Soprano Rachele Gilmore brings renowned voice to 'Lucia'

Photo by Knoxville Opera

Rachele Gilmore rehearses the dramatic ending to Knoxville Opera’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” which will be at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday and Sunday.

Photo by Knoxville Opera

Rachele Gilmore rehearses the dramatic ending to Knoxville Opera’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” which will be at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday and Sunday.

KNOXVILLE — If there is one thing coloratura soprano Rachele Gilmore would like you to know about her, it's that she is not an overnight success.

"I know I'm being billed as an overnight sensation," Gilmore said during a conversation on her night off from rehearsals for Knoxville Opera's production of "Lucia di Lammermoor," which will be performed at the Tennessee Theatre on Friday and Sunday, Feb. 12 and 14.

"There's a lot of work behind it. I've had a hard climb. I've spent years working on my technique. The process was never so cookie cutter as just walking out on stage and suddenly being a star," she said.

All the fuss, of course, is over Gilmore's spectacular, unscheduled debut as Olympia in Offenbach's "Les Contes Hoffman" for the Metropolitan Opera on Dec. 23 and 26.

Gilmore had been hired as the cover, or back-up singer, for Kathleen Kim. Three hours before the performance, Gilmore was told that Kim was ill and she would have to sing in Kim's place.

She not only sang what may be the highest note ever sung at the Met, but her overall performance was hailed as remarkable, "with runs and trills miles above the staff," according to one reviewer.

A Georgia native, Gilmore knew from an early age she wanted to be a singer. "I didn't know what kind of singer, but I knew I was going to be a singer."

She earned her bachelor of music degree from Indiana University and did graduate work at Boston University. She was a member of the Young Artist Programs of Glimmerglass Opera for two seasons.

Going from singing the roll of a doll named Olympia in "Hoffman" to the tragic role of Lucia for the Knoxville Opera is a rather abrupt shift.

Lucia is in a situation similar to the star-crossed lovers' plight in "Romeo and Juliet."

As the story begins, Lucia's brother, Enrico (Lord Henry Ashton of Lammermoor), already has subordinated Edgardo (Edgar of Ravenswood, who Lucia secretly loves) by killing Edgardo's kinsmen and taking over his estates.

But now, with Enrico's political standing declining, he is determined to force Lucia to marry Arturo (Lord Arthur Bucklaw) in order to create new alliances. Because Lucia has secretly planned to marry Edgardo, she refuses. Enrico proceeds with the forced wedding anyway.

As a result, Lucia goes mad and stabs and kills Arturo in the bridal chamber. She sings a famously demanding mad scene before dying.

Asked where she finds the emotional center for Lucia's actions, Gilmore said, "This is the first character I've played that's a romantic character, and I related to her on that level.

"She is born into a tragic family. She is a weak and vulnerable person. I basically see her as a victim.

"I guess on a personal level, as a person who is small in stature, I see how she can easily be forced to do things she hates. Heaven seems to be her only escape. At one point she sings 'Death will be my only relief,' " Gilmore said.

"I can imagine that, caught where she is, she's a person always going to extremes."

Harold Duckett is a free-lance contributor to the News Sentinel.

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