LOHENGRIN

ROMANTIC OPERA IN THREE ACTS BY RICHARD WAGNER

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

PHOTOS 1-60 © Siim Vahur 2023 / PHOTOS a-k © Helmut Camillo Fischer

PRODUCTION
 

Estonian National Opera Tallinn
(Rahvusooper Estonia)
artistic director: Arvo Volmer
première: 25 May 2023

musical director: Arvo Volmer
conductor: Arvo Volmer / Kaspar Mänd
stage director / set design / light design: Michiel Dijkema
costume design: Jula Reindell

Lohengrin: Uwe Stickert / Cosmin Ifrim
Elsa: Charlotte-Anne Shipley / Silja Aalto
Telramund: Leonardo Neiva / Rauno Elp
Ortrud: Helen Lokuta / Maria Berezovska / Helen Lepalaan
Heinrich: Priit Volmer / Pavlo Balakin
Heerrufer: Raiko Raalik / Jassi Zahharov
Gottfried: Roland Upkin / Robin Lucas Põld

chorus, extra chorus, children’s chorus and extras of the Estonian National Opera
orchestra of the Estonian National Opera

PRESS QUOTES

“Dijkema thinks, he understands music, he also convinces as a designer, he knows how to work with singers on a role.”

“However, Michiel Dijkema, director of Estonia’s Lohengrin, goes back to Wagner’s original idea - the fight between darkness and light, demonic and heavenly on the background of the state of war. [...] Dijkema seems to be one of the exceptions in today’s increasingly amateurish opera direction: he thinks, he understands music, he also convinces as a (lighting)designer, he knows how to work with singers on a role. Unfortunately, these components are far from self-evident, and even more so - do not coexist. The abstract-figurative nature of the set design and especially the light design support the characters and are in accordance with Wagner’s music, which brings out thousands of timbral nuances and with it also psychological subtleties.”

Kristel Pappel
Muusika
September 2023

“this Lohengrin shows relevance and perspectives for today’s art of opera”

“The development of the characters is versatile. Elsa is a victim, but she can also temperamentally stand up for herself, her certain lability is expressed by her nervous behavior towards the end of the opera [...]. Ortrud is one of the most interesting characters in Estonia’s Lohengrin, the forerunner of fin de siècle femme fatal characters: playful, pretending, a dangerous master of pagan witchcraft, who [...] in the depths of her heart seems to yearn for true love and goodness, which she then immediately rejects.
Extensive dialogue duets of the characters (Ortrud-Telramund, Elsa-Ortrud, Elsa-Lohengrin) have been worked out in detail, where the characters communicate, react, their body language corresponds to the content of the scene, provides a subtext.
At the end of Dijkema’s production, Lohengrin comes on stage with a lifeless swan (into which Ortrud had transformed Elsa’s brother Gottfried), but miraculously young Gottfried is still alive. However, the last glance of the audience is at Ortrud, who steps towards Elsa and Gottfried on the front stage, holding the gold chain with which she once transformed Gottfried into a swan... belongs the final victory to the pagan forces?
It is very good that at the end of the season the theater presented this Lohengrin, which shows relevance and perspectives for today’s art of opera.”

Kristel Pappel
Muusika
September 2023

“emptiness darker than music […] a haunting, magical atmosphere”

“The visible world is inconsolable and beneath the surface glows a fervent hope.
Lohengrin, brought to the stage in Estonia after an interruption of almost hundred years, is dynamic and gripping.
The birth of the new production of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, which has arrived on the stage of the Estonian National Opera, has obviously been under lucky stars. Although this is the third production of Lohengrin in the theater’s history, almost a hundred years have passed since the last time, because during the Soviet era, the tradition of performing Wagner, which had flourished in the Tallinn theater previously, was interrupted for ideological reasons.
Bringing any work of this great German master to the stage is in itself a test and a major event for the opera house. The distant starting point of this venture is 20 years ago, when Arvo Volmer invited Dutch director Michiel Dijkema, who was at the beginning of his career at the time, to direct in Estonia. As a result of that collaboration, a production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola was born in 2006, for which a year later he was awarded the annual award of the Estonian Theater. Meanwhile, Dijkema has become an experienced and respected director and artist who has worked in many opera houses around the world.
The production and design created by Dijkema is characterized by a dark color pallet. The very first scene is eloquent and enchanting. An empty earth and dark clouds, from which falls something that could be snow, but also ash, the last remaining form of matter.
The entire action of Lohengrin takes place in a devastated environment, under a dark cloudy sky. Rays of light that can brighten the world for a moment are rare. Only the main characters, with their excellent costumes, stand out brightly from the surrounding gloom and from the hideous, obscure, bogey-like crowd.
Emptiness darker than music
The sparse but effective set design inspired by birds and the wonderful light design that creates a haunting, magical atmosphere on the stage plays a very important role in the success of the production.
However, the dark void on stage is darker than Wagner’s music. This contrast between the desolation of the visible world and the burning hope smoldering somewhere beneath the surface makes the entire production dynamic and gripping.
Hope remains
Although Elsa is unable to withstand the challenge set before her, Wagner still gives hope to the people by bringing back Gottfried, their future ruler, to the people of Brabant. By directors will is the duke a small, fragile, vulnerable child who must be able to resist the evil of the whole world, because evil doesn’t sleep. Evil is among us and we must not forget that, reminds us Ortrud, who is ready to attack the new ruler.”

Ruth Alaküla
Eesti Päevaleht
24 October 2023

“one of the most impressive images of this Lohengrin production is the wedding night”

“The production of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin at the Estonian National Opera uses straight metaphors and strives for period fidelity with design and costumes.
The action of the Swan Knight takes place in the distant first half of the 10th century. A look at the stage leaves no doubt that the director and set designer Michiel Dijkema wanted nothing more or less than to take the audience to the Middle Ages. To the era, which means, first of all, cold weapons, armor and a style of clothing that differs from today’s with a lot of folds. The fabled Middle Ages - the era of robust darkness, but at the same time of great heroes. What could be more noble than holding a sword to fight for your beloved? [...]
However, one of the most impressive images of this Lohengrin production is the wedding night of Lohengrin and Elsa. Historizing armor and costumes aside, the barefoot singers seem believable and their voices different.
Divine power, the nature of which no one knows exactly and about which one cannot even ask - this is also the story of Wagner’s Lohengrin. The music instills in the viewer that by surrendering to an undefined force, you perceive exaltation, an unprecedented sense of safety.
But I believed in Elsa, the tragedy of her frivolity and belief in something that doesn’t really exist. As well as in the glory of Lohengrin”

Andrus Karnau
Postimees
27 June 2023

“captivating from the beginning to the last sound”

“In these strange times, it is thrilling to experience a production where every essential nuance, every scarce image has scenically a clear subtext, that is captivating from the beginning of the opera to the last sound from the orchestra. […] The most important thing is that in this Estonia production, common stereotypes have been avoided in every sense.
[...] With the lighting design the luminous scale is contrasted to the dark, burned-to-ash land with its constant struggle for power between clans, full of hatred, cruel and brutal passion for destruction, the desire to crush everything that is noble and holy. For sure the same line of thought has a definite counterpart in Wagner’s music.”

Tiiu Levald
TMK (Teater. Muusika. Kino)
September 2023

“Dijkema’s vision of this masterpiece is valid and profound”

“I only gave these examples out of a desire to show how valid and profound Michiel Dijkema’s vision of this masterpiece is both as a director and as a set and lighting designer. In this case, the excellent result is also due to the obviously common world of thought between the director and the costume designer.
Wagner has written hefty choral numbers for this opera [...] in the dramatic scenes the director has skillfully created lively groups that sometimes give the viewer the impression of a bustling anthill.”

Tiiu Levald
TMK (Teater. Muusika. Kino)
September 2023

“bird bones and ash mountains […] spine chilling drama […] a strong addition to the repertoire”

“Ashes and swan lyrics
As always in the case of Wagner, swan lyrics, mythic-religious images and politics form a contradictory trio, the right proportion of which is one of the main questions for every new production. [...]
If we add the blood-stained naturalism, bird bones and ash mountains of Dijkema’s production, then there is more than enough of spine chilling drama.
In their black rags, the choir members look as if they have been bathing in the ash mountains of the mines in East-Virumaa. In this way, they function impersonally as a human-shaped black hole that absorbs the characters or covers them as a screen when necessary.
In Dijkema’s Lohengrin, the use of stage is promising. There has been lots of talk about how it is difficult to make theatre on the narrow stage of the Estonian National Opera. A somewhat less recognized feature is the depth of the stage, which was used to great effect in Lohengrin. [...] In Lohengrin the fear of the back of the stage has been overcome, turning the acoustic shortcomings into an advantage. Of course, the sound from the back of the stage is not so clear, but this is what gives the performance a spatial feeling of alternation of closeness and distance, which is especially suitable for the plot revolving around the arrival and departure of Lohengrin. [...]
In his interpretation, Dijkema takes a much more conservative path compared to the aforementioned, because the visuals of the play mostly remain within the circle of images reflected in the libretto. A swan theme, or, more generally, a bird theme has been chosen to run through: in the first act, a black wasteland with bird skulls, in the third act, Elsa and Lohengrin’s nesting, and raptor claws descending from the ceiling.
Estonia’s Lohengrin is an ash-colored production, where no one’s white chest remains clean except for the swan knight. Still, there’s no doubt that Lohengrin is a strong addition to the repertoire”

Aare Tool
Sirp
2 June 2023