Lohengrin (CD): André Cluytens, Sándor Kónya, Leonie Rysanek, Astrid Varnay, Eberhard Wächter, Keith Engen
Conductor André Cluytens
König Heinrich Keith Engen
Lohengrin Sándor Kónya
Elsa Leonie Rysanek
Telramund Ernest Blanc
Ortrud Astrid Varnay
Der Heerrufer Eberhard Wächter
Ein Edle Gerhard Stolze
Ein Edle Heinz-Günther Zimmermann
Ein Edle Gotthard Kronstein
Ein Edle Egmont Koch
Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
Recorded 23 July, 1958
André Cluytens conducts a very energetic and optimistic Lohengrin in this performance taken from the premiere year (1958) of Wieland Wagner's production. Wieland's production was the second post-war Lohengrin at Bayreuth - the first being Wolfgang Wagner's short-lived but, according to Penelope Turing, rather successful production (1953-54). Today Cluytens naive and jolly way of presenting the military music in Lohengrin may sound bizarre to some, but nevertheless this fine performance from the glorious 50s is a great addition to every Wagnerian's collection, first and foremost thanks to Sándor Kónya (Lohengrin).
The Hungarian tenor Sándor Kónya's outstanding Lohengrin manages to give the Lohengrin character a tragic dimension seldom heard. Ernest Blanc's Telramund also emphasizes the tragic aspects of this strange character (is he evil or is he just weak?). He resembles a suffering Alberich. Penelope Turing writes in her book New Bayreuth that she found Blanc to be one of "the best Telramunds I have seen. He conveyed a fine knightly flawed by a streak of evil, and had an exciting, dark, well-focused voice. This was a potentially noble Telramund who had gone wrong." (New Bayreuth, p. 50)
The magic of Wieland Wagner's production as the contemporary audience experienced it will of course not be present on a record, but it deserves to be mentioned, so I will once again quote Penelope Turing:
To me this Lohengrin will always remain the most beautitful of all Wieland's Bayreuth productions. Not beautiful in the same way as Parsifal, which was his greater work, but as a series of stage pictures which entranced the eye and mind. […]
Lohengrin […] was clear and bright, very simple in its effects. […]
It was a surprise and a joy to find that Wieland had, like his brother, adopted colours for this production. And what colours! The opening scene was set on a virtually bare stage. Behind, the cyclorama was bathed in a wonderful sapphire blue light, and above hung a lazy wreath circling a spray of oak leaves. […]
Penelope Turing: New Bayreuth, p. 49