Review – Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in Salzburg: Thielemann’s last Easter Festival | News and criticism | BR CLASSIC
Review – Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in Salzburg
Thielemann’s last Easter Festival
April 10, 2022 by Bernhard Neuhoff
It’s his farewell: On Saturday, Christian Thielemann conducted a premiere for the last time as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival. Wagner, of course, to match Thielemann’s core brand. The directing team, on the other hand, is less typical of the Easter Festival, where they have been very conservative so far – after all, the tickets are extremely expensive and there is hardly any government funding. Whether the directors Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito have met the taste of the traditional clientele?
Es gibt zwei Sorten von Krimis: Bei der einen weiß man nicht, wer’s war. Auf Englisch heißen die: “Whodunnit”. Bei der anderen Sorte weiß der Zuschauer von Anfang an, wer das Verbrechen begangen hat; die Frage ist, wie’s rauskommt. Im Englischen heißen solche Krimis: “Howcatchem”. Bei dieser Sorte ist es naturgemäß ein bisschen schwieriger, die Spannung zu halten. Genau daran versuchen sich die Regisseure Jossi Wieler und Sergio Morabito.
“Lohengrin” in Salzburg – Krimi-Kammerspiel oder Breitwandepos?
Zu den überirdischen Streicherklängen der Ouvertüre treibt sich Elsa einsam an einer riesigen, düsteren Hafenanlage herum. Ist es ein Wehr zur Regulierung der Flut, eine Mole oder eine Industrieanlage vom Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts? Jedenfalls hat Bühnenbildnerin Anna Viebrock mal wieder einen poetisch-monströsen Raum geschaffen mit starker, beklemmender Atmosphäre. Hier fischt Elsa, sich schuldbewusst umsehend, eine Perücke aus dem Wasser. Damit ist von Anfang an klar: Sie war’s, sie hat ihren Bruder Gottfried ermordet.
Bilder der Inszenierung
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Elsa is not unobserved. Her opponent Ortrud is standing on the pier. She has seen everything. Something could have come of it – a duel between two strong women who use their men as tools. But there is one more detail in this mammoth fairy tale opera: the chorus. Wagner’s Lohengrin is not a criminal chamber play, but a wide-screen epic about power and mass psychology. It’s about leaders and the seduced, dull popular feelings and manipulation through overpowering.
The director team Wieler & Morabito gets bogged down
So the directors put a second genre over the thriller: the history ham. Soldiers from the First World War with helmets and knapsacks populate the huge pier, the king wears a field gray general’s uniform. This is partly illustrated very effectively in the mass scenes, with many choreographic details. But from then on the production lurches back and forth between crime thriller and historical drama. And gets bogged down.
Times and codes just tumble in confusion: graffiti and automatic rifles from the present, top hats and knickerbockers from the early 20th century. Lohengrin is a slightly chubby and rather vain fantasy knight with an archaic giant sword and impressive head of hair. He could have escaped from “Game of Thrones” if he wasn’t wearing those sparkling silver shoes that were so spacey. The wedding procession is then again a kind of pre-fascist folk festival and the bridal chamber is a mobile bed in the harbor pier: is that supposed to be ironic? A bit of everything. A bit of a thriller, a bit of a history lesson, a lot of directing tinkering and lots of loose ends. At the end of this indecisive patchwork, Elsa pulls the man her murdered Gottfried out of the underground: There she stands, the creepy drowned corpse. We already knew who it was, and how that turns out is unfortunately not very exciting.
Strong Lohengrin, weak Elsa
At least the musical side succeeds quite decently, if not overwhelmingly. Eric Cutler is a stronger Lohengrin. He masters this rather murderous game with aplomb, power and lyricism are well balanced. It’s more difficult with Jacqulyn Wagner’s Elsa. She’s a great performer, a manipulative, charismatic criminal. And in the quiet passages, she also convinces vocally. But whenever she has to fill the room, she simply lacks the volume, then her soprano voice becomes narrow and thin, a little too light. Elena Pankratova’s Ortrud has energy and colour. With the strongest vocal performance of the evening, Martin Gantner convinces as Telramund: he comes across emotionally the most, a desperate villain who clenches his fist in his pocket.
Cheers for Thielemann, boos for the wrong people
Conductor Christian Thielemann, the outgoing Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, was applauded by the audience. | Image source: OFS/Matthias Creutziger
Conductor Christian Thielemann goes to extremes with relish: barely audible pianissimo alternates with suggestive tonal power. Sometimes he compresses and stretches time, then he pushes the musical drama forward with enthusiasm. The Sächsische Staatskapelle has a dark, yet slender sound that never overwhelms the singers, you can really understand the text surprisingly well. The festival audience applauds Thielemann demonstratively – his fans would obviously have liked to keep him as artistic director of the Easter Festival. Tragically, angry boos are then received by the three choir directors, who actually did a good job, but are mistaken for the directing team by many outraged viewers. Somehow this evening just doesn’t go smoothly.
Broadcast: “Allegro” on April 11, 2022 from 6:05 p.m on BR-CLASSIC