A line-up of newcomers to this 2014 Homoki revival - plus a star conductor in the pit - transpired to become an evening of surprises - not least with the cancellation of the title lead.

Piotr Beczala was scheduled to perform his first Vienna Lohengrin, but as the company’s Artist Director, Dominique Meyer explained before the curtain, the Polish tenor had succumbed to an acute case of influenza. By good fortune Klaus Florian Vogt (who sang Lohengrin in the original run) was in Bayreuth - and available. However, due to weather conditions, he was unable to fly and subsequently actually drove from Bavaria to Vienna to save the performance.

Vogt’s idiosyncratic instrument and vocal production rather suit the character and score, facilitating passages of awkward tessitura with the lightest of timbre and ease, while able to expand considerably upon demand - and with seemingly unlimited stamina. Since the original series, Vogt’s instrument has gained in useful metal and thrust, with only the occasional phrase requiring an additional intake of breath at times. In all, a fine showing which won top appreciation from the house.

Undertaking Elsa for the first time in her career (as well as giving her Vienna debut), Cornelia Beskow scored a deserved hit with her artless stage demeanour, winning appearance, and a well-projected lyric soprano spiked with dramatic nuance. While some passages above the stave seemed occasionally tenuous and shrill under pressure, the Swedish soprano’s clear attributes certainly hold significant promise for a bright and exciting future.  

Linda Watson debuted at the State Opera in 1986 - the year in which Cornelia Beskow was actually born. Her illustrious career has included a line-up of the most challenging roles for dramatic soprano, and here as the villainous Ortrud she unfolded her well-earned stagecraft like a prime poker player, actually dominating the 1st Act before uttering a single tone with astutely-calculated pose and gesture - rigid-shouldered and tight-lipped.   She husbands her yet considerable vocal resources with equal skill - often drawing the spectator in with sotto voce phrases which contrast to dramatic effect with voluminous outbursts still echoing the Brünnhildes of earlier days. This was the American singer’s first Ortrud at the State Opera. She is to be honoured later in this series with the title of Austrian Kammersängerin.

Her Telramund, Egils Siliņš, seemed a notch small-scaled in Act 1, but rose well to the task as the evening proceeded - indeed, almost kindling a sliver of sympathy in his well-reflected showing of this so-unappealing character. If not particularly weighty, his high-lying baritone rode Wagner’s lines with searing brilliance and impact - as yet a further member of the cast enjoying a successful trial at new repertoire in the house.

Nicely characterised as the local Dignitary in this updated Bavarian setting of Lederhosen and feathered hats, Ain Anger’s Heinrich was monumental in all respects. His cavernous basso profondo extends with consummate ease to crown the role’s testing heights in a performance of the finest calibre.

Strong showings too by Boaz Daniel as the Heerrufer, as well as by the company chorus - but the true revelation of the evening was Valery Gergiev’s reading from the pit. Dynamic, imaginative, and masterful in co-ordination, the resulting spectrum of nuance and emotion was immense in dimension and architecture - while remaining taut and understated (indeed, mirroring a similar vein evident in his Simon Boccanegra at Salzburg last Summer).