MUSIC / CHRIS PASLES : Mad for Tradition : Ruth Ann Swenson Takes on the Lead in ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ as Donizetti Might Have Envisioned It

Los Angeles saw a production of “Lucia di Lammermoor” last year in which the walls of the castle tilted and tumbled to reflect the titular heroine’s increasingly distressed mental state . . . A year earlier, the Metropolitan Opera gave New York a “Lucia” in which the characters picked their way through open coffins and chapel ruins.

Orange County will have no such luck when Opera Pacific presents a thoroughly traditional staging of Donizetti’s popular 50th opera today through March 19 in Costa Mesa. And that’s fine with Ruth Ann Swenson, who sings the title role.

“I’m all for creating new ideas and, I guess, finding new ways to interpret opera,” Swenson, 33, said in a recent phone interview. “But I must say, I tend to lean toward the traditional type of staging.

“These operas--the Donizettis, the Verdis--were written in such a way that they were meant to be done in traditional form and tell the story in the time that it was meant to be, with the scenery the way it was meant to be and with the costumes it was meant to be in,” she said. “I think the composer had that in mind when he was writing. He didn’t know what was going to be going on in 1993-94. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I like it when it’s traditional.”

One of the rising stars of opera, Swenson sang “Lucia” in Washington, Detroit, Dallas and in the Metropolitan Opera’s summer parks concerts. She will sing it again in the fall in San Francisco.

Born in Bronxville, in Westchester County, New York, Swenson grew up on Long Island. Both her parents were high-school teachers, who also sang but not in opera. She described them as “professionals, but not on a grand scale.” She was the eldest of three children, and the only girl.

“We were a musical family,” she said. “I was surrounded by music growing up, but it was nothing we were pushed into. We liked it. But I can remember sitting in the car one day when my mom had the Saturday matinee broadcast from the Met on, saying, ‘Do we have to listen to this? I don’t like it.’ Now look at me. I’m on the broadcast.”

She had found her niche in high school.

“I played oboe; I was in band, chorus and orchestra, I did it all,” she said. “I started taking singing lessons in high school. Then I just decided I just wanted to sing, to be an opera singer.”

She went on to study at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia for three years and then went into the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera, touring with the Western Opera Theater affiliated with the company.

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On one of the tours, she met Mark Rucker, who sings Lucia’s brother Enrico in Costa Mesa; on another, she met her husband, baritone David Burnakus, who still sings in the San Francisco Opera Chorus. The two were married in 1986 and have a home in Napa.

“I see it about six weeks out of the year,” Swenson said. “This is not a glamorous life, like people think. It’s not all fun and games. It’s hard. You live out of suitcases, staying in hotel rooms. It’s lonely. You have to learn to cope with all the traveling.”

Her husband is only able to travel with her “at times, when he’s not working,” she said. “But he’ll be coming down for this, though.”

Swenson described her voice as a “lyric-coloratura. I have a good range. I was blessed with a good middle, and I also developed it. I can sing from a high E-natural to a low G. I can sing a high F in a bathtub on a good day. . .

“But I’m not a high, high flutey coloratura, who can hang upon the Fs. I’m not a Queen of the Night. But I think I have broader range than most in my fach, whatever that is . . .

“In the old days, people sang what they could sing. If they could sing the role, they sang it,” she said.

“I sing the things that are comfortable for me--most of the bel canto things. Yet I can also sing what they call the soubrette repertoire, which doesn’t call for the high extension.”

As for “Lucia,” which she called “a very demanding role,” she said, “I love singing all the cadenzas and the roulades and the coloratura passages. It’s all great for me. I enjoy it. I would love to sing Puccini, but when I can do this, why sing that? I could sing Mimi. I could. But there are so many other things I’d rather perform.”

Swenson is not haunted by such famous Lucias as Callas and Sutherland.

“I certainly have always admired their artistry and what they brought to the role and the legends of their performance,” she said. “Of course, the thing they brought to the role was special. Hopefully, I can bring what Ruth Ann can bring. I won’t copy them. I try to bring and sing what I can bring to the role.”

* Ruth Ann Swenson will sing the title role of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” for Opera Pacific at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $15 to $75 (student and senior rush: $15 for unsold seats one hour prior to curtain). Performances today, Friday, March 17 and 19 at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. (714) 556-2787.