Lohengrin is set by Wagner within the context of an impending war situation. Unfortunately, for our directors who so easily confuse nationalism with imperialism, certain manifestations of war are taboo. Do they fear being drawn into the composer's morally indefensible quagmire? Heinrich der Vogler became famous as the unifier of the Germanic states of his time. Unfortunately, he was also one of Adolf Hitler's idols. And so most directors trying to stage Lohengrin today don't know what to do with Heinrich. By sweeping the war rhetoric and the expression of national consciousness in Lohengrin under the rug, they may think they are morally elevating themselves above the composer's intentions. It is a combination of cowardice and hypocrisy, and it leads time and again to artistic mishaps. Such is the case in Paris where director Kirill Serebrennikov burdens Lohengrin with the outlines of a postmodern pacifist manifesto.
Violent conflict is inseparable from the condition humaine. UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter puts it this way : "I believe both in the necessity of war and, frankly, in its inevitability. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ignorant of the human condition. I believe that any society worth defending must be prepared to go to war in legitimate self-defense." And that is exactly what King Heinrich is doing on this morning on the banks of the Scheldt when he informs his nobles and the people of the impending danger from Hungary. No one should feel uncomfortable doing so, even if there are banners all around and the nationalist rhetoric resounds as intended by Wagner.
"Wagner did not have the same idea of war and its consequences as we who lived through World War I and World War II. Perhaps he romanticized the idea of conflict and helped create romantic heroism", Serebrennikov says. This is certainly true and, contrary to what the director seems to suggest, there is nothing wrong with that either. Serebrennikov too confuses nationalism with the morally reprehensible imperialism. Who did he have in mind when the production came about two years ago? Probably not the deranged ultra-nationalists of Kiev who are still found willing to fight America's unwinnable proxy war in Ukraine.
The images that Serebrennikov shot (video: Alan Mandelshtam) to accompany the prelude -a tracking shot such as you rarely see in the context of an opera performance- appeal to the imagination like a Tarkovsky movie. Here the cinematographer is asserting himself. At the same time, Alexander Soddy makes the prelude blossom powerfully toward the climax with the brass, while the video wall shows a naked young soldier in a state of supreme purity, diving into a lake, the back tattooed with wings. Such synergy between the visuals and Wagner's score will rarely be achieved in this production again.
But to understand the performance you must have read the program booklet in which dramatist Daniil Orlov labels the three acts as : delusion - reality - war. We then understand that the young man is Gottfried and that Elsa has lost her brother in a violent, never ending war. She has never overcome this loss and is slowly sinking into madness. Her savior Lohengrin is nothing more than an imaginary being conceived by her sick mind. The couple of doctors, Ortrud and Telramund, run the clinic where Elsa is treated. They try to limit the psychological damage from the war raging in the background. It is a dystopian vision that, while fascinating, soon becomes tiresome because it rarely supports the emotional charge of Wagner's music.
Elsa has several doubles. One dancer expresses her mental health in a playful way. Another presents herself naked before the tribunal and goes for minutes with a comb through her hair. Elsa also produces strange headgear made of metal wires -vague symbols of traumata - which she places on Ortrud's head, bringing the performance into the clinical sphere. The arrival of the swan knight is presented most poetically. Lohengrin appears as a simple soldier in camouflage suit in the glare of a blinding light source, while two dancers with swan wings accompany his entry, immediately fraternizing with Elsa's doubles. All the fanfares are played from the auditorium, performed in a rather adolescent manner on stage by four servants wearing black bulbous headgear. The duel is a doltish choreography with neon lights. Needless to say, the king is given no profile in this view.
While the first act was able to create a mental space for Elsa's madness without compromising the poetic and magical elements of the libretto, things become more problematic with the second act. Ortrud and Telramund are the only ones opposed to the war. In this they enjoy the director's sympathy. In other words : they are given insufficient profile as schemers; their duet becomes quasi pointless and therefore quite boring. "Entweihte Götter" Ortrud sings in the presence of Elsa. "Es gibt ein Gluck" does not come off well either. The subsequent orchestral interlude, on the other hand, does because by now it is clear that Soddy knows how to inspire the orchestra of the Paris Opera to a great Wagner evening.
Telramund's brief monologue ("So zieht das Unheil in dies Haus") in front of the closed curtain, serves to mask a scene change. After that, things go awry. Three spaces present themselves: on the left a soldiers' canteen, in the middle beds with wounded soldiers, on the right body bags are dragged. During the procession to the cathedral, we see grieving widows visiting the moratorium (!). In the finale, we see the naked bodies of soldiers rising from the body bags. It is all part of Elsa's hallucinations, of her dealings with the demons in her nightmares.
The prelude to the third act portrays the horror at the battle front. You can easily project Bakhmut's pointless meat grinder onto it. "Treulich geführt" is intended for the couples among the soldiers who still want to get married and are posing in front of a tapestry with swans for the wedding photo. Meanwhile, all ideas have run out and the bridal chamber scene is rather conventional. The newly wed smoke a cigarette, and because Sinead Campbell Wallace, the Elsa of duty, is now suddenly singing very well while her delivery throughout the rest of the evening was marked by a tired vibrato, "Das süsse Lied verhallt" and "Höchstes Vertrauen" can easily become the vocal highlights of the evening. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that Gottfried, the new "Schützer" von Brabant, will rise from a body bag during the final measures.
Kwangchul Youn, a small man with no natural authority is a size too small for King Heinrich. He also pays little attention to the German consonants. I never understood why he was invited to Bayreuth so often.
Klaus Florian Vogt replaced the ailing Piotr Beczala as Lohengrin. Even though his so-called "boy's voice" does not possess the baritonal timbre of the true heldentenor, again and again you are amazed by the laser-like projecting quality of the voice. And there is still no wear on it. Some piano passages were highly intelligible. How he makes "Heil dir, Elsa!" emerge from nowhere to introduce the crescendo of the final chorus of the second act was kind of breathtaking.
Wolfgang Koch could create some exciting moments interpretatively but the voice really does not project enough. As a result, listening to his Telramund never became a sensual experience. Nina Stemme also did not make a great impression as Ortrud. Ortrud is a recent debut. Will she now start singing mezzo roles? Her performance was most balanced in the quarrel duet with Elsa.
Shenyang sounded routinely as Heerrufer, his delivery being anchored too little in the German idiom.
Ching-Lien Wu did wonders with the chorus in Amsterdam. Here she does the same. All the scenes with the chorus were overwhelming. On the basis of what the orchestra managed to pull off here, Alexander Soddy will certainly return to La Grande Boutique for other pieces from the great repertoire.
Watch the show on oct. 24 via the streaming platform van de Opéra National de Paris.