by Richard Wagner
seen at Covent Garden on 1 July 2018
Andris Nelsons conducted and David Alden directed this new Royal Opera production of Wagner's 1840s opera about the Swan Knight who comes to the rescue of a wrongly accused young woman, but then places an impossible burden on her by demanding that he remain anonymous if he is to stay and marry her. Lohengrin was sung by Klaus Florian Vogt, Elsa von Brabant by Jennifer Davis, Ortrud by Christine Goerke, Telramund by Thomas J. Mayer, King Heinrich by Geog Zeppenfeld and the Herald by Kostas Smoriginas.
The big draw card for this production is the chance to hear Klaus Florian Vogt sing the title role, one to which his pure lyric tenor voice is ideally suited. He certainly did not disappoint, bringing a radiant clarity throughout, from the Swan Knight's public pronouncements to the most intimate tenderness with Elsa, before his impassioned disappointment at her failure of nerve. Surrounding him was an excellent cast - a pure Elsa, a vituperative Ortrud, a desperate Telramund and an ailing king (supported by a wounded but still valiant herald). The chorus was in fine form, and the orchestra under Andris Nelsons excelled at the shimmering strangeness of the Grail music as much as in the blazing brass music of the more earthly armies.
