The Latest Televised Wagner on PBS

Piotr Beczała and Tamara Wilson (from the video clip from the Great Performances at the Met: Lohengrin Web page for KQED)

This month began with the latest installment in the Great Performances at the Met programs broadcast on PBS. This Metropolitan Opera production was a staging of Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin, which was one of the productions scheduled for the Live in HD series for the 2022–23 season. Staging was by François Girard with conducting by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The title role was sung by tenor Piotr Beczała. The role of Elsa was sung by soprano Tamara Wilson, the sorceress Ortrud was sung by soprano Christine Goerke, her husband Telramund was sung by bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin, and bass Günther Groissböck sang the role of King Heinrich. Baritone Brian Mulligan, familiar to San Francisco audiences, sang the role of the Herald.

In many ways Girard’s staging suggested a setting similar to a dramatic performance of one of the Passion settings by Johann Sebastian Bach. One might almost say that the entire narrative took place in a vast cathedral whose roof opened up on the heavens. This abstracted the Lohengrin story to such an extent that the title character’s arrival on a swan consists of little more than seeing a wing through that open roof. Such abstractions can often be counterproductive. However, given how little action is specified in the libretto, this “bare-bones” approach to staging was convincingly effective.

Much more important than the setting was the approach to the characters themselves (which is also the case for the Passion texts that Bach set). Telramund is the guardian of the child-Duke Gottfried of Brabant, who has disappeared. In an appeal to King Heinrich, Telramund accuses the Duke’s older sister, Elsa. It is decided that the dispute will be settled through ordeal by combat. However, Elsa identifies her champion only as vision in a dream. However, when a champion is summoned, a strange knight appears, who will fight for Elsa only on the condition that she never asks his name.

The knight prevails in combat, concluding the first act of the opera. In the second act Telramund seeks revenge by consulting Ortrud, while Elsa accepts the stranger’s request for marriage. This leads up to the most famous wedding march in the classical music repertoire at the beginning of the third and final act. However, after the marriage, Elsa became more insistent about knowing her husband’s name. When it is finally revealed, he must return to the other Knights of the Grail; but, with his departure, the young Gottfried reappears, restoring stabilities to the uncertainties of Heinrich’s kingdom.

Because the “action” in his narrative is so limited, Girard’s “oratorio setting” proved to be more conducive than many would have expected. Ritual permeated both the “deep structure” and the “surface structure” of the narrative; and, if Girard’s staging tends toward the minimal, the plot development could not have been more engaging. In that context the video account, supervised by Mia Bongiovanni, knew exactly how to track that development, giving due attention to the traits of the individual characters while also providing a clear account of how the plot unfolds. The result could not be a better “cast study” in how video can provide as convincing experience as that of occupying a first-class seat in the opera house itself.