THE SONGBIRD: Born in Iași in 1964, Elena Moșuc made her debut in her hometown singing Queen of the Night, Gilda, and Lucia. She started winning a bounty of vocal prizes in the early 1990s and was signed to the Zürich Opera House in 1991, where she has stayed for decades as prima donna. She has sung all the major coloratura roles there, while branching out into top opera houses and festivals around the globe. Moșuc's repertoire includes a few French works and plenty of high-flying Mozart (over 250 Queens of the Night -- which equates to well over 1,250 high Fs, and I am fairly confident she didn't miss even one of them). However, Moșuc has tended to focus on the Italian bel canto genre -- the standard coloratura heroines (Lucia, Gilda, Amina), the heavier "assoluta" bel canto roles (Anna Bolena, Norma, Lucrezia, Elisabetta, Luisa Miller), and more obscure ladies (Linda, Beatrice, Amalia, Imogene).
THE MUSIC: Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" has become one of the quintessential operas for a coloratura soprano -- it's one of the most widely produced bel canto operas in the world and the title character is a benchmark role for this voice type. Donizetti composed it in 1835, which was a peak of his artistic and popular success -- Rossini had recently retired, Bellini had just died, and Verdi had not yet had his first premiere ("Oberto" in 1837). Based on Walter Scott's novel, the opera premiered in Naples. The plot in a nutshell: after being tricked into marrying a man she doesn't love, and lied to that her true love has betrayed her, Lucia loses her mind and murders the groom on her wedding night. The mentally unstable young woman appears in a bloodied gown and sings a long, complex, and haunting "mad scene" mixing delusion and grief that is a musically and dramatically innovative tour-de-force of bel canto vocalism and gripping tragedy. The primary section of the mad scene culminates in a long cadenza with a flute (and occasionally the glass harmonica). Apparently that wasn't enough warbling for one diva, so Donizetti succumbs the era's operatic conventions and gives Lucia even more to sing: a traditional cabaletta "Spargi d'amaro pianto."