This fantastic DVD captures one of the most auspicious operatic
debuts of 2009, Jonas Kaufmann’s Lohengrin. We have here
a record of that rarest of things: a night at the opera when
everything worked. The singing is outstanding across the board,
the excellent orchestral playing is guided by a conductor of
vision and excitement and the production is insightful, stimulating
and intelligent.
Let’s begin with the production which is a radical re-envisioning
of the work, so traditionalists need not apply. Jones strips
the work of any of its conventional trappings: there is not
a hint of 10th Century Brabant, there are no knights
in armour and there is a swan but no boat. When the curtain
rises we see Elsa designing a house, the symbol of her dreams
for the future, and the house is the key metaphor of the staging.
She builds it through Act 1, it is completed during the wedding
ceremony of Act 2 and, as a final deed of sorrow after she asks
the forbidden question, Lohengrin torches it in Act 3. The society
in which Elsa exists has all the trappings of a totalitarian
state: the Herald is the voice of the law, his announcements
are broadcast on TV screens making comparisons with 1984,
though the costumes are not a million miles away from Germany
in the 1930s. Lohengrin’s status as an outsider is reinforced
by his costume (a blue t-shirt amongst starchy Brabantine uniforms)
which is then adopted by everyone else. Ortrud, an outsider
just like Lohengrin, wears a dyed blond, echt-Aryan wig
as an attempt to fit in and she destroys everything about this
world in the process.
I could say more, but I don’t want to deprive any reader of
the pleasure of deciphering this piece of musical theatre for
yourself. Suffice to say that Richard Jones’ eye for detail
is apparent everywhere, from Elsa’s blithe naivety of the opening
scene through to the deeply sad dénouement and Gottfried’s reappearance.
Unlike so many modern reinterpretations of opera this one has
a sense of direction and trajectory where nothing has been left
to chance, and there is a real sense of purpose to what you
are seeing. As I said before, traditionalists will not be happy,
but to anyone else open to the challenge this production will
repay plenty of repeated viewings with intellectual satisfaction
as well as dramatic pleasure.
All of this would be valuable in itself, but it is merely the
apparatus for some top-notch Wagner singing which would hold
its own in this or any age. At the centre of it all stands the
extraordinary Lohengrin of Kaufmann. He has already recorded
In Fernem Land for his German
recital disc and this confirms the potential of that teaser.
His dark, baritonal voice has been remarked on often but it
makes him marvellously well suited to suffering heroes like
this. The sheer beauty of sound is so unique that after a while
you take it for granted, but allied to this beauty is marvellous
musicianship which invests every scene with a sense of urgency
and purpose. In fernem Land is the most famous – but
by no means the only – example of this, beginning pianissimo
and gradually building in a great arc to the revelation of his
name. His off-stage opening address to the swan is heart-stoppingly
beautiful and he achieves singing of heroic levels in the declamations
of Act 2. In his scenes with Elsa, however, he makes himself
vulnerable and aggrieved so that his human side is brought to
the fore, something underlined by Jones’ production. The colour
of his voice and the strength of his acting quickly brought
to mind performances by great predecessors like Ramón Vinay,
but I don’t think it’s stretching things too far to mention
Lauritz Melchior’s Lohengrin for comparison. His contribution
sets this DVD apart as something special, but he is accompanied
by an Elsa every bit as fine in Anja Harteros. Her voice has
the quality of innocence necessary for the character but there
is extraordinary beauty to her assumption. Einsam in truben
tagen is a little slow to take off but her vision of the
knight is utterly convincing and her address to the breezes
in Act 2 is divine in its airy purity. She also darkens her
voice for the Act 3 duet so that Elsa’s persistent mania becomes
all the more tragic (and thus she is all the more culpable in
it). The effortlessness of her assumption, together with its
beauty, marks her out as special, already fully inside the role
and making a debut every bit as auspicious as Kaufmann’s.
With two such extraordinary leads this set is already a winner
but the supporting roles are cast from equal strength. Koch’s
Telramund is a man unhinged, utterly convinced by his own rightness
in Act 1 and, in the latter sections of Act 2, possessed by
incredible zeal in his determination to take on the mysterious
stranger. Schuster’s Ortrud, looking suitably awkward under
her platinum blonde wig, is compelling without being histrionic
and she summons up reserves of convincing power for Entweite
Götter, smearing herself in bestial war paint as she does
so. I have never heard as young a king as Christof Fischesser,
but this is effective in its own way, making Heinrich seem almost
out of his depth in the situation he has discovered in Brabant.
Either way Fischesser sings with remarkable beauty throughout,
making the king’s music come alive in a way I have seldom heard.
Nikitin’s herald is entirely musical too, no blustering but
valuing the role for its musical as well as structural value.
Nagano’s control in the pit made me a little nervous in the
prelude which, to my ears, took a while to settle down, but
once the action began he commanded a purposeful, neatly architectural
view of this great score, with an eye to the long view and well
prepared climaxes coming with the correct degree of power, especially
in the transition music of Act 3. The DVD picture quality is
good and, mercifully, very intelligently filmed with camera
angles and takes that in no way distract and even a few well
chosen shots from behind the proscenium which reveal the action
in a way the house audience could not have appreciated. Sound
quality is good too, though a little too focused on the central
speaker.
All told, then, this DVD is a triumph and, for me, jumps straight
to the top of the list of recommendable Lohengrins. Abbado
has Domingo, though it’s only in 2.0 stereo so you might as
well go to either of their CDs as the production is fairly plain.
Traditionalists will be happy with the solidly 10th-Century
production from the Met on DG, though I thought it just looked
daft and the singing is variable, though the conducting is thrilling.
The two available Bayreuth DVDs are both effective though, for
me, Schneider’s performance beats Nelsson’s due to the strength
of Herzog’s production and the finer singing. But it’s Kaufmann
and Harteros that I’ll be returning to for the marvellous singing
and intelligent stagecraft which reinforce the infinite depth
of Wagner’s great dramas in which each generation can find something
new.
Simon Thompson
See also Seen&Heard
review of the stage production
Chorus and Orchestra of the Bayerische Staatsoper/Kent Nagano 
[207:00] 
