Organization

Conductor

Conductor (+3)

James Conlon

Stage director

Kasper Holten

Set designer

Set designer (+2)

Steffen Aarfing

Costume designer

Lighting designer

Lighting designer (+2)

Jesper Kongshaug

Chorusmaster

Conductor (+2)

Jeremy Bines

Bass-baritone (+9)

Ryan Speedo Green

Henry the Fowler

Tenor (+5)

David Butt Philip

Lohengrin

Soprano (+2)

Jennifer Davis

Elsa of Brabant

Baritone (+3)

Jordan Shanahan

Fredrick of Telramund

Mezzo-soprano (+3)

Yulia Matochkina

Ortrud

Baritone (+2)

Dean Murphy

The king's herald

Tenor (+1)

Patrick Cook

First nobleman of Brabant

Tenor (+2)

Chance Jonas-O'Toole

Second nobleman of Brabant

Bass-baritone (+3)

Christian Simmons

Third nobleman of Brabant

Artur Garbas

Fourth nobleman of Brabant

Soprano

Saskia Meusel

First noble page

Andrea Schwarzbach

Second noble page

Mezzo-soprano

Cordula Messer

Third noble page

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Orchestra

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Chorus

Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

Election campaign in Brabant - Kasper Holten stages Wagner's LOHENGRIN as a timeless political power game in times of mediocracy, in which pictures often achieve more than a thousand arguments. And even if the clichés used are well known, they still have an effect, regardless of whether in a democracy or dictatorship: as a sovereign man of action, fighting the flood with a sandbag and in rubber boots, as a caring father with a small child in his arms or the same as a hero bursting with potency, while diving, climbing or in the cockpit of a fighter jet. Whether you can actually fly it is secondary, but it still looks good... What counts is the pose, the staging of the hero - and the message that goes with it: The beaming winner at the head of the state will lead you to salvation. However, the question of how to get to the top of the state is often ignored. And so a number of politicians who beamed brightest and most confidently into the cameras in this country are no longer in office after the question of their past brought unpleasant truths to light. "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 seeing 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 delusion 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.

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