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Wagner Society in NSW Inc
To attend was a more or less impulse decision – I was at a conference at Berlin and it turned out that this evening was free, and so I had a look to see what was on. Lohengrin started at 6:00pm and so when business finished at around 5:15pm I pounded off in the direction of the Deutsche Oper and go there with 7 minutes to spare. The first thing I spotted was a man holding up a ticket for sale and so, to save time, I bought it without much regard for where it was in the house. At €27euros it turned out to be quite a long way up, in the upper circle (zwieter Rang). I was pleased to discover that the sound was quite good up there, and I had a good view of the surtitles, but couldn’t see much of anything upstage, which included the treatment of the swan. In the process of finding my seat I found myself in conversation with the elderly ladies next to me, who explained that the low population of the house was attributable to the fact that the performance started too early. There may have been something in this. They also mentioned that there are too many awful productions around – I can’t remember the German words used, but this production seemed pretty straight and, although Lohengrin himself did look like an astronaut at his first appearance, there were mediaeval-looking knights and nobles and so forth, fighting with swords. And so it’s a pity I didn’t get to see that swan, or whatever substituted for it. Extensive research (that is, a good look on the web) has failed to reveal what I couldn’t see. The first interval gave me an opportunity to buy a program and to discover that the production was by Götz Friedrich and so, evidently, not new, Friedrich having died a few years before. I also discovered that Lohengrin himself was our own Stuart Skelton (I am very bad at recognising people on stage). Other personnel were: conductor Michael Schønwandt, Heinrich der Vögler – Richard Hagen, Elsa – Petra-Maria Schnitzer, Telramund – Sergei Leiferkus, Ortrud – Susanne Resmark, King’s Herald – Markus Brück, stage and costume design – Peter Sykora. And in this interval I also went outside and made a reconnaissance of the area, looking for an ATM. I felt sure that the gambling joint down the road would be fitted with one, but it wasn’t. What I did see around the place were several members of the cast, in costume, having drinks with members of the audience. Perhaps the backstage facilities are lacking. There did seem to be building works going on in the opera house. During act 2, the inevitable happened: someone’s phone rang. Many pairs of angry eyes were directed in its direction and its owner scooted out. There are situations where one would want to be interrupted at the theatre, but that’s what vibrate mode is for. Our concentration returned to the stage on which Ortrud was just starting to importune Elsa, who at that point was required to sing: “Wer ruft?’ (“Who is calling?’), which the audience found amusing! The second interval gave me another, and this time successful, opportunity to find an ATM, and then it was back for act 3 and Lohengrin’s monologue, which was not a bit tedious; my neighbours described Skelton as “ein guter Lohengrin’. All of the cast sang well except for Mr Brück, who seemed to be a little unwell. We hear stories of the financial difficulties of the three Berlin houses, but I know little of the details. Whatever they may be, perhaps management felt they could get away with a slightly below-par singer in a smaller rôle. It was an enjoyable evening to contemplate as I meandered through Richard-Wagner-Straße, Kantstraße, Schillerstraße, Leibnizstraße, Goethestraße and the rest and wondered why we don’t have a Robin Warren, a Barry Marshall or a Patrick White Street. (We do have an Alan Bond place though.) So if anyone has seen this production and knows what the treatment of the Swan was, perhaps they could let the newsletter know. I’d be most interested.
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