Lohengrin

‘A meadow on the banks of the Scheldt near Antwerp’: this is how Richard Wagner describes the setting of his romantic opera Lohengrin. Riding a swan across the Scheldt, the Grail Knight Lohengrin, son of Parzival, arrives as the magical saviour of the besieged Elsa. In a country torn by internal strife and without a government, she is accused of murdering her brother Gottfried to help a secret lover seize power. Lohengrin is determined to prove her innocence. Yet she must never ask for his name or identity.

Just as in Parsifal, Wagner draws on an ancient myth to give shape to his vision of humanity and society. Central to the narrative is the opportunity offered for redemption from a ‘world of hatred and envy’ (Wagner) that betrays humanity time and again. What remains is a utopian vision that the composer translates into the ethereal Grail music that surrounds Lohengrin. The concert performance of Lohengrin at OBV invites the audience to lose themselves entirely in the sonic magic of Wagner’s incomparable score.