Lucia di Lammermoor can be a powder keg for purists. At opening night last week, a new production of Donizetti’s gory tragedy at London’s Royal Opera House, starring Diana Damrau, provoked jeers from the audience when director Katie Mitchell dared to offer an explicit and sexually violent portrayal of the doomed heroine’s bloody descent into madness. For many devotees, this opera is a museum artefact, to be adored, respected, but never tampered with. However, traditional doesn’t have to mean dull. Covent Garden’s production may have been suffering from an overabundance of direction, but Victorian Opera’s vintage staging is hindered by a distinct lack of theatrical insight.

Director Cameron Menzies has, at least, been blessed with some impressive resources, the most notable of which is Australian coloratura star Jessica Pratt. It seems fitting that the last time Lucia di Lammermoor was performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre, in 1965, it starred one of the greatest Lucias of all time, La Stupenda herself, Joan Sutherland, performing opposite a 30-year-old up and coming tenor named Pavarotti. Pratt is surely an artist destined to earn the same iconic stature and enduring legacy as Sutherland, and her account of Lucia – a role that she has...