Wagner: Lohengrin
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Movie Reviews of Wagner: Lohengrin
Movie Review: Lohengrin
Summary: 5 Stars
This is truly a glorious version of Lohengrin with a splendid cast and truly unusual dramatic effect. So,are the acoustics fine. Indeed, the best version of Lohengrin that I have encountered.Movie Review: Good Lohengrin, though not definitive
Summary: 4 Stars
I just purchased this, and though much has already said of the performers (particularly Schnaut, Studer, and Frey--all described accurately by other reviewers), I felt the need to review this positively to offset the reviewer who gave this production two stars because they disliked the ending.
"Regietheater" (director's theater) in opera is nothing new. This production, for the most part, is traditional. Only the true purists would complain. Heck, the Bayreuth '83 DVD production doesn't even have a swan. The swan in this seems a little out of place, but ih. . .at least it's *there*. We live in a world where Valkyries ride invisible horses and Wagner's stage directions are only "suggestions." Feel grateful the chorus isn't dumping soup on the stage.
I love Cheryl Studer's Elsa (the highlight of this production) and Schnaut's Ortrud, though not the best I've heard, is very well acted. Frey as Lohengrin can't really. . .er, act. . .but his voice is all right, and Lohengrin only has a big part to play in Act 3, so for the first two acts he isn't as annoying as he could be. All in all, I'd recommend this far and above the Met version and *any* version with Placido Domingo in it. (I know his German has improved in recent years, but my God!) This isn't my favorite version--that goes to the '83 Bayreuth DVD--but is definitely worth adding to any Wagner collection.
Movie Review: Three great singing-actors
Summary: 4 Stars
The three remarkable performances here are by Ekkehard Wlaschiha (who really brings Telramund to life, even makes you feel sorry for the stupid rock-head; also he displays flawless high-register technique and comfortable mastery of one of the most difficult roles in opera), Gabrielle Schnaut (her Ortrud is fearsome, especially when she challenges Elsa at the end of Act II, watching this is like being attacked by a moulting ostrich) and beautiful Eike-Wilm Schulte, relaxed but not soft or whiney as the Herrufer; whose personality he makes enthusiastic but dignified and modest, like a perfect broadcast reporter. Also the choruses are fantastic.
The other singers are adequate (although Paul Frey and Manfred Schenk are both way too boring), and the staging and costumes are terrific, with just the right balance of tradition and fantasy. I especially enjoy the slow-mo sword fight in Act I. And having Ortrud run into the river and turn her back to the audience for her prayer to the displaced gods in Act II is a nice touch.
Movie Review: Good points marred by dull direction, mediocre acting
Summary: 3 Stars
Werner Herzog's 1990 Bayreuth Lohengrin has some very good singing and occasionally interesting staging yet is seriously marred but dull direction and interaction among the characters. Of the four Lohengrin's I have seen on DVD (Abbado, Domingo/Vienna; Hofmann, Levine/Met; and Hofmann, Nelsson/Bayreuth), this overall has the least interesting characterisation and involvement from the singers.
The singing generally is fine. Paul Frey is a lyrical although unheroic Lohengrin, but this man can't act his way out of a box. He just looks stiff and unfomfortable. Cheryl Studer was well known for her Elsa, and offers much warmhearted lyricism. Try as she does, though, there is no chemistry between her and the dullard Frey. And she is simply not as moving as the Met's Eva Marton. Ekkehard Wlaschiha's Telramund and Gabrielle Schnaut's Ortrud are reasonably well done, but try as they may, they are somehow held back by well-known filmmaker Werner Herzog's inability to get his actors to well, interact much in a compelling manner.
Herzog's best moments come from his nature-inspired Act 2 dialogue between Elsa and Ortrud, more personal and compelling than most anything else in this quite static production. Herzog's emphasis on nature in Act 3 also is winning but when the actors and direction leave such an insipid impression on stage, the trees, the snow at the end - fine touches - go for little.
The Act 1 entrance of the swan is not compelling at all here. Almost embarrassing. And too often, the chorus, so vital in this work, while sounding great, looks small and insignificant through Brian Large's camera work.
Conductor Peter Schneider is one of the best parts of this performance, offering a straightforward reading with both lyricism and drama, rising to some compelling heights and passion when called for. Still, that and Studer's fine Elsa are not enough to bring this Lohengrin into the top rank.
Overall, the drama here is not compelling, not nearly as much as in the Levine/Met and Nelsson/Bayreuth productions, my favorites. Maybe one can chalk it up to Herzog's inexperience with the opera medium. For the most part this is just dull to watch.
Movie Review: Static
Summary: 3 Stars
Lohengrin was an early Wagner opera based on early medieval sources. Pagan gods and black magic are pitted against the New Testament God and Christian magic, and the latter win out, thanks mainly to the fighting prowess of a mysterious swan knight, but not before a witch named Ortrud goads Elsa, the knight's innocent bride, into asking him who he is. That is all it takes for the knight to renounce his bride and the Brabantians (whose protector he has agreed to be), to reveal his origins, and to take the first swan boat back to Christendom.
It is a slow-moving piece of music theater. I suspect the opera might have dragged even in 1850, when it premiered. I had hoped that the Bayreuth staging here by Werner Herzog, the film director of Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: The Wrath of God, would provide some needed heft and action for non-German viewers. Alas, no. Perhaps Herzog was constrained by the requirements of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus or the wishes of the producer, Wagner's grandson and the keeper of the family flame, but in any event the actors in this production pose and change their positions very very slowly and the chorus rises and shines and moves about like the climax of a Bruckner symphony sounds. It is all very traditional.
The videography does not help. There are numerous long shots, held forever, of the moon over waves, some painted and some manufactured by a wave machine, rocks, and a semi-finished medieval castle. There is not a single shot of the famous theater, the supposedly live audience, the orchestra, the conductor, or even a rising curtain. On the other hand, the music, though it appears dubbed, is performed well enough. Lohengrin is sung by lyric heldentenor Paul Frey, who had a short career at the top but looks the part. Cheryl Studer sings very well as Elsa. The other principals do their jobs. Costumes and sets are unexceptional.