Lohengrin

I've just returned from Lohengrin.  First of all, the singing and orchestra were absolutely marvelous, quite an experience. I especially like the huge choral parts, and hearing the original context of "Here comes the bride" was of course fun.  I don't know what else to say about the music; it was superb and very enjoyable.

The interesting, disappointing, and distracting thing was the set/production.  Because I am apparently a "sissy" and didn't want to stand for 4.5 hours, I got a 53 euro ticket which was in the Gallery, 3rd row, 1 seat right of the center.  It was an excellent view of the stage, which was the unfortunate thing.  I should have bought the 9 euro ticket with a view of less than a third of the stage.  For some reason the producer felt the need to make the set modern.  The costumes were mostly fine, just simple black or grey suits and black or silver dresses, white for the wedding.  The physical set was eye-searing.  The first act opened with a mostly black stage with 3 strange circles that I thought were supposed to be water until Lohengrin and the Count walked on them during the duel.  There were greyish wooden poles rising at various points, and at their tops were spokes pointed in four directions - perhaps somebody's idea of trees.  But weirdest of all was the neon yellow toy truck, about 1.5 feet long.  Just sitting on stage with no explaination.  Oh, scratch that, weirdest of all might have been the fact that Elsa was apparently blind for this production, walking with a cane, though I'm pretty sure the singer could see based on her behavior during her bows after each act.  She had a white cane that would be taken from her in moments of anger by Ortrud, etc.  It was truly bizarre, along with her groping the air (in a manner I think a woman of 30 who was actually blind would not have done) and singing about seeing a knight, etc.  The second act opened, and the curtain rose, and I was nearly blinded.  A huge neon yellow house sat in the center of the stage, Elsa appeared at its window for the balcony scene and later in the act it developed a steeple and turned into the church.  The inexplicable truck was still there, along with neon yellow stepping stones around the house, 2 lines of neon yellow picket fence, a neon yellow swan the size of the truck (interesting that the only act in which there is no swan in the script was the only act in which a swan appeared on stage!!), a neon yellow flower the size of a person, a neon yellow rabbit the size of the truck, and some sort of hoop or ring, in guess what...neon yellow!  Also, when Elsa left her house and made her way to the church outside the wedding for the scene where the Count and Ortrud ask for Lohengrin's name, she was wearing her white dress and a white fur coat.  And accompanied by about 10 people in white feather pantsuits wearing masks of birds' heads.  I was relieved that at least the wedding chamber scene of the first act was conducted in front of a pleasant purple-lit curtain and was very watchable, but for the end the weird trees, pools that were not water, and yellow truck were back.  Also a neon yellow chain, each link the size of a forearm.  And as I said, no swan appeared, but Gottfried was lowered from the ceiling inside of a raindrop in the final moments of the show.

So, somebody deserves to be fired for that one. I saw nothing but disturbed looks and confused mumbling in reaction to the set, and it certainly was distracting from a most beautiful performance.  I wish I could have closed my eyes, but I wouldn t have been able to read the subtitles.  I actually considered leaving my 53 euro seat to sit in the back on a standing room platform where I'd have been able to see the subtitles but not the stage.  Though, having been confused about who was singing which lines when I saw La Boheme and couldn't see all the stage, I stayed where I was.  I don't want to have my discription of the weird production take away from how beautiful and amazing the opera was, but I had to share because it was so strange and confusing (why was she blind? what was a small truck doing on stage? neon yellow????).

Anyway, I'm off for my trip to parts of Croatia, Sarajevo, and western Slovenia during my week-long break.  I'll try to write but I'm not sure how much time I'll have, and I'll probably want to spend way too much of my online time (and time in general) reading about the Sept 19 primary.