LA DONNA DEL LAGO

Speranza

Speranza

La donna del Lago, The Lady of the Lake, is based on Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem.

There have been quite a few different ‘productions’ (if an opera presented in concert form can be considered a ‘production’) of this rarely done work.

A concert performance is not really comparable to a staged version, but in some ways it is a relief to be able to concentrate on the music.

Much of the opera (and Scott’s poem) takes place on the shores of the lake of the title, specifically Loch Katrine in Scotland’s Trossochs region.

The heroine, Elena DUGLAS arrives and departs in a boat on the lake and she lives in a house on an island in the middle of the lake, thus the "Lady of the Lake", where 'lady' is hyperbolic and 'donna' colloquial.

Therefore it was something of a surprise that some of the staged productions had no lake anywhere in sight.

True, there is a boat (a small model of a three-masted schooner in a glass case) but Elena and GIACOMO would have been hard put to get in it as the libretto vainly requests.

When the librettist wrote,

“Come with me in my little boat,”

one doubt that he was thinking of one of those plastic model kits that you put together with model glue when you are a kid.

Similarly, the libretto of William Tell calls for a river, a lake, waterfalls and glaciers, but some productions offer none of those.

It did offer a small boat, which was hooked to chains and lifted to flies above the stage when it was called on to sail away.

The lake in La donna del lago is not the only operatic body of water to go dry.

Of course one would not expect a lake in a concert performance, and it was a relief not to have one’s expectations doomed to disappointment yet again.

So in all three ‘productions’, it was Lakes-0; but since all three boasted formidable donne, ‘Ladies–3′.

La donna del lago is one of nine operas that Rossini composed for Naples’ San Carlo  opera house at the height of his career between 1815 and 1822.

One reason that so few of those operas are performed today is that the San Carlo boasted the most extraordinary “stable” of singers in Europe at the time, including several tenors whose techniques and high notes were so amazing that, with a few exceptions, only in the last decade have we had singers who could sing the music Rossini wrote.

The fine mezzo Isabella Colbran, who would become the composer’s first wife, sang the lead role while another, deeper, mezzo (or contralto), Rosmunda Pisaroni, sang the trouser role of Malcom.

Duglas, Elena’s father, is a bass whose role is not major, but King James V, disguised as “Uberto,” is a high tenor role and his rival, the Highland Chieftain, Rodrigo, is what we might call a bari-tenor, that is a tenor able to sing very high notes but also able to  descend into the baritone register.

Originally the roles were sung by Giovanni David and Andrea Nozzari, respectively.

The bari-tenor is an unusual species today.

A true bari-tenor has to be able to leap to sing high notes with ease and plunge to low ones with a full and resonant voice.

The score requires that he reaches a “D” above the high “C.”  

Having two extraordinary tenors at his disposal, Rossini wrote one of the most exciting confrontations for two tenors in opera.

The piece starts as a duet between Elena and Uberto, and then turns into a trio when Rodrigo shows up unexpectedly.

The vocal duel between the two tenors is one of the most memorable parts of the opera, but the tenor voices cannot sound alike.