A dialectically incisive interpretation of Wagner’s « Lohengrin »
Jürgen Otten, Opern Welt
This co-production with the Opéra national de Lyon brings the work into the modern world and breaks with the eternal aura of this sacred classic.
Patrick Erb, Concerti De
The phrase is powerful: ‘Woe betide the country that has no heroes. – Woe betide the country that needs heroes.’ This is what Bertolt Brecht once noted, and it could also be the title of Richard Brunel’s production of *Lohengrin*.
Jürgen Otten, Opern Welt
The team lead by Richard Brunel highlights the importance of the subject matter, which explores King Henry’s military ambitions – as well as the personal tragedies of the characters behind them. The question of whether the myth of a redemptive figure is merely a vision of Elsa’s stays open.
Ulrike Kolter, Die Deutsche Bühne
That evening, Richard Brunel and his team achieved the feat of integrating Wagnerian remythologisation into powerful imagery, which preserves the magic of the work whilst transforming it into a crystallised, timeless commentary on the precarious state of our world. In this world, the eponymous ‘hero’ can be neither an ‘angel’, nor a ‘shield’, nor a ‘saviour’. Richard Brunel presents him as a divided character.
Jürgen Otten, Opern Welt
For director Richard Brunel, this is his first staging of a Wagner opera. Together with his team, some of whom are French, he creates a minimalist aesthetic, characterised by stark contrasts between black and white.
Agnes Bührig, NDR Kultur
This approach results in an extremely precise staging, which presents the plot, the preceding events and the historical context to each member of the audience in the clearest possible way.
Achim Dombrowski, Opera Online
Richard Brunel’s radical interpretation is based on this fundamental idea : it presents an interweaving of two world. On the one hand, the (clearly) political world; on the other, the private world, made up of numerous irreparable relational threads.
Jürgen Otten, Opern Welt
Richard Brunel has devised a concept with subtle choreography. With cold realism and fatalistic symbolism, he draws the eye to the coming catastrophe.
Patrick Erb, Concerti De
To mark the opening of the season, the Hanover State Opera presents a ‘Lohengrin’ that is a great achievement, both onstage and as a musical production.
Ulrike Kolter, Die Deutsche Bühne
There is something for everyone: experienced Wagner fans are reminded of the historical setting of the plot, whilst younger audience members discover, through a highly accessible form of cultural entertainment, everything there is to learn from the imagery of the main plot.
Achim Dombrowski, Opera Online
The director of this ‘Lohengrin’, Richard Brunel, is also general manager of the Opéra national de Lyon, with whom this visually striking co-production was realised by a predominantly French team that places at the heart of their timeless interpretation the conflict between the political sphere and private life, between the reality of war and escape into dreams.
Ulrike Kolter, Die Deutsche Bühne
For the tenor Maximilian Schmitt, there is a distinctly French touch to it: ‘You can really sense that there’s a different aesthetic in the background. It’s a little softer, a little less provocative than in some German productions. For me, as a singer, it’s almost more enjoyable, as it’s more in line with my approach to opera. I like it when it’s beautiful.”
Agnes Bührig, NDR Kultur
Lohengrin
Richard Wagner
A Romantic opera in three acts and four scenes
Libretto by the composer – 1850
Music Director Stephan Zilias
Director Richard Brunel
Artistic collaborator Catherine Ailloud Nicolas
Set designer Anouk del’Aiera
Costume designer Nathalie Pallandre
Lighting designer Laurent Castaingt / Andreas Schmidt
Chorus master Lorenzo Da Rio
Dramaturgy Ann-Christine Mecke
Assistant director Yulia Kicheva
Cast
Shavleg Armasi
Eric Laporte / Maximilian Schmidt
Clara Nadeshdin
Grga Peroš
Ewa Vesin
Peter Schöne / Juhyeon Kim
Orchestra, choir and additional choir of the Lower Saxony State Theatre, Hanover
A production by the Hanover State Opera – Co-production by the Lyon Opera