LA DONNA DEL LAGO -- Rodrigo di Dhu

Speranza

Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem, "The Lady of the Lake" was published in 1810.

It quickly became very popular, so much so that when the Frederik Douglass escaped from slavery in 1836, he adopted his new surname from the protagonist of Scott’s poem.

Only Rossini spelt it "Duglas".

Rossini became aware of the poem through a translation.

Transforming Scott’s poem into a libretto was achieved by Andrea Leone Tottola, Rossini’s literary collaborator, in 1819.

Tottola’s importance should not be underestimated.

The task, by no means simple, of converting Scott’s narrative poem into dramatic form was undertaken and solved with the highest degree of craftsmanship and integrity, taking also into consideration those suggestions by Rossini that modern musicology takes for granted.

There is, in fact, no vital strand of Scott’s tale that is not substantially respected in the libretto, from the plot, the weight given to each character and his interaction and conflict with the others, the moral of the story, to the strongly characterized atmosphere of the setting.

Sometimes the strands are even stressed.

But there ARE of course, simplifications.

Furthermore, Tottola, an Ossianian, manages to avoid wandering away from the point (in the second act) by the ingenious idea of planning a very extended music number, the TRIO for soprano Elena, and the fight of the two heroic tenors: GIACOMO V (the king of Scotland) and his arch-enemy, Rodrigo di Dhu.

This concentrates the dramatic tension of the plot like storm clouds then having them burst in a catastrophe.

Undoubtedly Rossini was very much a part of this process, but Tottola’s contribution deserves due recognition.

In view of this, how much of Scott remains in this opera?

Enough, apparently to raise the hackles of "The Sir Walter Scott Club" in connection with a recent production of this opera by John Fulljames at Covent Garden.

The Herald of Scotland reports the dispute recounts that the row started.

It all starte when Fulljames said that turning the "high-landers" into savages is the clear choice of an author.

That’s what Rossini and Scott are saying.

They are saying that these people cannot be taken into modernity.

According to the Herald of Scotland, Fulljames was influenced by films like “Highlander" and "Braveheart".

If you look at those films, the Highlanders are hairy.

You do imagine they’d be smelly.

David Purdie, of the Sir Walter Scott Club retorts that, then, everyone was smelly in the 18th century. This is all before any personal odour cologne.

Scott was a great admirer of the manly courage and characteristics of the Highlanders and lamented the fact they had been separated for so long from southern Scotland by geography, language, politics and religion.

His great aim in life was the promotion of Scotland as a unity within the United Kingdom.

Rossini has the last word in this dispute.

There is nothing savage or ugly in his music for the Highlanders, so the audience is left to draw its own conclusions.