After taking a February hiatus, the Metropolitan Opera kicked off the second half of its 2022-23 season on Sunday with a new production of Wagner's Lohengrin —and the reviews are in!
In Wagner's medieval epic, Elsa of Brabant is accused of murdering her brother. As champion to defend her honor, Elsa calls upon a mysterious knight who has appeared to her in a dream. The knight has only one rule: Elsa must never ask him his name or origin. The opera contains some of Wagner's best-known music, including the aria "In fernem Land," the rousing Act III prelude, and the famous Bridal Chorus.
The titular Knight of the Swan is played by tenor Piotr Beczala, right on the heels of his performance in the Met's New Year's production of Fedora. Elsa is played by soprano Tamara Wilson. Telramund and Ortrud, the villains conspiring against Elsa, are played respectively by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin and soprano Christne Goerke. Rounding out the principal cast are bass Günther Groissböck as King Heinrich, and baritone Brian Mulligan as the Herald. Performances run through April 1.
Read the reviews here.
Broadway World (Richard Sasanow)
Financial Times (George Grella)
New York Classical Review (Rick Perdian)
The New York Times (Zachary Woolfe)*
Parterre (Callum John Blackmore)
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Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
This new production, directed by François Girard, marks the first time Lohengrin has been seen on the Met's stage since 2006. This is Girard's third production with the Met, and third Wagner production, having previously directed new productions of Parsifal in 2013, and Der Fliegende Holländer in 2020. Parsifal, the composer's final opera, was in some sense a prequel to Lohengrin; In the medieval romances on which the operas are based, Lohengrin is Parsifal's son. Girard's production of Der Fliegende Holländer will return to the Met stage later this season.
The creative team for Lohengrin includes set and costume designer Tim Yip, lighting designer David Finn, projection designer Peter Flaherty, and choreographer Serge Bennathan.
The Met's 2022-23 season continues with revivals including Bellini's Norma, Verdi's Falstaff, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Later in the season will be the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard's Champion and new productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte, directed respectively by Ivo van Hove and Simon McBurney.
