Diana Damrau first sang Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Five years later, in July 2013, she brought her riveting interpretation of the tragic bel canto heroine to her native Bavaria, where she was greeted with rapture. In this much-anticipated live recording from Munich’s Philharmonie Gasteig, she is joined by two splendid singers from the Mediterranean: tenor Joseph Calleja as Lucia’s lover Edgardo, and baritone Ludovic Tézier as her controlling brother Enrico.

“Singing Lucia was a landmark for me,” she explained to APPLAUS magazine before the concert. “I waited for a long time and it was one of my biggest role debuts.”

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Lucia’s ill-fated lover Edgardo is sung by the Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja whose previous outing in the role was for the Met in 2011 opposite Natalie Dessay, where he was praised by The New York Times as “sensationally ardent”. As Calleja told APPLAUS: “Edgardo is one of the most difficult tenor roles ever written … At the end, in ‘O bell’alma innamorata’ … he winds the voice up higher and higher; it’s incredibly beautiful music – damn difficult, but really beautiful to sing.”