Andrew Annandale Sinclairis a British novelist, historian, biographer, critic and filmmaker. He was a founding member of Churchill College, Cambridge... (wikipedia)
He had a Puritan conscience and an Episcopalian sense of sin. The first pricked at him persistently, the second was excused through public piety.
I should think it's pretty sophisticated. Any judge with a sense of humor and a very clever man, which Peter Smith is, is going to do pretty well.
The choice to partner with Phoebus Software was made easier by the reference sites Phoebus provided and by the impressive functionality of the software.
It's the climax emotionally as well as vocally. Lucia doesn't just snap. We see this propensity to madness developing throughout the opera.