Beverly Sills, Carlo Bergonzi Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

This Lucia was recorded in 1970, when Beverly Sills was at the peak of her vocal and dramatic powers. She had been singing the role of Lucia on stage for six years, and she knew the character. Here is a manic-depressive who is slightly crazy from the start, and Sills's embellishments to the vocal line (and there are tons of them; hardly a line is left as written), mostly composed especially for her, are always at the service of the drama. She is a far cry from the chirpy Pons and Peters (and even Sutherland, whose just-plain-singing of the role is unmatchable, but who was never all that interested in building character) and comes closer to Callas, but without the great Greek soprano's huge palette of colors or, for that matter, vocal limitations. Sills is gloriously fluent in the coloratura, the high notes are impeccable, and her reading of the words is truly involved and involving.