Before I enter my 12-step Lohengrin detox program, I have one (or
two) more thought(s) and a theory to share about the La Scala Lohengrin.
Some productions of this
opera are about Lohengrin; some are about Elsa; and some are about the people of Brabant. But, like the Bayreuth rat version, Guth’s Lohengrin for La Scala is mostly about Ortrud’s quest for power.
The first characters we see
on stage are Ortrud, Elsa, and Gottfried (represented by his boot and jacket.) Ortrud
appears near the end of the Prelude, carrying the boot and jacket. She turns
over the boot and pours water out of it. She hands Elsa the jacket, and Elsa,
believing her brother has drowned, collapses in a silent scream.
When Lohengrin arrives, he is carrying a boot just like Gottfried’s, from which he pours water, imitating Ortrud's opening action. Elsa's knight exhibits or reflects most of her own neurotic behavior (in accord with the theory that everyone in our dreams is an aspect of our selves.) Elsa moves through her madness to her wedding night, and like most dreams, this one ends before consummation. Lohengrin doesn't actually leave, he just sort of collapses back into his fetal position.
In the final scene, the last three characters we
focus on are Gottfried, Elsa, and Ortrud—the only "real" people in this drama. Elsa awakes from her
dream/fantasy/madness as Gottfried reappears on the pier, as if from the marsh—the
place of his disappearance.* She calls
out to him, “my husband,” in realization, dismay, shock, and/or relief, and she collapses. Is she dead? According to most Wagnerites, she should be, but we can’t
be sure. Ortrud (who usually does not die) realizes her plot failed, and turns her
evil power and her own knife against herself.
*Gottfried is still wearing that one wing...uh oh, I don't have a theory for that...yet.
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