Seattle.(North America)(Lohengrin)(Opera Review)

Stephen Wadsworth returned to Seattle Opera to recreate his foursquare Lohengrin, first seen and heard in 1994 with Ben Heppner as the "Swan Knight." The big star of this year's revival (seen 31 July) was Jane Eaglen, taking on Ortrud for the first time. "Foursquare" refers not only to Thomas Lynch's set, full of wooden walls with right-angles and corners, but to Wadsworth's interpretation itself--forthright, without equivocation.

Eaglen's Ortrud was out for political revenge. With the words "Gib mir die Macht" (Give me the power), she stabbed the heart of the matter. The soprano provided some fine touches of character, such as the contemptuous "Ha!" interpolated after "Goff?" when Telramund holds God responsible for their punishment. The subtle masking of sound when she sang "Not for nothing am I versed in the darkest arts" was spooky, and when she called on Wotan and Freia in "Entweihte Gotter!" the radiant familiarity with which she sang those names raised goosebumps.

What a great bass-baritone is Gidon Saks! He made King Heinrich into a real character, rather than the symbolic figure that he sometimes ten& to be. Saks's splendid stage presence, together with his almost Russian-sounding richness of voice, was totally riveting. Greer Grimsley, who looked a little like Basil Rathbone's Guy of Gisborne in the Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie, cut a handsome Telramund, registering as a noble and virtuous man betrayed by Ortrud's black magic. Grimsley and Eaglen were ...