THE SONGBIRD: Olga Trifonova was born in Leningrad. She made her Mariinsky debut in 1994 as Barbarina (while in her first year at the music conservatory) and has since sung over two dozen leading roles with the company in St. Petersburg and on tour around the world. In 1998 Trifonova made her Salzburg Festival debut as the Flower Maiden in "Parsifal" and in 1999 debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in "Queen of Spades." Other operatic engagements include Oscar (Parma), Fiakermilli (Paris), Gilda (Cardiff), Nanetta (Washington DC), and Musetta (Baden-Baden).
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."