O is for Ortrud, the wicked sorceress in Lohengrin. Wagner wrote the part for a soprano, but it is often sung by a mezzo, who tend to have a monopoly on wicked sorceresses.
Christa Ludwig and Waltraud Meier have enjoyed great success in the role, but so have dramatic sopranos such as Eva Marton, Gwyneth Jones, Astrid Varnay and Anja Silja.
Ortrud is the daughter of Radbod, pagan king of Frisia - the action take place in the Low Countries in the latter part of the 10th century. She plays a role similar to that of Lady Macbeth, seeking to screw her husband Count Friedrich von Telramund's courage to the sticking place.
After the death of the Duke of Brabant, Telramund has designs on the dukedom. He had been betrothed to Elsa, the mildly hysterical daughter of the Duke, but ditched her for Ortrud, who, usefully from Telramund's point of view, has turned the real heir, Gottfried, into a swan. Attractive, stately, but not ruler material.
The Grail knight Lohengrin turns up in response to Elsa's prayers and defeats Telramund in battle, but the irrespressible Ortrud isn't finished yet. She encourages her husband not to give up and swears vengeance – "From this lustre of our foes' revels / let me suck a fearful deadly poison / which will end out shame and their joy!" She manages to make Elsa doubt her new husband Lohengrin and ask the one question he has told her she must never pose – who is he and where does he come from?
Doubting him and exposing his status as a knight of the Grail means he must leave Elsa, who collapses and dies, but Telramund, too, is killed in a second combat with Lohengrin and, again by the power of prayer, Gottfried is restored to human form to claim the dukedom. What happens to old Ortrud is unclear. According to the libretto, when Gottfried is freed from her spell she "sinks down with a shriek". Sinks down on her knees or sinks down into the river? I prefer to think she is eventually burned at the stake by an enraged populace. They were an unforgiving lot in the 10th century.
Previous articles in the series
A is for Alberich
B is for Bayreuth
C is for Cosima
D is for Death
E is for winsome heroines
F is for Die Feen
G is for Gesamtkunstwerk
H is for Hitler
I is for Isolde
J is for Jews
K is for Kundry
L is for Lohengrin
M is for Meistersinger
N is for Nietzsche
