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Lohengrin: Politics just before the beginning
Speech in Bayreuth against Prime Minister Söder, cheers for Lohengrin non-political
Lohengrin, all in blue, after the scenography by Neo Rauch and Rosa Loy Image: Nawrath
Something so rare at the Richard Wagner Festival: singing the arrival of the Bavarian Prime Minister. It seems that "refugees are welcome here" to Markus Söder (CSU) because he arrives Wednesday with his wife on the Green Hill in Bayreuth. A high level protest against the asylum policy of his party. On the other hand, there will be a "Lohengrin" on stage this year, as it could hardly be more unpopular. Director Yuval Sharon tells the story of Wagner's famous swan knight – no more and no less.
Lohengrin in Blue
Fairy-tale-like is the backdrop for the first German art star: Neo Rauch (and his wife Rosa Loy) I worked for six years and I was not the only one of my kind. I plunged the new Bayreuth Lohengrin in blue. The sensual scenography is the determining element of the staging, moving somewhere between dream and reality. Sharon, Rauch and Loy seem to be more concerned with a sensual examination than an intellectual examination of the fairly simple reinterpretation of the "Lohengrin" material.
Personal orientation hardly appears. The exasperated Ortrud (Waltraud Meier) appears in a suit reminiscent of England's Elizabeth I with her white collar. And Elsa (Anja Harteros) is not very happy to learn the wedding night that her lover is on bondage games. So that's enough for her. She asks for her name and swaps the narcotic blue of her clothes for a confident orange. It was with management. The reaction of the audience is also rather mixed, unlike the musical part of the production.
He is – as almost always in Bayreuth – unanimously acclaimed. Above all, there is the applause "Lohengrin" Piotr Beczala, the man without whom the first would probably have fallen to the water. After all, just a few days before the rehearsals, he had intervened for tenor Roberto Alagna, who had simply failed to learn the lyrics in time. It's probably more of the great gratitude that the public wants to express, as the very great enthusiasm. Beczala is a reserved Lohengrin, behind Harteros as Elsa and Bayreuth returner Maier (sung 18 years ago for the last time on the hill) as Ortrud something in the background. The musical performance of the musical director Christian Thielemann, who directed the ten works of Wagner in the Festspielhaus with the "Lohengrin", is undeniable.
Söder incidentally, the not-so-friendly prime minister appreciated the non-political staging. As the host of the state's reception after the premiere, he said: "I have rarely seen such a great production in Bayreuth." Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) found it simply "wonderful". Uncommon unity between the brother parties. (your)
Conclusion: The new "Lohengrin" of Bayreuth: optically opulent, of a simple content, acclaimed musically.
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