Lohengrin

In times when the world seems complicated and the economic situation is poor, the longing for the one who can offer supposedly simple solutions to difficult problems becomes overwhelming. The 20th century provides illustrative material for this, and the present day also has examples. In Richard Wagner's Lohengrin, it is a mysterious knight who promises to fight for Elsa of Brabant; in doing so, he becomes a projection screen for the longing of a broken people for a charismatic leader figure. Wagner, himself a revolutionary in the middle of the 19th century, expressed in Lohengrin his political utopia of a different world order in an artistic way — a utopia of saving the world through art, but doomed to failure here. With Eric Cutler, a teenage heroic tenor trained in bel canto presents himself in the title role, while the Finnish soprano Miina-Liisa Värelä provides the required counterweight as Ortrud. Her compatriot, conductor Susanna Mälkki, debuts both with the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra and with the work.

Romantic opera in three acts Music and poetry by Richard Wagner Premiered on August 28, 1850 in Weimar Premiere at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on April 15, 2012