Lohengrin Wagner
Will he or won’t he? Any arguments over the ‘new production’ status of Claus Guth’s staging – first seen, in fact, at La Scala in 2012 – were upstaged by doubts over Jonas Kaufmann appearing in the title role
Review by Francis Carlin Photography by Monika Rittershaus and Éléna Bauerth
PARIS OPERA (BASTILLE)
Music
Staging
Kaufmann
The star tenor had been out of action for months due to a vocal cord injury and had backed out of the inaugural concert at Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie where he was scheduled to give the first performance of a work Wolfgang Rihm had written for him. Surprisingly, he decided to make his comeback instead with a punishing run of Lohengrins in Paris – hardly the shortest of roles – and stumped us all with a performance of rare musicianship. True, the voice sometimes sounded slightly veiled but his ability to shape the music, cradle the text and float magical pianissimi remained world-beating. The Bastille audience gave him a stupendous ovation.