LOHENGRIN

Lohengrin, the Mystery of the Swan and the Hardness of a Knife

In this work, Richard Wagner moves from Romanticism towards a modern musical drama about solitude and the impossibility of absolute faith. Its ethereal orchestration seems to hover above the mists of a powerful yet serene river, dissolving the rigid structures of Italian opera in favour of an unbroken musical flow. Within this sound world lies the German nationalism woven into the libretto, where the myth of Parsifal’s son becomes, above all, an exaltation of German identity and a yearning for a redemptive leader. Set against a society driven by dogma and the pursuit of the unattainable, the opera unfolds through striking visual violence that compels the audience to question both the hero’s purity and the dangers of nationalist messianism.

The visionary Damiano Michieletto once again dazzles the world with this reinterpretation of Lohengrin. His psychological treatment of the characters, in service of his inexhaustible imaginative universe, is superb. In his first Wagner production, Michieletto’s dramaturgy unfolds through scenes of extraordinary visual beauty and symbolism, overwhelming and thought-provoking alike, whether in the purity of omnipresent silver, the mystery hidden inside an egg, or the dark matter into which Elsa sinks. Sir Mark Elder also conducts his first Wagner at Les Arts, together with the heroic and brilliant voice of David Butt Philip, today's Lohengrin of reference, whom we previously discovered in Das Lied von der Erde at the Auditori. He is joined by Irish soprano Jennifer Davis as Elsa, the role that launched her career at Covent Garden, alongside two formidable Wagnerians: Wolfgang Koch, appearing at Les Arts for the first time, and Ricarda Merbeth, returning after her unforgettable Isolde.