Lohengrin (Blu-ray/DVD): Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Kent Nagano, Klaus Florian Vogt, Solveig Kringelborn, Waltraud Meier, Tom Fox

Singing the Blues

Lohengrin (Klaus Florian Vogt) tells Elsa (Solveig Kringelborn) he loves her in Act 1. Photo: Andrea Kremper/Baden-Baden Festival

By Jerry Floyd, 11 October 2011

Taped during June 2006 Baden-Baden Festival performances, this Opus Arte release is thus far the only Lohengrin DVD available in Blu-ray. This two-disc set features riveting portrayals by Waltraud Meier (Ortrud) and Solveig Kringelborn (Elsa).

Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s insightful directing, Stephan Braunfels’ spare stage design, Duane Schuler’s often-blue lighting, and a combined chorus (from Mainz and Lyon) are other assets.

When I watched the original DVD release of this Lohengrin in 2007, I was riveted by Meier’s singing and acting. Viewing this production again in its crystalline Blu-ray format confirms my original impression. Until 2006, at least, Meier’s Ortrud was one of the most compelling Wagner interpretations of the past half century.

“You would have to go back to Christa Ludwig to find an Ortrud capable of investing the line with such insidious hypocrisy,” Barry Millington wrote in his review of this Lohengrin DVD in the January 2008 issue of Opera magazine.

Bird of Prey

After delivering a coruscating “Entweihte Götter”, Meier reaches a vocal and dramatic peak later in the second act as she confronts Elsa on the steps and runway leading to the Minster.

Wearing a feathered hat designed by Bettina Walter, Ortrud looks a bird of prey in Act 2 and she sings the role’s higher notes with relative ease. (Earlier, in Act I, Ortrud wears a black vulpine hat that makes her seem like a feral stalker.)

Meier is a brilliant actress, evidenced by her physical gestures and facial expressions, often filmed in close-up. Sometimes Meier’s acting recalls some of Joan Crawford’s melodramatic film scenes. But unlike Crawford’s often-camp emoting Meier never goes over the top.

Innocent Elsa

Lehnhoff directs Norwegian soprano Kringelborn so that she is a naïve innocent, caught between the scheming Ortrud and a distant, narcissistic Lohengrin.

In the “Never Shalt Thou Ask of Me” documentary, Kringelborn notes that Elsa is the opera’s central character. Kringelborn also likens Elsa to Nora in Ibsen’s The Doll House. Both characters are trapped in a society where women’s needs are subsumed by male prerogatives. Nora, at least, journeys toward self-discovery and walks out of her marriage.

During the Act I Vorspiel, Elsa, who is limned by blue and white light, moves slowly toward the front of the stage. Throughout the opera, she seems apprehensive and as Elsa walks into the Minster at the end of Act II her forced smile indicates she is journeying into inescapable purgatory.

Although Kringelborn’s soft-grained voice doesn’t always soar above the orchestra during the ensembles, she is a very appealing tragic heroine. Credit the soprano and director Lehnhoff with creating such a heartbreaking portrayal.

Lightweight Lohengrin

In spite of his whitish timbre and lightweight voice, tenor Klaus Florian Vogt often is accorded roaring ovations when he sings Lohengrin. Based on this summer’s Bayreuth audio stream, Vogt’s still-maturing voice has more gravitas than when the Baden-Baden production was taped more than five years ago. It will be interesting to compare the planned DVD release of the Bayreuth Lohengrin with this Baden-Baden performance.

During Act 3, Scene 1 Lehnhoff depicts Lohengrin as a narcissistic composer more interested in working on a composition at a piano than paying attention to his increasingly distraught bride. The glitter sprinkled in Vogt’s wig is another indication of his character’s self-absorption.

The role of King Henry is high for bass Hans-Peter König. But König is dramatically convincing, always authoritative and also very sympathetic to Elsa’s plight.

König’s career has taken off since this 2006 performance. He appeared as Hagen at Bayreuth in 2009 and earlier this year König was a standout Gurnemanz in Gran Teatre del Liceu’s Parsifal and Hunding in the Metropolitan Opera’s Die Walküre.

Among the other principals, baritone Tom Fox is a sinewy Telramund, but falls well short of matching Meier’s vocal and dramatic prowess. In the shorter role of the Herald, the resonant baritone Roman Trekel portrays a dignified, rather than a supercilious aide to King Henry.

Ortrud (Waltraud Meier) menaces Elsa (Solveig Kringelborn) on the steps of the Minster in Act 2. Photo: Andrea Kremper/Baden-Baden Festival

Grecian Formula

Act I and the last scene of Act 3 are set in a Grecian-style amphitheater. Braunfels’ spare, semi-circular risers are vaguely reminiscent of a setting Wieland Wagner used in his 1958 Bayreuth production of Lohengrin The disk in front of the amphitheater also evokes Wieland’s Wagner productions.

And Braunfels’ use of perspective at various points in his stage design recalls the use of perspective by an earlier innovative Wagner designer, Adolphe Appia.

Act II takes place on a steep staircase and the aforementioned ramp. One of the production’s few props is a chair, which, as the DVD documentary notes, is the spot on the stage where from whence power emanates.

Elsa sits on the chair toward the end of the Act 1 Vorspiel and for much of the rest of the act. Ortrud occupies the chair the beginning of Act 2, as she re-intensifies her efforts to destroy Elsa.

Zur Heeresfolg’ nach Mainz

In Act 1, Henry summons the Brabant warriors (costumed as fascist soldiers in this production) to join the rest of his army at Mainz (“Komm’ ich zur euch nun, Männer von Brabant, zur Heeresfolg’ nach Mainz euch zu entbieten”).

One of the two choruses in this production is the EuropaChorAkademie from Mainz. The German choir is joined by counterparts from the Opéra National de Lyon and the ensemble’s spirited forces blend seamlessly.

As noted in Wagneropera.net’s review of the Bayerische Staatsoper Lohengrin DVD, conductor Kent Nagano tends to elide key orchestral passages. However, when this performance took place, Nagano was the chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the ensemble plays Wagner’s challenging score without mishap.

Several excellent CD performances of Lohengrin originating in Bayreuth and elsewhere are available.  (Two of these CDs are included in Wagneropera.net’s Wagner Recommendations page.) And a couple of other noteworthy filmed performances are available on DVD.

In spite of a few drawbacks, this Opus Arte release is among the best Wagner DVDs I’ve viewed and the Blu-ray edition is worth obtaining even if you already own the originally released edition.

Solveig Kringelborn as Elsa.

See also

• Klaus Florian Vogt in Stefan Herheim's production of Lohengrin in Berlin
• Werner Herzog's Bayreuth production of Lohengrin may interest you if you are looking for a more traditional approach.
• Several versions of in fernem Land

Norway mourns massacre victims

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