Countless criteria can be considered to judge whether an operatic performance has been successful (or not). One of the most important – and most rarely achieved – is the ability to bring forth the music as a co-narrator: upon listening, the text becomes less (or even completely) indispensable for understanding the story the composer and librettist intended to tell. Not everything is conveyed verbally (especially in Wagner’s work). Not everything is graspable through the artists’ bodily expressions. And when what we listen to, and when the quality of what we hear, allows us to better understand the narrative and the intentions of the staging, the box is ticked.

On this precise point, and many others, the Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper Berlin is a true success. Firstly, the orchestra pit, masterfully handled with the utmost finesse by Constantin Trinks. With a measured tempo that grants access to a multitude of colours and textures, the conductor, a perfect alchemist of sounds, brings out the best that can be produced by the Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, adjusting and shaping the play of intensities like a potter moulding the material to create his work. The staging, directed by Kasper Holten, is very understated but with effective markers, helping to recreate the expected environment in the context of the piece. It can be projected to a distant era, yet the parallels with current events are so striking (and inevitable) that it can easily be situated in the contemporary world.

Attilio Glaser, imbued with the greatest humility, while maintaining a stance that ensures perfect projection of his inexhaustible vocal resources and extraordinary intelligibility of the text, is the centre of gravity of this fabulous performance: it is towards him that our gaze turns and fixes as soon as he appears on stage, and it is through him that moments of pure lyricism fill the hall. Alongside her, Flurina Stucki portrays an Elsa profoundly human, with a breadth and intensity worthy of the most enthusiastic applause.

What a delightful discovery are the performances of Martin Gantner (Telramund) and Miina-Liisa Värelä (Ortrud) ! He is the quintessential Wagnerian baritone, with sharp diction and stage intelligence, an intimacy with the text he delivers as if a supernatural inspiration pours forth the words of a Telramund in every way exemplary. She is the embodiment of perfidy, dark in all her registers, a true pagan priestess who leaves behind a trail of misfortune. Finally, let us add the outstanding and equally exceptional performances of the excellent Dean Murphy and Byung Gil Kim, absolutely flawless from start to finish, contributing to maintaining the very high level of the performance.

Thus, the major achievement of this production lies in its ability to construct, both musically and theatrically, the fundamentally romantic universe of a very distinctive work from the Wagnerian repertoire, itself situated at the crossroads between his early works and his later creations. May other equally accomplished productions be reserved for us during the next operatic season of this great opera house that is the Deutsche Oper Berlin!

Vinicius | 23 April 2025

Kasper Holten’s production of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin is back at Deutsche Oper Berlin for another revival. When I saw it more than 10 years ago shortly after the premiere, I wasn’t able to make head or tail of it. This has hardly changed even though it seems worryingly forward-looking in view of the current events in Europe or the Middle East. Preludes to Wagner operas are musical quintessences that can stand very well on their own and do not need to be directed. The following opera is scenically long enough for this. It is also unwise to tell a plot from behind when everyone is already dead, so that the crew trudge through asphalt-grey underworlds with gunshot wounds to the heart and gauze bandages around their skulls. It is even worse when the prelude is garnished with a meanwhile reduced veristic scream from a female chorus member. War is, of course, a subject that needs to be told with more plausible ideas and more psychology, and less standing around and silent gestures such as pats on the back, nods or shakes of the head, consistently and not in passing. The director has as good as shot his powder with the prelude. If you add Steffen Aarfing’s dark stage and grey costumes and subtract Holten’s almost absent direction of the characters, you will get a gloomy evening of opera that casts Lohengrin in an even brighter light. The hero is extremely well lit by Jesper Kongshaug, often surrounded by an aura of light. This makes him stand out even better in contrast to the poor lighting of the others. Did the manipulator Lohengrin stage the unfavourable light for the others? Conceivable. That would be kind of ingenious, but it would be a bit of a stretch. The audience may very easily fall for Lohengrin’s pretence instead. It is only at the very end or afterwards that you really realise what game the politician and man of power Lohengrin is playing here. Holten wants to show the seductiveness of man in a highly impressive and lasting way to wonder if the Swan Knight is playing a false game but he gets stuck with the idea. In the world Lohengrin ends up in, everything is too late anyway. Little Gottfried, whose disappearance sets the whole plot in motion, eventually returns to Brabant as a child’s corpse. War is war and heroes are of little help. Is the self-staged hero himself to blame for the carnage? A question that ultimately remains unanswered. Unfortunately, Holten’s production boils down to symbols and mere ideas. The musical side, however, is outstanding on the last evening of the three revivals. The Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin once again proves itself to be a competent custodian of Wagner’s music, which conductor Constantin Trinks develops slowly and even expands with ethereal flair, giving space to the big moments as well as the subtle little ones, entirely in the spirit of the master, whose handwritten words the great Berlin Wagner heroine Frida Leider still found at her debut in Bayreuth in 1928: ‘The big notes come by themselves; the small notes and their text are the main thing’. Trinks is a conductor of the old school in the best sense of the word, not letting the singers drown in the floods of sound, so that they are always audible and extremely clear. The Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin, rehearsed by chorus master Jeremy Bines, does its level best performing the many tuttis with conviction and impressive power and allowing pianissimo passages such as Wie fasst uns selig süsses Grauen! after Lohengrin’s arrival to float in unearthly tenderness and beauty. I admit that I wanted to see the performance not only to experience the opera on stage again, but also to hear the up-and-coming Attilio Glaser from the ensemble in the title role. Although announced as indisposed, he surprises all along the line with an impeccable legato, an easy vocal emission and a clarity of text that is rarely found nowadays and I have to admit that his timbre reminds me a little of Fritz Wunderlich’s. Flurina Stucki is also part of the ensemble and sings a somewhat mature Elsa with great text comprehension as well, and with a reliably clear, if not always flattering tone. Miina Liisa Värelä has stood in at very short notice for Nina Stemme as Ortrud. She makes the stage shake with her brilliant, highly dramatic soprano and leaves no doubt as to who is pulling the mysterious strings. Martin Gantner sings Telramund convincingly with his bright-voiced character baritone. Byung Gil Kim as King Heinrich der Vogler captivates with the marvellous tones of his sonorous bass and is able to master the sometimes high tessitura very well. Dean Murphy sings the King’s Herald with a fresh baritone. All in all, a Lohengrin of musical delight, a highlight at Easter!

Lutz Nalepa | 24 Aprile 2025