Wagner always had an ambivalent relationship with the Italian bel canto. The castrato Filippo Sassaroli, a colleague of his sister Klara at the Italian opera in Dresden, occasionally showed up at Wagner's mother's house. Despite his good-naturedness, he terrified the child with his screeching laughter and strange voice and, as he describes in Mein Leben, aroused in Wagner a strong dislike of Italian singing and speaking. Having said that, the Lohengrin interpreter must be able to sing a supported pianissimo, he must master the art of mezza voce but also that of messa di voce i.e. the continuous swelling of the tone, and he must have considerable legato technique. Wagner declared legato as indispensable in Lohengrin. So in that sense, we were looking forward to the legato-conscious baritenor Michael Spyres, praised for his solid technique and his acclaimed accomplishments in the bel canto.
I have sounded the alarm many times before regarding the complete mess that modern directors make of the opera by downplaying, completely obliterating, even criticizing, all nationalist rhetoric, all military rituals (which play a leading role in the opera). What could be more beautiful than the willingness of individuals to sacrifice themselves for the community they believe in? It is the most devastating testimony to social cohesion. Fortunately, director Florent Siaud has not allowed himself to be taken in by this nonsense. There is a real king, a king who is able to judge and what he cannot grasp he leaves to the judgment of God. There are also soldiers who, in their cobalt blue uniforms, appear late nineteenth-century, and during the third act, in a state of highest military excitement, will also reach for the weapons. This time the men's chorus' many rhetorical statements do not fall on a cold stone. They can be situated within the context of the year 1848, a year also known as "the springtime of the peoples," when Europe was rocked by a wave of revolution, with citizens in dozens of cities rebelling and demanding sweeping political and social reforms. It would become a tipping point in the development of modern Western democracy and define political thinking about the nation-state and people's sovereignty. The ideas of the Enlightenment were still alive and well and intertwined with the desire to create ideal communities. That ancient Greece served as a model and reference in this regard clearly inspired Siaud because he placed his battered "Germany" in a glyptotheque, as it were (sets: Romain Fabre). The war council takes place under a monumental frieze with Pegasus horses. In the third act, we catch a glimpse of the armless Nikè of Samothrake. Otherwise, this production is very conventional and predictable.
The Swan is a constellation. Elsa and Gottfried observe it in a telescope and read about it in a book. Familiarity with the Lohengrin myth already described by Wolfram von Eschenbach may explain Elsa's unlikely confidence in the appearance of her dream knight. Elsa reveals herself here as a sister of Senta. Lohengrin appears in a hooded monk's habit. Likewise, this is how he will disappear again after his brief stay as a monk-warrior.
"Lohengrin evokes the way in which a crowd can endow itself with founding myths, for better or for worse" Siaud believes and introduces Ortrud and Telramund as scapegoats of state violence that tolerates no dissent. When both brood on their defeat by a fire pit, we see soldiers throwing some books into the basket. It is a rather timid attempt to imbue the new regime, which relies on a questioning ban, with totalitarian traits. For now, Ortrud has managed to save her grimoire from the fire. According to press comments from the premiere, it also featured three lynched men. I didn't even notice them.
The bridal chamber is a chapel with candles where a kind of hierogamy is supposed to take place, a mystical union between a deity and a mortal. Did the production restore the military rituals, in Strasbourg Gottfried is also allowed to be Führer again instead of Schützer.
Precisely because of the legato requirements, Lohengrin has often been cast with a singer of Italian training. In a newspaper report on the performance of Italian tenor Italo Campanini (Bologna, 1871), Hans von Bülow wrote : "He sings the entire last act delightfully. I have never heard his grail narration by German singers in a comparable manner". Baritenor Michael Spyres sounds best in the baritone-leaning parts of Lohengrin. That bodes well for his Bayreuth debut as Siegmund, the tenor role with the deepest tessitura within Wagner's oeuvre. Spyres enchants with his suppleness of voice, his problem-free register transitions, his velvety timbre, his exquisite diction. Throughout the third act, he is the center of attention. He delivers his personal highlight with "Im fernen Land," the coolest grail narration I have ever heard live. For "Mein lieber Schwan," he initially flees into head voice. This is interesting because of the contrast with the power passages that follow. It is here that he hits his limits. It is here that his illustrious predecessors such as Sándor Kónya, equipped with an equally noble but slightly deeper timbre, were able to achieve a more sensuous result and create greater excitement with more explosive dynamic emphases. His Walther is also reportedly in the pipeline, a role that will suit him even better than this Lohengrin.
Spyres is countered by Johanni van Oostrum's slender lyric-dramatic soprano. The voice lacks a bit of flesh and does not possess the warm glow of a radiant stove. The register transitions are not always pretty. "Es gibt ein Glück" was quite good. Josef Wagner could have articulated his Telramund with a little more bite for maximum effect. Martina Serafin can live up to much of Ortrud. There are also ugly notes but the fundamental attitude is good. Timo Riihonen does not convince across the board as King Heinrich. Sometimes he is very prominently present in the sound picture with a sonorous bass, sometimes he forgets important accents. Edwin Fardini as the Heerrufer is also a doubtful case; the idiomatic correctness of his articulation could perhaps still improve. The mixed choir of Strasbourg and Nantes (direction : Hendrik Haas/Xavier Ribes) performed very well in all major mass scenes with appropriate dynamic shading.
Aziz Shokhakimov made a better impression with this Lohengrin than he did with Pique Dame in Munich. The young maestro even elaborates when he says : "I am sure I will never conduct Lohengrin in the same way if I am asked to perform it in Strasbourg or Munich." So here he stands before the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg of which he has been music director for 3 years. Not everything is as transparent but the silky-smooth strings immediately captivate. The brass does not escape his control and continues to sound controlled until the climax of the prelude. This mastery of the brass is also characteristic of all the fanfares played from the side lodges which are built up beautifully. Especially the fanfare of the third act makes a great impression. It gains in military splendor by distributing the trumpets over the entire first balcony surrounding the audience present.
“Doesn't the disappearance of the unlikely Savior allow this city in disarray to move towards a new form of power organization? I believe that Lohengrin signals not just the affirmation of a failure, but the advent of another possible world”, Siaud writes in the program booklet. Today we see how right-wing conservatives everywhere have the wind in their sails. After the disastrous chaos into which supranational institutions and their army of useful idiots have plunged us in recent years, it seems that the nation-state and people's sovereignty will be given another chance. Perhaps proper productions of Lohengrin will soon be a possibility again!