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Tonight’s Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera, with Günther Groissböck as King Heinrich, Tamara Wilson as Elsa, Christine Goerke as Ortrud, Piotr Beczala as Lohengrin, and Thomas Hall, making his Met debut as Telramund, for Evgeny Nikitin, whom I hope wasn’t conscripted.
This is a disappointing production from Girard, esp. after his magnificent 2013 Parsifal, and despite it’s modern projections of celestial nonsense, is a surprisingly old-fashioned production, with banks of choristers standing about, and static scenes of the principle voices, reminiscent of park and bark productions from the 50’s or 60’s. But musically, this is a lavish, magnificent affair, with gorgeous singing from virtually all concerned. Christine Goerke has a formidable soaring vital presence here, and also Mezzo-like chest tones. Piotr Bezcala is remarkable in his first Wagnerian role, with a gorgeous, and tireless presence. Tamara Wilson is not particularly an attractive stage presence, but vocally, she’s a memorably good Elsa. The chorus is simply magnificent here, despite having to manipulate their absurd color-coded costumes (white, make a guess, for the goodies, red for the baddies, etc.!) The brass section of the orchestra is fabulous, as was Yannick’s pace and quality. So, there’s gorgeous musicality here, and well-worth seeing, despite the unfortunate production.
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