Wagner: Lohengrin. Günther Groissböck, bass; Klaus Florian Vogt, tenor; Annette Dasch, soprano;
Gerd Grochowski, baritone; Susanne Resmark, mezzo-soprano; Markus Brück, baritone; Rundfunkchor Berlin
and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Marek Janowski. PentaTone.
$49.99 (3 SACDs).
This is the fourth
entry in PentaTone’s remarkable planned sequence of 10 Wagner operas conducted
by Marek Janowski. And like the first
three – Der Fliegende Höllander,
Parsifal and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
– this live recording of a concert performance from November 12, 2011 is a
triumph in almost every respect: wonderfully sung, beautifully played and
excellently recorded. But there is a
problem here – not a PentaTone or Jurowski problem but a Wagner problem. Its name is Lohengrin. There is simply no way to make this central
character appealing, even in so fine a performance as that of Klaus Florian
Vogt, a very youthful-sounding hero whose first entry is small and almost timid
but who soon thereafter rises splendidly to the role’s vocal demands and
delivers In fernem Land with great
beauty and sensitivity. The heroic and
holy knight who arrives in a swan-pulled boat to save a maiden’s honor and wed
her – but who first demands twice, quite emphatically, that she never ask his
name, rank or history – inevitably comes across as cruel, self-centered and
cold. And this is not merely a modern
judgment caused by changing standards of gender relationships, for Wagner was
disheartened to find that many of his contemporaries had exactly this negative
view of Lohengrin. Wagner protested that
all Lohengrin wanted was to be loved for himself, not for his power and holiness,
but few people bought the explanation, because the character never hints at any
such thing and simply lays down an absolute demand. This being one of Wagner’s religiously
grounded operas, it is easy to make a parallel with God’s demand in the Garden
of Eden that Adam and Eve not eat fruit from one particular tree that was
specifically planted where they would be tempted to do just that – especially
since Wagner has his own serpent in Lohengrin
in the character of Ortrud (Susanne Resmark).
In fact, this parallel can be pushed even further by noting that just as
Adam and Eve are punished, while God and the Devil survive to battle another
day, so Lohengrin’s and Ortrud’s spouses both die in the opera, while the two
primary antagonists survive (Wagner simply has Ortrud fall to the ground, while
specifying that Elsa “sinks lifeless” to it).
But however one twists
and turns matters, the fact is that Lohengrin the character does not come off
very well. For that matter, neither does
the Grail, on which he blames the demands that he has made and that he says is
getting angry because he has dawdled long enough after breaking Elsa’s heart to
explain who he really is. Given the fact
that Lohengrin is the only Wagner
opera in which the words “I love you” are spoken, and that they are said by
Lohengrin to Elsa (Annette Dasch), the whole story leaves a rather unpleasant
taste in one’s mouth.
But not in one’s
ears. The music is glorious, and
Janowski understands its beauties intimately and brings them forth again and
again in splendid fashion. The music may
not fully conceal the flaws in Wagner’s conception of Lohengrin himself, but it
certainly obscures those in the opera’s dramatic pacing: what little action
there is in Act II essentially replicates what there was in Act I, and it
simply does not matter. Standing between
Tannhäuser and Das Rheingold in the compositional
sequence of Wagner’s completed operas, Lohengrin
has many elements of a transitional work in its partial use of leitmotifs and occasional
pauses in momentum for set-piece arias – coupled with a use of key structure as
fine (if not as subtle) as that in the composer’s later works. The primary singers are, with one exception,
absolutely outstanding: Günther
Groissböck is firm, resonant and
stolid as King Heinrich, and also shows genuine tenderness toward Elsa in Act
I; Dasch appropriately combines timidity with uncertainty and (eventually)
dismay as Elsa; Gerd Grochowski is forceful and intense as the physically
strong but weak-willed Friedrich von Telramund, clearly overmastered by a
magically powerful pagan wife who calls upon Wotan and Freya for support; and
Markus Brück is sonorous and
plainspoken as the King’s Herald. The sole
somewhat disappointing performance comes from Resmark as Ortrud: her German
pronunciation is only so-so, and she does not seethe sufficiently with venom
and hatred, being more inclined to be snide (as when she effectively puts down
her feckless husband in Act II). She is
far from inadequate in the role, but is not quite at the level of the other
performers here.
The Berlin Radio chorus
and orchestra are exemplary, as they usually are in this repertoire, and
Janowski’s pacing seems so perfect for the opera that one never really thinks
whether a section is fast or slow – everything just is, flowing at a rate that seems so natural that it is hard to
imagine why anyone would conduct the work at different tempos. PentaTone’s superb SACD sound is matched by
its continuing commitment to excellent presentation, with extensive notes on
the opera and a complete German-and-English libretto bound into a booklike
package. Not even Vogt and Janowski can
fully overcome the flaws in Wagner’s delineation of Lohengrin’s character, but listeners
willing to contribute a little more than the usual amount of willing suspension
of disbelief will find themselves drawn into this performance from its very
first, beautifully proportioned notes to its intense conclusion nearly
three-and-a-half hours later.
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