Natalie's Night

On disks, she can sound mechanical and cold--but as Lucia she was enthralling--powerful, lovely voice--and such a small, slender woman!--good actress, too--angled, stooping as the much-put-upon Lucia--spent a lot of time supine--everybody seemed to beat up on her!--audience went wild (justifiably)--when she took her first curtain call, she mugged--made comic gestures with her arms and legs--anyone who didn't fall in love with Natalie Dessay last night was... not human--

Fun things in the opera: a doctor with a bag comes to see Lucia after her mad scene...a 19th century cameraman prepares a group wedding picture...the legendary dead maiden by the fountain actually appears...Lucia and Edgardo do a slow dance...livened up a pretty static opera--an opera, by the way, with gloriously beautiful music--

EARLY editions of the Times, on page B1, have a photo of the opera audience--on the balustrade, to the left, is a lovely woman in purple dress--to her left: yours truly.