I was glad to hear the fine cast of SF Opera's Lohengrin on Sunday afternoon. Tenor Brandon Jovanovich's voice was ringing, heroic, & had a baritonal heft. He sounded strapping throughout. He sang his opening thanks to the swan in a soft, near-falsetto that was appropriately otherwordly. As Elsa, soprano Camilla Nylund conveyed both grit & defenselessness. Her singing had strength & a slight tension. She & Mr. Jovanovich were a tall, attractive couple.
Soprano Petra Lang was a terrific Ortrud, singing & acting with fierce concentration. Her voice was strong & chesty, & her Ortrud was angry, disdainful & dangerous. Bass-baritone Gerd Grochowski's singing is intelligent & pleasingly crisp. He played an unsettling, even fanatical, Telramund. He recevies a very bloody death. As the Herald, baritone Brian Mulligan sounded solid & youthful. Bass Kristinn Sigmundsson communicated age & authority as the King. The orchestra played assertively under conductor Nicola Luisotti, & the music flowed in grand, sweeping gestures. Climactic scenes with the chorus were big & brawny. The brasses were warm, & it was fun to hear them play from various locations in the house.
Director Daniel Slater relocates the opera to a Soviet-style military state. The chorus are dressed as 2 opposing factions, encouraging us to view the story as a politcal parable. Most of the action takes place in the lobby of a ransacked library. The opening of act 2 finds Telramund & Ortrud huddled with homeless people outside a decaying state building. The audience murmured when the curtain came up on act 3 to reveal Lohengrin & Elsa in a bridal chamber that resembled a cross between a shoebox, a cheap motel room, & the bedroom at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I attended the performance in the upstairs standing room, where OperaVision was useful to see action occuring at the set's back wall, which is not visible from the balcony.
§ Lohengrin
Richard Wagner
San Francisco Opera
Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Director: Daniel Slater
King's Herald: Brian Mulligan
Heinrich Der Vogler: Kristinn Sigmundsson
Friedrich Von Telramund: Gerd Grochowski
Ortrud: Petra Lang
Elsa Von Brabant: Camilla Nylund
Lohengrin: Brandon Jovanovich
Nobles of Brabant: Nathaniel Peake, Robert Watson, Joo Won Kang, Ryan Kuster
Sun 10/28/12 1:00pm
War Memorial Opera House
2 comments:
Love the Smoker kneeling in front of Cell Phone on the Grand Tier Balcony photo.
If I have an ounce of energy left after my week worshiping Mammon in the Financial District, I'll be making it to Lohengrin tomorrow evening, unfortunately without OperaVision. I wanted Closeups of my Favorite Ridiculously Handsome Tenor, Brandon Jovanovich, and am thrilled that he's supposedly singing the role beautifully. He's a cool guy.
Brandon is indeed swoon-worthy, so I hope you make it to a performance of Lohengrin. Just bring a pair of binoculars.
The intermission smoker was also drinking a glass of red wine, so she was damn classy!
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