Post by tmesis on Jun 24, 2018 12:31:52 GMT
First a bit about the opera itself. This is a transitional work between the more conventionally structured earlier works like Dutchman and the through composed masterpieces like the Ring Cycle and Parsifal etc. Although there is much I love about the opera, I feel it suffers a little because of this. There is something a bit 'four-square' about it - literally actually; much is in 4/4 time, in later operas Wagner would vary the time signature more. And although he makes some use of leitmotifs he would go on to do it with much greater effect in The Ring and Tristan etc.
I quite literally went from the ridiculous to the sublime - Young Frankenstein in the afternoon and Lohengrin yesterday evening!
The production
I really liked the old Moshinsky production but in the current regime at ROH that is obviously old hat. Suffice it to say there was no hint of 10th century Antwerp in this new David Alden production. The set was very dour, mainly looking like an out of kilter cross between a Manhattan brownstone and a faceless communist official building. Costumes had a 1940s feel. I thought I was going to hate it but in the end I found the drama very absorbing; Alden staged all the key dramatic confrontations with great aplomb. The swan was disappointing though, just a bit of dark flapping wing effects causing shadows on the stage.
The singers
Really excellent vocally. The chorus were superb.
Christine Goerke had fabulous power and intensity as Ortrud and Jennifer Davis is real find as Elsa. She was a last minute replacement and this was her first major Wagner role but she is obviously a star of the future. I was not convinced to begin with Klaus Florian Vogt's Lohengrin. He isn't really a true heldentenor; a lot of it he sang in a quasi-falsetto and he doesn't vary his vocal line with much use of dynamics and so I found him a bit monotonous. However, it's a voice that never tires and his singing at the end of act 3 was moving and beautiful.
Conductor/Orchestra
I've left the best until last. It was sensationally well conducted by Andris Nelsons. The orchestra played magnificently for him. On the strength of this, and last year's Rosenkavalier, they should sign him up immediately for when Pappano leaves.
I quite literally went from the ridiculous to the sublime - Young Frankenstein in the afternoon and Lohengrin yesterday evening!
The production
I really liked the old Moshinsky production but in the current regime at ROH that is obviously old hat. Suffice it to say there was no hint of 10th century Antwerp in this new David Alden production. The set was very dour, mainly looking like an out of kilter cross between a Manhattan brownstone and a faceless communist official building. Costumes had a 1940s feel. I thought I was going to hate it but in the end I found the drama very absorbing; Alden staged all the key dramatic confrontations with great aplomb. The swan was disappointing though, just a bit of dark flapping wing effects causing shadows on the stage.
The singers
Really excellent vocally. The chorus were superb.
Christine Goerke had fabulous power and intensity as Ortrud and Jennifer Davis is real find as Elsa. She was a last minute replacement and this was her first major Wagner role but she is obviously a star of the future. I was not convinced to begin with Klaus Florian Vogt's Lohengrin. He isn't really a true heldentenor; a lot of it he sang in a quasi-falsetto and he doesn't vary his vocal line with much use of dynamics and so I found him a bit monotonous. However, it's a voice that never tires and his singing at the end of act 3 was moving and beautiful.
Conductor/Orchestra
I've left the best until last. It was sensationally well conducted by Andris Nelsons. The orchestra played magnificently for him. On the strength of this, and last year's Rosenkavalier, they should sign him up immediately for when Pappano leaves.
