Lohengrin

ROMANTIC OPERA IN THREE ACTS (1850)

MUSIC AND LIBRETTO BY

Richard Wagner

Elsa von Brabant is accused of murdering her brother. No one dares prove the young woman’s innocence in this mysterious case. Trapped in a reality that no one seems to share with her, a man enters her life promising to fight for her cause – on one condition: Elsa must trust him blindly and never ask him his name or birthplace.

But an intrigue entices Elsa to break her promises. The man’s answer reveals his divine origin and brings back Elsa’s brother; but she pays a high price. Wagner wrote »Lohengrin« during a time of radical revolutionary change. It was premiered in Weimar in 1850 under the direction of Franz Liszt. In it, he addresses the need to oppose social reality with a utopian one that refuses to put love, truthfulness and justice at the service of blind civil obedience. Wagner used Wolfram von Eschenbach’s »Parsifal« epic, sagas by the Brothers Grimm and various fairy tale collections as a model. The Spanish opera and theatre director Calixto Bieito leads the audience through his artworks by a »spirit of presence« and introduces himself for the first time at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with this great romantic opera.