The Liceu premieres the world production of 'Lohengrin' directed by Katharina Wagner. The cast includes some of the most prestigious Wagnerian voices of recent years, such as tenor Klaus Florian Vogt and sopranos Elisabeth Teige, Iréne Theorin, and Miina-Liisa Värelä.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu presents from March 17 to 30 the world premiere of the new production of Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin, directed by the head of the Bayreuth Festival and his great-granddaughter, Katharina Wagner.
Conductor Josep Pons will lead the Liceu Symphony Orchestra and Choir, as well as a cast featuring some of the finest Wagnerian voices of the moment, headed by German tenor Klaus Florian Vogt as Lohengrin and German soprano Iréne Theorin as Ortrud, except on the opening night, when the role will be performed by soprano Miina-Lissa Värelä. Soprano Elisabeth Teige will portray Elsa von Brabant, while bass Günther Groissbock will play Heinrich, and baritones Olafur Sigurdarson and Roman Trekel will take on the roles of Friedrich of Telramund and the King's Herald, respectively.
A spectacular forest-like set with a pond transports us to the cold, wintry environment of the Duchy of Brabant, where the action of this romantic opera takes place. Katharina Wagner sets this Lohengrin in a natural and public setting, outside of a civilized and ordered society, freeing it from any supernatural elements and moving away from the idea of a fairy tale. This natural environment is complemented by three large suspended cubes that appear in the third act, symbolizing the three worlds of Lohengrin, Elsa, and Ortrud, condemned to never understand each other.
Originally planned for the 2019-2020 season at the Liceu, the first rehearsals were held with the premiere scheduled for March 2020. However, after the confinement decree that year, all performances had to be canceled. It was then scheduled for the 2022 season at the Leipzig Opera, but it was postponed again due to logistical issues. Finally, it will be presented in Barcelona, five years later. A production that not only bears the unmistakable family stamp and the boldness characteristic of the Bayreuth Festival style but also offers a look into the opera's deeper philosophical essence.
Plot
The opera Lohengrin, a masterpiece by Richard Wagner, transports the audience into a fantasy tale that ends in tragedy. The story is set in the 10th century, at a time when the borders of the Holy Roman Empire were threatened by Hungarian invaders. By the banks of the River Scheldt, what is now Antwerp, King Heinrich’s troops gather, but there is a power vacuum in Brabant, one of the most important duchies. The heir, Gottfried, has disappeared, and the noble Friedrich von Telramund accuses his older sister, Elsa, of having murdered him. This is a false accusation, as Telramund longs to gain control of the duchy, but Elsa must defend her innocence. When the king decides that the dispute will be settled by trial by combat, Elsa calls upon a knight she has only seen in dreams: Lohengrin. Suddenly, a boat drawn by a swan arrives on the river, and a man surrounded by light appears. The warrior agrees to defend Elsa on one condition: she must never ask his name or his origin. When he defeats Telramund, Elsa is named Duchess of Brabant and marries the knight of unknown name.
To regain power, Ortrud, an evil sorceress and wife of Telramund, will try to convince Elsa to ask her mysterious lover the forbidden question. After many intrigues, Elsa decides to ask her enigmatic husband for his name in order to love him fully. By doing so, the spell is broken: the knight reveals himself to be Lohengrin, the son of Parsifal, the Grail knight, on a mission to defend the oppressed. Lohengrin returns to his homeland, leaving Elsa alone and unveiling Ortrud's scheme, as she was the one who made the boy Gottfried disappear with her dark magic. In the end, Ortrud and Elsa die, revealing that in a perfect world, there is no room for evil or doubt.
About the production
Originally planned for 2020 and postponed due to the pandemic, the world premiere of this production finally arrives in Barcelona with pure Wagnerian DNA. Katharina Wagner presents in this production a decadent world in which love has disappeared, reflected in the constant presence of death on stage. The work is not presented as a medieval fable or a nationalist allegory, but rather as a psychological drama in which doubt or ambition corrupt the characters.
As in almost all of Wagner's operas, love is one of the central themes of the work. However, love in Wagner is not interpreted in terms of romance and the sentimental emotion typical of melodrama, but rather in light of the intensity of the philosophy of his time: a concept that goes beyond the human and governs the forces of nature. Thus, love is the force that rules the world in Lohengrin: when love exists, life flourishes; when love transforms into a doubtful concept, decadence and oblivion follow.
The production premiering at the Liceu is based on this idea. Katharina Wagner describes a cold, almost inert world that seems to be revived with the arrival of the knight Lohengrin, the mysterious bearer of all the forces of good. Lohengrin offers prosperity to Elsa and the people of Brabant in exchange for an apparently symbolic but, in reality, very high price: that they never ask him his name or his origin.
Thus, Katharina Wagner’s scenic concept is based on the representation of a world that shifts between decay and prosperity, depending on the characters’ faith in love. The director shows the Duchy of Brabant as a decadent place: it’s winter, the land is dry, the trees have lost their leaves, and at the back of the stage, there are only symbols of death, such as a scaffold or a cemetery. Only when Lohengrin has authority in this dark place does light appear; in the end, after Elsa's mistake and the knight's departure, the harshness of the environment worsens.
In addition to this decrepit backdrop, Katharina Wagner employs another device that helps accentuate the complex psychology of the drama: the placement of three elevated spaces where the four main characters of the opera – Elsa, Lohengrin, and the couple formed by Telramund and Ortrud – are situated, which serve to illuminate their emotions. The group scenes, in which the choir plays an important role, take place at the foot of the stage; the dialogues and individual reflections are moved to the upper platforms. In this way, Katharina Wagner aims to emphasize the psychological or allegorical approaches to the opera, placing historical and political aspects, such as the diffusion of the medieval mystical past or the 19th-century German national construction, in the background.
Top Wagnerian voices for a lyrical and daring opera
Lohengrin, premiered in 1850, is considered Wagner's most lyrical opera, marking the end of his romantic period. At the same time, it is also the work with which he began to lay the foundation for the musical drama he would develop in the following decades, with the constant use of leitmotifs and the pursuit of an infinite melody. Set in medieval times, Lohengrin is a blend of historical opera and fairy tale, with a dark side and an episode of supernatural magic. The theme is love doomed to failure, with a tragic ending caused by an ill-timed question.
Since taking over the musical direction of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Orchestra in the 2012-2013 season, Josep Pons has made Wagner's music an ideal of perfection, a true test for any orchestra seeking to demonstrate its optimal level. Therefore, whenever a Wagnerian premiere takes place at the Liceu, Pons has chosen to take the podium. This Lohengrin arrives at a moment of utmost precision in the master's journey. Not only the orchestra but also the choir, directed by Pablo Assante, plays a significant role in this piece, maintaining excellence after its prominent performance in Castellucci's Requiem.
The lead role will be performed by the veteran German tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, a sublime singer with a beautiful timbre ideal for Lohengrin, who has several highly sensitive lyrical passages. The role of Elsa von Brabant will be portrayed by Norwegian soprano Elisabeth Teige, one of the leading specialists in recent years, while the other central female role, Ortrud, will be performed by Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin, a favorite at the Liceu who returns to the Theatre after several seasons without performing staged opera, as well as Miina-Liisa Värelä, who will perform Ortrud at the premiere.
The roles for the lower voices of King Heinrich and Knight Friedrich von Telramund will be played by Austrian bass Günther Groissböck and Icelandic baritone Ólafur Sigurdarson, respectively, two charismatic new Wagnerian stars. The role of the Herald will be performed by German baritone Roman Trekel, and the smaller roles of the Knights and Young Nobles will be divided among new local voices: Jorge Rodríguez Norton, Gerardo López, Guillem Batllori, Toni Marsol (Knights), and Carmen Jiménez, Raquel Lucena, Mariel Fontes, Gloria López, Elisabeth Gillming, Mariel Aguilar, Elizabeth Maldonado, and Yuliia Safonova (Young Nobles).
Josep Pons, the Liceu Symphony Orchestra, and the Liceu Choir face the opera considered Wagner's most Italian, with a captivating instrumental beginning and brilliant musical moments such as Elsa's aria from the first act, Einsam in trüben Tagen, Ortrud’s aria from the second act, Züruck, Elsa! Nicht länger will ich dulden, and finally, the most beautiful and demanding vocal moment of the work, Lohengrin's farewell with In fernem Land, unnahbar euren Schritten.