hidden in plain sight
by Douglas Messerli
Gioachino Rossini (music), Andrea
Leone Tottola (libretto, based on the poem by Sir Walter Scott), La donna del lago / New York, The
Metropolitan Opera HD broadcast, March 14, 2015
The central problem of Act I is that Elena’s father has promised her to
Rodrigo as symbol of his commitment to the revolution, while his daughter has
eyes only for Malcolm, who, at least in this Metropolitan Opera version, is
played by another mezzo-soprano (as host Patricia Racette joked in her
introduction, “In this opera, mezzo-soprano gets mezzo-soprano”). Elena,
accordingly must negotiate a treaty between her heart and her filial duty, a
peace that will end the internal war she is suffering. Ironically her dilemma
is temporarily solved with the outbreak of general hostilities. Thus the inner
struggle becomes a social one which even she cannot resist in supporting,
singing along with the Clan rebels “Già un raggio forier.”
The King may have promised to protect her, but he clearly must punish the man to whom she is engaged, Rodrigo, for his treason. In killing him, however, Giacomo saves Elena for Malcolm, who along with her father, now sits in his prison.
If the scenario has appeared to be quite unbelievable up to this point,
it now turns in to pure fairy tale, as the pomp and circumstance of the court
is revealed (this Scottish court, evidently, wore costumes that might have
seemed more at home in Renaissance Italy). In the midst of the glitter of the
court pageantry, Elena cannot even find the King, who stands beside her in his
royal trappings as her friend Uberto. Dramatically, his real identity is
revealed before her very eyes as he is crowned and she returns the ring,
freeing her father, lover and herself in the same moment to become loving
subjects of the King who has spared their lives and permitted them their true
If one had any qualms about the story, no one with a good set of ears
might find the work lacking in its musical gifts. Here it is spectacularly
evident that even the most far-fetched and hackneyed of plots can be redeemed
by the perfection of singers DiDonato, Flórez, Osborn, and Barcellona, to say
nothing of Oren Gradus as Duglas and Olga Makarina as Albina. Perhaps the Met
had never before performed this highly Romantic work until now because no such
brilliant casting had previously been available. If the opera once might have
seemed forgettable (and, fortunately, under the conducting skills of Michele
Mariotti, it is not) the singing took this work into the stratosphere, with the
final choruses ringing in the ears long after the curtain falls. The Met
audience stayed long and cheered wildly for the four leads of this Rossini
oddity, which will now surely be among the standard repertoire for years to
come.
Los Angeles, April 16, 2015
Reprinted from USTheater, Opera, and Performance (April 2015).