Intermezzo

Lights.....Camera.....Rats !

The Bayreuth Festival's rat-packed Lohengrin is comin atcha live on Sunday.  For 14.90 €, you have the choice of watching the live stream and/or picking up the recording at any time between 15 and 30 August - once only.

The production, conductor Andris Nelsons, and a cast which includes Klaus Florian Vogt, Annette Dasch and Petra Lang have all been widely praised by critics.

Kick off is 4pm CET (don't forget that's 3pm in the UK), and because it's live there will be the Bayreuth-standard one hour breaks between acts.

It's a good idea to sign up well beforehand, as you need to try a test stream first.

Bayreuth Lohengrin live on TV

For the first time ever a Bayreuth Festival production is to be shown live on TV.

The French/German channel ARTE will broadcast Hans Neuenfels' Lohengrin (the rat-infested production which debuted last year) live on 14 August. Klaus Florian Vogt takes the title role, Annette Dasch is Elsa and Andris Nelsons conducts.

It's not clear at this stage whether the broadcast will be streamed on the ARTE website as well.

the other Lohengrin

Lohengrin - National Theatre Munich, 25 July 2010

There were two Lohengrins in Bavaria on Sunday. I was at the other one. I had time to take in only the first act of the new Bayreuth one (sounded pretty good) on the radio before setting off for another look at Munich's version. I didn't care much for the production itself last year. Richard Jones's silly lego house and class conflict twaddle was if anything even more irritating second time round. It can't help the performers when the audience are tittering away at inappropriate moments, but when Lohengrin arrives with a nodding swan tucked under his arm, or kills Telramund with a wave of his arm, what can you expect?

Lohengrin - the after-show - the video

Guests from the world of politics provide some suitably diplomatic reactions to Hans Neuenfels' new Bayreuth Lohengrin at the post-show reception yesterday. Jonas Kaufmann and Annette Dasch also appear briefly. In German, naturlich. Source.

even more Bayreuth Lohengrin photos

Bayreuth's new Lohengrin was premiered earlier today, to a mixture of boos and applause (no change there then). Director Hans Neuenfels received most of the boos, and the odd bravo for good measure. Jonas Kaufmann (Lohengrin) and Annette Dasch (Elsa) got the most applause. Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud and Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as Telramund were positively received as well. Conductor Andris Nelsons was either wildly applauded or received the odd boo, depending on which source you read.

The German papers so far have been less interested in reviewing the production than discussing the presence of Angela Merkel (who apparently applauded Neuenfels 'demonstratively'. Well, every voter counts).

A few more photos have emerged (overleaf and above) - see also my earlier post and the official photos.

Let there be swans! (and a few rats). First pictures of new Bayreuth Lohengrin

Bayreuth's new production of Lohengrin by Hans Neunfels opens the 2010 festival tomorrow. Here are the first photos: