Here are a few photos from Die Welt's review of Saturday night's Lohengrin premiere in Berlin (summary - Manuel Brug found the production confused and generally disappointing) and some more Staatsoper rehearsal shots. (Some earlier ones here).
Below those are a whole load more that I took at the curtain call.
The end of the Vorspiel - a silent Elsa (Dorothea Roschmann) appears with a dove projected behind. It flies up and away - a Parsifal reference:
Act I - the workers of the three Berlin opera companies unite:
Lohengrin (Klaus Florian Vogt) appears. Elsa whips off her clothes to reveal, like the rest of the cast, she's wearing a wood-grained body stocking. "I love you" sings Lohengrin before swiftly covering her with his cloak. The chorus shiver jealously:
Ortrud and Telramund (Michaela Schuster and Gerd Grochowski):
I yam the White Goddess! Ortrud (MIchaela Schuster) plots her revenge in Act II. A shadowy tree grows behind her:
Act II - Richard Wagner lookalikes control human marionettes:
The puppets turn the tables and the sticks become weapons of jeebus. A bit of a Ken Russell moment:
The second act sees the chorus all dressed as Richard Wagner. But without pants:
The bridal bed. Elsa is clearly up for it, but Lohengrin keeps going on about the perfumed night, etc. The conflict is subtly drawn:
Elsa regrets her impertinent question but it's too late:
The final curtain - Klaus Florian Vogt and Daniel Barenboim:
MORE MORE MORE over the page..................
And now we're at the curtain calls.
The end of Act I:
And a close up on those bodystockings:
The show started at 4, so many in the audience spent the first interval outside in glorious spring sunshine:
And here's the end of Act II, with its flat scenery and trad costuming. A reference to traditional productions generally, or Die Meistersinger in particular? I couldn't decide. Lohengrin has changed his minidress for some reason - was the first one not preposterous enough?:
And now, the final curtain. Everyone back in modern dress apart from Lohengrin. Some people I talked to believed Elsa's 'modern' look rather unsubtly referenced Kirsten Harms, Intendantin of the Deutsche Oper down the road, and desperately in need of a knight in shining armour ever since widespread criticism for pulling a potentially controversial production of Idomeneo :
Kwangchul Youn, the sturdy Heinrich, with Dorothea Roschmann:
Individual curtain calls in front of the safety curtain:
Someone threw Klaus Florian Vogt this sweet tiny bouquet.....
.....while behind the curtain, Daniel Barenboim was assembling the orchestra - who received rather more applause then they (particularly the brass) deserved on this occasion. And here they are:
The Herald's medieval look. In the first act, he was dressed as the Berlin bear:
Director Stefan Herheim:
Standing ovations all around the house at the end:
Daniel Barenboim grabs Klaus Florian Vogt for a chat:
Fweinds again? Maybe for ten seconds. Daniel Barenboim and Stefan Herheim:
