Name: Lohengrin
Start: 2022-02-06T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2022-05-22T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Deutsche Oper Berlin

Organization

Singer

Bass

Ain Anger

Henry the Fowler

Tenor

David Butt Philip

Lohengrin

Soprano

Jennifer Davis

Elsa of Brabant

Baritone

Jordan Shanahan

Fredrick of Telramund

Iréne Theorin

Ortrud

Patrick Cook

First nobleman of Brabant

Andrew Dickinson

Second nobleman of Brabant

Sam Park

Third nobleman of Brabant

Tyler Zimmerman

Fourth nobleman of Brabant

Saskia Meusel

First noble page

Andrea Schwarzbach

Second noble page

Mezzo-soprano

Cordula Messer

Third noble page

Martina Metzler-Champion

Fourth noble page

Stage director

Kasper Holten

Conductor

Donald Runnicles

Lighting designer

Jesper Kongshaug

Costume designer

Steffen Aarfing

Set designer

Chorus master

Jeremy Bines

Günther Groissböck

Klaus Florian Vogt

Camilla Nylund

Martin Gantner

Anna Smirnova

Thomas Lehman

The king's herald

Dean Murphy

Angelika Nolte

Kristina Häger

Saskia Klumpp

Natali Buck

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Orchestra

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Others

Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

German

Berlin

Germany

Lohengrin Wagner,Richard

Public

English

Approved

Das Herzogtum von Brabant steht ohne männlichen Thronfolger da. Im Inneren brodelt ein erbitterter Erbschaftsstreit, der auch vor der Hinrichtung der unschul...

"If you recognize him, he must pull away from you".

If you imagine Lohengrin as one of those politicians who has mastered the media gesture and uses the strongest images and legends to build up a salvation myth around himself, you can easily see him as a power-political phony who senses his chance to create a new one in shattered German lands State to establish a new system, a new ideology. One can find an astonishing number of passages in Wagner's text and music that would support such a reading. Let's take the ban on asking questions, for example: Elsa's life is in danger and she is accused of murdering her brother Gottfried. Lohengrin offers her his help, but by no means unconditionally. Before he fights for her, he proposes a deal: she should marry him but never ask who he is. Of course she agrees what else is left for her? A true hero might have chosen a different order. Elsewhere, too, Lohengrin proves to be a not entirely fair partner to Elsa: he calms her panic that he might leave her again: she needn't worry as long as she follows his command. A little later he reveals that he planned to stay only a year and then return to his homeland. He wasn't concerned with the woman, but with the position that she could create for him. His goal was the political game. Elsa was the stage on which he made his grand entrance. It was quite simply campaigning in Brabant. he reassured her: she needn't worry as long as she obeyed his command. A little later he reveals that he planned to stay only a year and then return to his homeland. He wasn't concerned with the woman, but with the position that she could create for him. His goal was the political game. Elsa was the stage on which he made his grand entrance. It was quite simply campaigning in Brabant. he reassured her: she needn't worry as long as she obeyed his command. A little later he reveals that he planned to stay only a year and then return to his homeland. He wasn't concerned with the woman, but with the position that she could create for him. His goal was the political game. Elsa was the stage on which he made his grand entrance. It was quite simply campaigning in Brabant.

Of course, the penchant for political calculation does not make Lohengrin per se an intriguer like Jago; this role belongs more to Ortrud, who, as the young ambitious man’s adversary, fights to preserve the old order in the state – with her husband Telramund at his head. But to see the Swan Knight as a thoroughbred politician who is idolized despite his obvious tricks illustrates that strategic political manipulation is often perceived as a necessary tool in statecraft. Even blatantly hypocritical demonstrations of steadfastness, vitality and strength can apply far more to the easily influenced fearful citizen than integrity and utopian do-goodism.

One could find the media hero Lohengrin sympathetic and the power struggle sporty if war weren't threatening and the devastating battle cries weren't already being heard. Given the bloodthirsty belligerence expressed in Wagner's work, and given the fact that whoever wins the election, whoever it is, will lead thousands of men to war and widow women, given the infatuation that war an honorable undertaking, a worthy adventure for young men, immediately flags down every downplaying gesture towards public misleading. When a war is launched and a life-and-death struggle is called for, according to the motto "Whoever is not with us is against us", principles of common sense political judgment are put to the test,

Elsa understood that. She sees through Lohengrin, she questions him, exposes his narcissistic striving for power, even if she sees no alternative for her country, even if there is no successor to the ruler of Brabant given Gottfried's disappearance. If the convicted hero wants to remain in power, he must develop serious intentions and prove himself as a self-proclaimed protector of the people or in other cases as a "flawless democrat", because from now on he will be under surveillance. He must assert himself without the armor of myth and renounce the charisma of being guided by the foreign power. And then we'll see.

Lohengrin by Wagner, Richard, Sat 19 Feb 2022, From (2022/2022), Directed by Kasper Holten,, Conductor Donald Runnicles, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin, Germany

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