Lyric Opera Chorus and Orchestra/Sheil

Donizetti – Lucia di Lammermoor NCH, Dublin

Vivian Coates, artistic director of Lyric Opera Productions, seems like a man who wants to have it every way. Saturday's performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoorwas advertised in advance as a concert performance. But on the night itself Coates was billed as both director and lighting designer.

The intrusion of directorial concerns may well explain the musically problematic layout on stage. The chorus was placed at the back, behind the orchestra, with the singers in a clear at the very front, behind the back of the conductor, Fergus Sheil.

Yes, this is how you often see the stage of the concert hall for an oratorio. But, crucially, in the opera house, the orchestra is between the singers and the conductor. Saturday’s arrangement may have facilitated entries and exits and some moments of interaction between the characters.

But, with singers on both sides of the stage, it placed the conductor in a position where he could only see the singers by turning his head. And, with the voices behind him and pointing away from him, he was in a poor position to judge balances.

In the event, those balances were often poor, with the orchestra far too loud, even though it was playing a reduced orchestration. There is, however, surely no excuse for the volume the conductor seemed to be actively encouraging from the percussion section. And, for much of the evening, too, the co-ordination between voices and orchestra was anything but exact.

Happily, there were redeeming features. Cara O’Sullivan was on fine form as Lucia, taking the demands of the famous mad scene in her stride, and, to make matters better, Sheil’s musical discipline rose a level or two here, too. Russian tenor Andrej Dunaev’s Edgardo was arresting in his commandingly heroic delivery. And the chorus, though prone to over-projection, was consistently strong.

In the smaller roles, it was the Raimondo of Hungarian bass Levente Páll which made the strongest impression. He may not have been entirely secure at the extremes of his register, but his delivery was alluringly rich when everything gelled.