Program Notes SYNOPSIS OF SCENES Antwerp, first half of the 10th century ACT I: The king’s court of judgment, on the banks of the Scheldt ACT II, Scene 1: Outside Elsa’s castle Scene 2: The courtyard of the cathedral ACT III, Scene 1: The bridal chamber Scene 2: The banks of the Scheldt ACT I swear vengeance. When Elsa appears in a In Antwerp, on the banks of the window, Ortrud attempts to sow Scheldt, a herald announces King Henry, distrust in the girl’s mind, preying on who asks Count Telramund to explain her curiosity, but Elsa innocently offers why the Duchy of Brabant is torn by strife the scheming Ortrud friendship. Inside, and disorder. Telramund accuses his while the victorious knight is young ward, Elsa, of having murdered proclaimed guardian of Brabant, the her brother, Gottfried, heir to Brabant’s banned Telramund furtively enlists four Christian dynasty. (Gottfried was actually noblemen to side with him against his enchanted by the evil Ortrud, whom newfound rival. At the cathedral Telramund has wed.) When Elsa is called entrance, Ortrud and Telramund to defend herself, she relates a dream of a attempt to stop the wedding—she by knight in shining armor who will come suggesting that the unknown knight is to save her. The herald calls for the in fact an impostor, he by accusing Elsa’s defender, but only when Elsa prays does bridegroom of sorcery. The crowd stirs the knight appear, arriving in a boat uneasily. Though troubled by doubt, magically drawn by a swan. He pledges Elsa reiterates her faith in the knight his troth to her on condition that she before they enter the church, accompa- never ask his name or origin. Defeating nied by King Henry. Telramund in combat, the newcomer establishes the innocence of his bride. ACT III Alone in the bridal chamber, Elsa and ACT II her husband express their love until Before dawn in the castle courtyard, anxiety and uncertainty at last compel Ortrud and the lamenting Telramund the bride to ask the groom who he is and whence he has come. Before he can When Liszt finally arranged to produce reply, Telramund and his henchmen the work in Weimar in August 1850, burst in. With a cry, Elsa hands the Wagner could not attend since he was knight his sword, with which he kills banned from Germany because of his Telramund. Ordering the nobles to bear sympathy for the revolutionary move- the body to the king, he sadly tells Elsa ment of 1848–49. So frustrated was he he will meet her later to answer her that he toyed with the notion of questions. Escorting Elsa and the bier to attending the premiere in disguise. In the Scheldt, the knight tells the king he the end, he did the next best thing; he cannot now lead the army against the attended vicariously. On the evening of Hungarian invaders. He explains that his the performance he sat—appropriately home is the temple of the Holy Grail at enough—at the Swan Inn in Lucerne distant Monsalvat, to which he must and tried to imagine, as he watched the return; Parsifal is his father, and Lohen- clock, how the work was progressing act grin is his name. He bids farewell and by act. Ten years later, still not having turns to his magic swan. Ortrud rushes seen his opera, he complained to Berlioz in, jubilant over Elsa’s betrayal of the that he was probably the only German man who could have broken the spell not to have done so. It was only in 1861 that transformed her brother into a in Vienna that he finally heard it. Moved swan. But Lohengrin’s prayers bring to tears, he told his first wife, Minna, forth Gottfried in place of his vanished “For the first time in this artist’s life of swan, and after naming the boy ruler of mine, I felt a total sense of enjoyment Brabant, Lohengrin disappears, led by which reconciled me to everything that the dove of the Grail. Ortrud perishes, had gone before.” and Elsa, calling for her lost husband, Affected though he was on that occa- falls lifeless to the ground. sion, Wagner had long despaired of —Courtesy of OPERA NEWS having his works performed to the stan- dard he wished. Reports about the Weimar premiere had left him dispir- NOTES ON ited. In spite of his copious written LOHENGRIN instructions and Liszt’s best efforts, the performance had been an overall failure. ow strange that I must feel Neither the directing, the singing, nor as Beethoven did; he could the orchestra—with only 11 violins and “Hnot hear his own music a total complement of 38—were up to because he was deaf,”Wagner wrote to a the demands of the score. It was because friend in 1852. “I cannot hear mine of this that in 1850 the idea occurred to because I am more than deaf….” The him that the only way of ever ensuring cause of the composer’s anguish was polished performances of his novel and Lohengrin. Ever since its completion in oft-difficult works would be to build his March 1848, he had craved to hear it, but own theater and personally control its no opera company would put it on. productions. Thus was planted the Bayreuth seed that came to fruition a career. Wagner was so down and out at quarter century later. the time that without Ludwig’s support Musically, Lohengrin marked a crit- it is difficult to think that any of the ical stage in the composer’s develop- creations that followed their meeting— ment. With each step along the way Die Meistersinger, the Ring, and Parsifal, from Rienzi to Der Fliegende Holländer not to mention the Bayreuth Festival to Tannhäuser, Wagner had broken new and its Festival Theater—could ever ground. Lohengrin was the culmination have come into existence. Although slow in this series of “Romantic operas” and to catch on, Lohengrin eventually at the same time a landmark in replaced Tannhäuser as the popular harmonic innovation. The old operatic favorite among Wagner’s works. In format was still in place but now took a Germany it was accompanied by a wave different shape. Aria, duet, and ensemble of kitsch that was never matched by any were forged into a unity, and the chorus, other opera. No one fell in with the with its more complex harmonies, mood or epitomized it better than assumed greater importance. The Kaiser Wilhelm II, who loved to be instrumentation created richer orches- photographed dressed as the tral color and more subtle descriptions swan–knight in a gleaming white of mood, and Richard Strauss consid- uniform and silver winged helmet and ered the prelude to be the first step who, thus clad, once had himself trans- toward a new tonality. Music was begin- ported into Hamburg aboard a motor- ning to say more than the text, with the ized swan boat. At the same time, the leitmotif emerging in primitive form by work was also transformed into a veri- associating characters with certain keys table anthem of chauvinism. The oper- (Lohengrin with A major) and situa- atic King Henry was historically the 10th tions (the forbidden question) with century Henry, king of Saxony, who had specific musical themes. “With Lohen- in fact fostered the unity of the German grin the old world of opera has come to nation and defended it against invaders an end,” Liszt grandly prophesied, “the from the East. While the nationalistic spirit moves upon the face of the waters, theme was marginal to the essence of the and there will be light.” The “light” took opera’s plot, which was the conflict shape in the new musical world of between Christianity and paganism, it is Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des not difficult to see why, in a nation Nibelungen, and Parsifal. seeking historic roots and unifying itself nLohengri was also a vital turning for the first time, the work provoked point in Wagner’s life in an entirely such a strong political resonance. different way. On hearing the work in With its splendid choruses and 1860, the 15-year-old Bavarian crown melting lyricism, Lohengrin holds a prince was so enthralled that as soon as special place in the Wagnerian canon he came to the throne as Ludwig II in the and in the hearts of many Wagnerites. spring of 1864, he had no greater wish Despite his disillusionment with Wagner than to promote the composer’s musical in later life, Thomas Mann never lost his love of the “silvery-blue beauty” of the singers of the roles at the time, including work that he termed “the epitome of Leo Slezak, who today is probably less Romanticism.” On hearing it in 1889, remembered for his voice—famous as it Vasily Kandinsky also saw color in the was in this role—than his quip, after the music and said that it taught him that swan had by mishap left ahead of “painting could develop the very same schedule, “Wann geht der nächste forces which music already possesses.” Schwan?” (“When does the next swan Ernest Newman spoke for many in leave?”) With 78 members, the orchestra saying he felt that “as one watches that is a shade more than twice the size of the diaphanous and finely spun melodic band at the Weimar premiere that web unfold itself, one is almost tempted Wagner could not attend. for the moment to regret that the The Met’s current production had its daemon within him [Wagner] drove debut on March 9, 1998, with Deborah him on so relentlessly to another style.” Voigt as Elsa, Deborah Polaski as Lohengrin was first performed in Ortrud, Ben Heppner as Lohengrin, New York in 1871 at the old Stadt Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as Telramund, Theater and was one of the operas in the Eric Halfvarson as King Henry, and Eike Metropolitan’s inaugural season in 1883.