Hell and Heartbreak in the Highlands

Donizetti's consuming romantic drama returns to the ENO in 2018 for the first time in eight years with David Alden's highly rated staging. Based on Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel concerning the wilds of the Scottish highlands, Lammermoor is a thrilling exploration of honour, reputation, and political power of men, at the expense and after the ambitious manipulation of an innocent daughter and sister.

As the only daughter of the Lammermoor clan, the fragile Lucia is expected to marry tactically into a local family against her own wishes, and those of her secret lover Edgardo, a member of the Ravenswoods, the sworn enemies of the Lammermoors. When Edgardo is dispatched to France on business, Lucia's brother forces her to wed, an action that leads the desolate young woman into a madness from which she is never to escape.