#MadMonday
Lucia di Lammermoor • MetOpera • 1982
[...] He (Norman Ayrton) told her that she must learn to fall - to fall flat on her back without tension or fear. "I can't," she said - as always. "Don't ever say that again, I'm sick of you saying 'I can't'," - at which she looked tearful. He had no hesitation about bullying and abusing her till she wept because he had quickly learnt that if she wept, it was because she felt that she had failed him - and would then redouble her efforts to do as he asked. Gradually her interpretation of Agathe grew more feasible and dramatic. She even learnt to fall and thereafter loved doing it. Indeed, having learnt, she would sway, become utterly limp and then crash backwards on to the floor at the slightest encouragement. She learnt to move with the beginnings of that peculiar, gliding swoop and run which, years later, she was to employ with such devastating effect in the Mad Scene of Lucia di Lammermoor. [...] Excerpt taken from Russell Braddon's biography on Joan.
