Word: ortrud
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...River Scheldt are huge, gradually shifting columns of light. It is a tribute to Wilson's dramatic cunning that the production is a striking success. The stylized motion and lighting intensify the visceral excitement in the score and heighten the stark contest between the hero and the villainess Ortrud. And the singers, especially Gosta Winbergh in the title role, are first rate. Blessed with a sizable lyric tenor, Winbergh sings Lohengrin's famous farewell softly -- as it is almost never done -- and makes it heartbreaking...
...night devoted to singing, and the cast, conducted by the company's music director, James Levine, was a rich international assemblage that included the splendid Bulgarian soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow as the gentle maiden Elsa, the fiery Hungarian soprano Eva Marton as the scheming Ortrud and the hearty Danish bass Aage Haugland as King Henry the Fowler. Most notable of all, as Lohengrin, the mysterious knight of the Holy Grail, it featured Placido Domingo on one of his rare forays into the German repertoire. What looked at first like a mismatch turned out to be a gamble that paid...
...nearly five-hour evening. His singing in Act I was careful but not tentative; he infused Lohengrin's valedictory to his swan with the wistful Italianate warmth of a love song. In the second act, he sang passionately as Lohengrin tries to protect Elsa, his betrothed, from Ortrud's Iago-like machinations. By the third act, he was in full command, delivering the difficult Grail narration, in which Lohengrin sorrowfully reveals his identity and his obligation to leave Elsa, with power and poignancy. It may not have been idiomatic, but it was elegant and persuasive...
...Franz-Ferdinand Nentwig) near the start of Act II won a spontaneous ovation that stopped the show. Providing a worthy foil for Marton's villainy was Tomowa-Sintow, a lyric soprano with a pure, unforced voice that improved after a somewhat shaky first act; her fateful exchange with Ortrud in the second act's balcony scene evoked the stark contrast of light and dark that Wagner wanted. Alas, Elsa is not the most dramatically complex of Wagner's heroines, and Tomowa-Sintow was content to play her one-dimensionally. Although somewhat uncertain of intonation and raspy...
...power and poise to make the music conform to her character's needs. Home sings as though she has never had a finer, more rewarding role. That comes close to being the case. Mezzos have an abundance of supporting parts, often villainesses, in their repertory (Amneris in Aida, Ortrud in Lohengrin), but few star vehicles. Home is trying to interest the Metropolitan Opera in Rinaldo, and the Met would do well to listen...