By R.M. Campbell
When Speight Jenkins, general director of Seattle Opera, was not in his usual seat just prior to the beginning of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” Saturday night at McCaw Hall, there were worries: the soprano had a sore throat, the tenor a bad back, the baritone, a sour stomach. But, as Jenkins quickly explained when he stepped in front of the curtain, he had no bad news. He wanted to dedicate the performance to Joan Sutherland, who died, at 83, Oct. 11 in Switzerland. She was, as anyone who knows anything about music over the past half century, was one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, famous for the beauty and size of her voice, a stupendous technique, creamy legato, evenness of her registers and a vast palette of colors, among her many attributes. It was her performance in “Lucia”, in 1959, at Covent Garden — the first time the opera had been done at the house since 1925 — that catapulted her to the fame, and huge admiration she enjoyed the rest of her life. The soprano made her Metropolitan Opera debut, in 1961, in the title role of “Lucia,” causing a 12-minute ovation at the end of the Mad Scene, according to the New York Times obituary. Five years later she made her debut at Seattle Opera in Delibes’ “Lakme,” returning several times in different roles but never Lucia.
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Gathering Note 