Germanic paganism mixed with some Early Middle Age Christianity and a splash of Greek tragedy is the recipe for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/30 3:00 p.m.) and the Bayreuth Festival’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin.”
The son of King Parsifal, Lohengrin (Piotr Beczale) is sent by God to protect Elsa of Brabant (Eliza van den Heever), who has been falsely accused of the murder of her brother, and to unite the people of Brabant. His one condition is that Elsa never asks his name or where he has come from. If she does, he will be forced to leave her.
She does.He does, and several people die.
However, Elsa’s brother, who was actually turned into a swan by the evil Telramund (Olafur Siguroarson), regains his human form when Telramund dies, and he takes the throne to lead the people of Brabant..
You’ll also hear Miina-Liisa Varela as Otrud, Andreas Bauer Kanabas as Heinrich, and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as the King’s Herald.Christian Thielemann conducts the Bayreuth Chorus and Orchestra.
In the time we have together after the opera, we’ll turn to music of Rimsky-Korsakov for a bit of fantasy in his Skazka (Fairy Tale) and a performance featuring the Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by Igor Golovchin.
