When one thinks of operatic mad scenes, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor almost inevitably comes to mind first and foremost and not without reason. That, of course, is in the opera of the same name.
But last night at the Metropolitan Opera, South African-born soprano Elza van den Heever stole the show in Mozart's Idomeneo with a riveting performance of Elettra's meltdown when her long-shot hopes of marrying Prince Idamante are finally dashed by Neptune, god of the sea.
Van den Heever's performance was not only vocally splendid, her acting was captivating.
This, I suppose, is all the more startling for the audience because Elettra is a somewhat secondary and rather static figure for most of the opera. She's a Greek princess -- daughter of Agamemnon -- who has taken refuge on Crete during that war-torn era. Hoping to stay and eventually become queen, she finds herself the odd woman out almost immediately because Idamante has fallen in love with the prisoner Ilia, a Trojan princess captured during battle of Troy.
But hope springs eternal and Elettra is convinced she can seduce Idamante if only she can get him away from her rival, and at one point, such circumstances appear to be in the offing.
To be fair, Mozart does give Elettra a noteworthy aria in the second act, but one then tends to think, "well, that's probably it for her."
So with all the action elsewhere as the opera comes to a happy ending -- King Idomeneo does not, after all, have to kill his son, who gets both the crown and Ilia, the love of his life -- Elettra is once again on the sidelines.
But never count out a woman scorned, and especially a Greek princess. Elettra seizes the stage with an emotional outburst of volcanic proportions and everything else comes to a standstill. Both after that aria, and at the final curtain, the audience made it clear who in its estimation won the battle of the dueling princesses.
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