"Seldom have I have seen such excitement. A policeman in the foyer thought that some kind of riot had broken out, so he grabbed his nightstick and burst in through the swinging door, only to find a noisy throng of spectators wildly hailing the performance," wrote an eyewitness to the frenzy surrounding one of the distinguished moments of the Lucia craze, featuring Enrico Caruso, that was prevailing at the Met at the time. The current count of over 600 performances of Donizetti's opera in New York and the list of legendary singers taking the stage in the title role there shows that interest in the work has not waned since then. Also demonstrating this fact is the arrival, following the retirement of Mary Zimmerman's tastefully modernising production after a triumphant decade, of a new Lucia for the Met's enormous stage. Furthermore, this one will be mounted by Simon Stone, best known for his work in spoken theatre but also now credited with a successful 2019 opera production of Cherubini's Medea in Salzburg. Generating the performance's operatic sex along with Sierra's soprano and Camarena's tenor will be Artur Ruciński's powerful baritone and Christian Van Horn's commanding bass.

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