Herheim's Berlin Lohengrin - more photos, more thoughts

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:

 

Comments

[JSU]

This looks like an odd and very particularly local in-joke, but a truly fascinating one. Vogt is almost unrecognizable with that facial getup.

How was the audience response to Vogt? Do Berliners take him for granted?

[inter mezzo]

Barenboim got by far the biggest ovation(which makes me doubt the discrimination of the audience) but Vogt came a good second. And generally he's been praised by the German press - a few complained about tonal whiteness, lack of passion and so on, but isn't that what the role needs?

[ned polsky]

thanks for all these marvelous photos. could you possibly tell me whether the audience may wear what they like to the staatsoper? is there a dresscode? teeshirt, leather jacket? thanks again.

[inter mezzo]

a lot of the audience are oldish and well-off, so they dress very smartly and conservatively (especially so for premieres), but you see all sorts.

T shirt and leather jacket are perfectly acceptable, especially in the cheaper seats, but you'd blend in better (if that's what you want) in a regular jacket.

[ned polsky]

thanks for the tip. sounds as though i'd better dust off my 'destroy' teeshirt in that case and get my hair cut in a mohican for the show! seats are in row ten of the stalls i think. your pictures, looking at them again, do show a pretty scrubbed up and formal looking crowd: not much chance of a riot, eh?

[dolcevita]

Hey there everyone!

I was in Berlin for the second show and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I think Barenboim realized after the prima that the outsiders figured out that Stefan was right when saying that DB didn't care about the production, so he and his orchestra made a great effort to put up a memorable show on Wednesday. Mindblowing!

KFVogt is simply blessed by a divine touch. It's impossible otherwise to describe that beauty of his voice and the way it fits Lohengrin. Makes you kinda sad that Wagner can't hear him sing this.

Herheim is just a big genius... I passionately loved EVERY second of his staging.

The whole show was one of those moments when you say you feel privileged to be alive "here and today".

BLESS THEM ALL!

Many thanks Intermezzo for sharing your views and the pics from the prima.

[inter mezzo]

I'm so glad you heard the orchestra at their best. They really are an outstanding bunch of musicians, and this is a long, tough week for them.

I only wish I could have been with you there to hear the whole thing again!

[lilloboss]

was at the easter sunday show and can say with confidence that i won't see many performances as great in my lifetime: the whole thing was legendary and the audience went berserk! but heaven me, that second act caught fire like a total muthaf*cka! man, isn't western culture a knockout? many thanks to you intermezzo for all the photos.