building .
OPEN CONCEPT
There is an absence of a cyclorama or other masking exposes the Met’s entire backstage area, including the wings and even the rear loading zone. As a result, scenery changes, lighting operations, and other behind-the-scenes activities are visible to the audience, requiring stagehands to wear costumes. This setup offers a rare glimpse into the technical crew’s work, adding a unique element to the performance.
Similarly, this set is entirely open concept. Going further than the MET’s production, the cast, crew, musicians, and opera geusts will interact together.
Drawings + Diagrams
See technical sections explaining the interaction of props and the exisitng structure.
See also, the process exploring flooring areas and circulation.
