On March 22, 2017 Saimir Pirgu will return to the Teatro San Carlo as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, in a production by Gianni Amelio (revived by Michele Sorrentino Mangini) and conducted by Stefano Ranzani, the first of three performances running through March 29, 2017. He will sing alongside Maria Grazia Schiavo and Gilda Fiume as Lucia, Claudio Sgura and Fabian Veloz as Enrico and Riccardo Zanellato as Raimondo. This marks his return to the famed Neapolitan theater after his triumphal appearance as Alfredo in La traviata for the inauguration of the 2012/2013 season.

“Vocally speaking, Edgardo is one of the most difficult roles for lyric tenors”, says the Albanian born, Italian naturalized tenor about the part that he has already sung at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Los Angeles and Washington National Opera. “His character, more perhaps than many of the other bel canto roles, needs not only a singer with an excellent vocal technique, but also one who can bring to it a musical interpretation worthy of its full drama, as he is a character that suffers throughout the opera. It is a role that provides a great deal of satisfaction to me.”

Performances this year after this Neapolitan Lucia will lead Saimir Pirgu in his role debut as Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra again at the Teatro San Carlo, as tenor soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem to the Royal Festival Hall in London and to Madrid, as Duca in a new production of Rigoletto to the Dutch National Opera Amsterdam, as Alfredo in La traviata to the Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, and as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly to Zurich.

Information about Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples:

Performances: March 22, 26, 28, 29, 30, 2017

Maria Grazia Schiavo / Gilda Fiume (Lucia), Saimir Pirgu / Alessandro Scotto di Luzio (Edgardo), Claudio Sgura / Fabian Veloz (Enrico), Riccardo Zanellato / Dario Russo (Raimondo), Giuseppe Tommaso (Arturo), Tonia Langella (Alisa), Francesco Pittari / Lorenzo Izzo (Normanno)

Gianni Amelio (director), Stefano Ranzani (conductor)

http://www.teatrosancarlo.it/en/spettacoli/lucia-di-lammermoor-2017.html