When John Copley’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor is remounted, it often comes with the marketing phrase ‘a piece of Australian operatic history’. The production was created for Joan Sutherland in 1980, giving Australian audiences a second opportunity to see her in the role that caused a sensation when she first performed it at Covent Garden in 1959 (she also sang it during the legendary 1965 Sutherland–Williamson tour).

Sutherland had all the requirements for a Lucia: a dramatic coloratura fach with the acting technique and vocal agility to surmount Lucia’s celebrated mad scene. It is a massive challenge, more so for Sutherland’s successors in Copley’s production, wearing costumes designed for her: big shoes to fill.