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It has already been whispered in the Bayreuth festival community before the premiere: artist Neo Rauch, head of equipment for the new Lohengrin with his wife Rosa Loy, has installed a substation on the scene. Immediately, thoughts turn to Sebastian Baumgarten's (2011) disastrous Tannhuser, dominated by a gigantic biogas plant. Production was soon stopped.
So now a transformer station. Why not? Maybe she's putting the coin on. That's what director Yuval Sharon and the couple of artists do: Lohengrin appears as an electrician in work clothes. Instead of a sword, he is wearing a lightning bolt. Electricity has something to do with light. And Lohengrin brings light to Black Brabant, where there is disagreement and disunity. He is the Illuminator, a modern Prometheus, a visionary. The substation is a gigantic metaphor for all of this.
| Image: Bayreuth Festival / Enrico Nawrath
As a brilliant hero, Sharon does not want to show Lohengrin. And Elsa should not be the one who runs around this hero as a savior and worshiper, but a woman who fights for her emancipation. It's probably why all this must seem a little strange, even ridiculous on stage: the bulky substation, but also Lohengrin, who arrives in Brabant with a plastic thing flattened like a UFO; or the fight of Lohengrin against Telramund, for which both, like Peter Pan, float in the air.
On the wedding night, Lohengrin ties his Elsa with an electric cable. This is not what a lifeguard looks like. Blo is not sure if Sharon is getting in the way of his direct interpretation or simply the scenographer Neo Rauch. In any case, there is a lot of irritating, even violent pains, against the grain.
Neo Rauch's aesthetic principle is that the superficially consistent images are broken by inappropriate elements. He remains faithful to this principle as a scenographer. He recalls clbadical theater, costumes appear at first glance as historical stagings, they cite Flemish Brabant, the color dominated by blue-gray.
This is not just electrification as an anachronism that sinks it all is not consistent. The main characters, for example, carry insect wings, where women respect Elsa and Ortrud, badism debate! the wings are cut. They fight each other in their own way against male domination and encrusted structures and for freedom and self-determination. It goes without saying that Elsa does not warm up with her rescuer from the start, she does not end up dying, but walks away in the orange dress against the text, while the Brabant people descend to the ground .
| Image: Bayreuth Festival / Enrico Nawrath
It is not uncommon for filmmakers to concoct pieces or tell them a new story. The work can very well be done because it opens new perspectives. However, Sharon's deconstruction simply acts deliberately and aesthetically awkwardly. In addition, he obviously did not dare to play actively on stage. The second act, in particular, lends itself to the fame of a permanent theater.
Music stands out all the more strongly. This is not the staging of Sharon who electrifies, but the conduct of Christian Thielemann. Already the prelude that it takes surprisingly agile. No excessive delight, Thielemann can do it dramatically. He shows it again and again tonight. Among the singers, Piotr Beczala is particularly convincing. It was asked just a few weeks ago, after Roberto Alagna canceled, and now turns out to be a distribution quite worthy for the role of Lohengrin. As one of the few on the whole, it also does not need to be accused of lacking textual comprehension.
Heights and vocal stockings
Anja Harteros has at first some problems of youth like Elsa and is unbalanced vocally. In the last act, however, it opens up to a familiar form. Waltraud Meier accepts special applause. As a former Bayreuth star, she had thrown herself on the late festival director Wolfgang Wagner and is returning today after 20 years as an Ortrud. Even though the 62 year old can discern intonation problems, his voice still has power. Tomasz Konieczny turns out to be a Telramund with a dramatic expression. Georg Zeppenfeld (King Henry) and Egils Silins (Heerrufer) complete the ensemble.
| Image: Bayreuther Festspiele / Enrico Nawrath
Should the Baumgarten biogas plant have the same fate? Maybe the production develops a cult status as Hans Neuenfels Lohengrin with rats. But this is probably not the case
The next performances of "Lohengrin" will take place on July 29, 2018, August 2, 6 and 10. More information on http://www.bayreuther-festspiele.de
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