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The Guardian, 9 December 2012 |
Martin Kettle |
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Wagner: Lohengrin, Teatro alla Scala, 7. Dezember 2012 |
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Lohengrin – review
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Claus Guth's strikingly staged production is set in an enclosed 19th-century
courtyard, and starts as though it might succeed in unlocking Wagner's
story. It tells of the mysterious swan-knight who rescues Elsa of Brabant
when she is accused of murdering her brother, before abandoning her when she
insists on knowing his identity. In Guth's conception, Elsa is always the
pivotal character of the opera, a disturbed visionary who clings to memory
(her murdered brother is often on stage), music (represented by an onstage
piano), and the Earth (embodied by trees, reeds and water). They are her
means of protection against the bourgeois political order being imposed by
the usurper, Count Telramund, and his wife, Ortrud, who literally wears the
trousers in this marriage.
But Guth's conception loses its way as the
opera evolves. That's partly owing to the portrayal of Ortrud: Wagner made
her an outsider, while Guth makes her an insider, a self-harming maiden in
uniform. But the main problem is that Guth cannot explain why Lohengrin
behaves as he does. Having arrived as a figment of Elsa's delirium – she
almost literally gives birth to him – his rejection of Elsa is made to seem
callously meaningless. It's a very fascinating try, but in the end Guth's
ideas run out of steam.
Given Elsa is central to this staging, it was
bad luck that flu removed both the much-anticipated Anja Harteros and her
replacement, Ann Petersen from proceedings. Bayreuth's current Elsa, Annette
Dasch, coped heroically with a production that she had joined with less than
24 hours notice, though her soprano lacked the body and projection that the
Scala's big stage demands. In the title role, Jonas Kaufmann was in
a class of his own, totally involved and giving a masterclass of daringly
varied, sometimes mannered, vocal technique. Evelyn Herlitzius was
tireless but not a classic Ortrud, Tómas Tómasson a very credible Telramund,
and René Pape a luxury, though he occasionally strained as King Heinrich.
Barenboim's grip on the score was not always consistent, especially towards
the end of the second act. But when it was good, it was very good indeed,
and the La Scala Orchestra and Chorus played and sang fabulously well for
him.
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