Admin

Organization

Singer

Bass

René Pape

Henry the Fowler

Tenor

Roberto Alagna

Lohengrin

Soprano

Sonya Yoncheva

Elsa of Brabant

Baritone

Martin Gantner

Fredrick of Telramund

Ekaterina Gubanova

Ortrud

Adam Kutny

The king's herald

Conductor

Matthias Pintscher

Stage director

Calixto Bieito

Set designer

Rebecca Ringst

Costume designer

Ingo Krügler

Lighting designer

Michael Bauer

Chorus master

Martin Wright

Dramaturge

Bettina Auer

Jana Beckmann

Uwe Sochaczewsky

Ulrike Schwab

Rebekka Dornhege Reyes

State Opera Berlin

Orchestra

Mitglieder der Staatskapelle Berlin

Staatskapelle Berlin

Others

Staatsopernchor Berlin

Ensemble des Kinderopernhauses Unter den Linden

German

Berlin

Germany

Staatsoper Unter den Linden

Elsa von Brabant is accused of murdering her brother. No one dares prove the young woman’s innocence in this mysterious case. Trapped in a reality that no one seems to share with her, a man enters her life promising to fight for her cause – on one condition: Elsa must trust him blindly and never ask him his name or birthplace.

But an intrigue entices Elsa to break her promises. The man’s answer reveals his divine origin and brings back Elsa’s brother; but she pays a high price. Wagner wrote »Lohengrin« during a time of radical revolutionary change. It was premiered in Weimar in 1850 under the direction of Franz Liszt. In it, he addresses the need to oppose social reality with a utopian one that refuses to put love, truthfulness and justice at the service of blind civil obedience. Wagner used Wolfram von Eschenbach’s »Parsifal« epic, sagas by the Brothers Grimm and various fairy tale collections as a model. The Spanish opera and theatre director Calixto Bieito leads the audience through his artworks by a »spirit of presence« and introduces himself for the first time at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with this great romantic opera.

Bieito's interpretation of Wagner‘s Lohengrin deals with love, hate, jealousy and hope, but above all with man‘s imperative need to believe in something. To visualise these two contrasting worlds, Bieito creates two settings on stage: the world of fairy tales (the forest) and reality (the court room). According to Bieito, fairy tales are as relevant today as they once were and are not only fables we tell our children, but a necessity in adulthood as they mirror life itself by offering both good and bad.

Public

English

Approved

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