"Lohengrin" by Richard Wagner to the Gran Teatre del Liceu

At the Gran Teatre del Liceu, you can see Lohengrin by Richard Wagner in a new production by the Liceu signed by Katharina Wagner.

Lohengrin is a Romantische Oper in three acts with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. It premiered on August 28, 1850 at the Grobherzogliches Hoftheater in Weimar. In Barcelona, it premiered at the Teatre Principal in 1882 and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 1883. It has been performed 242 times at the Liceu, the last one in 2012.

Elsa, accused of killing her brother, the heir of the duchy of Brabant, in her tribulations demands justice and to be defended by a man whom she has only seen in her dreams. In pursuit of this ideal, against all odds, he appears led by a swan, and accepts the challenge, but with the condition that she never asks him about his origin or his name.

Chronologically, Lohengrin is at the center of Richard Wagner's career, both thematically and artistically. Wagner was 37 when he placed the final double bar of Lohengrin: a romantic opera with highly magnetic music. The libretto, harvested from his own sources, is a personal and romantic reimagining of a medieval legend. Based on a series of sources: the anonymous Germanic epic of the 13th century Lohengrin and the romance Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach (1160-1220), Wagner addresses themes ranging from the spiritual (the role of divine fate in human lives) to the political (construction of the concept of nation in times of transition and migration), passing through the deeply personal (the centrality of the mystery of erotic attraction).

For this broad convergence of subjects, the composer himself creates a colossal score, impressive in its richness of themes and textures, theatrically very effective, which has been considered the best gateway to his work and also the work that represents the first steps in his concept of musical drama: leitmotifs, more sumptuous orchestra...

Supreme achievement of Romanticism: it includes the most ethereal music of Wagner himself (the Prelude, Elsa's dream, and Lohengrin's final narration). In opposition to these passages, we find music with a military character such as the fanfares of acts I and III, the wedding celebration music, and the invocation of the pagan gods by Ortrud. The chorus expresses emotions ranging from the expression of hope to the deepest human fears. Lohengrin is, therefore, an allegory of the birth of a community consciousness of awakening and hope.

Wagner's massive masterpiece triumphantly returns to the stage of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in a new production signed by Katharina Wagner (the composer's granddaughter and director of the Bayreuth Festival). It must have been a highly anticipated debut in Barcelona, especially considering that it was the first title to be canceled when the world entered a pandemic. With this symbolic opera ? also the first of the German composer to premiere in Barcelona in 1882 ? Katharina Wagner reveals an atmospheric staging, with a stimulating visual style, a sharp dramatic vision, and a surprising dramaturgical concept.

A winter landscape. Three contrasting worlds in suspended cubes in the air. And, in the center, the hero with an unknown origin and with a unique destiny: to save the helpless, victims of injustice. Like Elsa, destined to be the wife of the knight from Montsalvat. Revealing his identity will bring down the men of Brabant, despite the emergence of a new order.

With musical director Josep Pons at the helm to lead an excellent cast that includes: Klaus Florian Vogt, one of the most acclaimed tenors in the world specializing in the Wagnerian repertoire in the lead role of the mysterious Swan Knight; Elisabeth Teige, a true queen of the Bayreuth Festival with roles like Sieglinde, Elisabeth, or Senta, and here, the duchess Elsa, falsely accused of murder, and Irene Theorin, who after successful appearances at the Liceu as Isolde, Turandot... now returns as the cunning Ortrud.

After successes with Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal, Josep Pons once again faces from the pit an opera by Richard Wagner.