Rats! Bayreuther Festspiele Debuts Hans Neuenfels' Lohengrin, OC has the Photos!

(Above: Elders. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

Bayreuther Festspiele 2010 is about to get real and OC has exclusive photos of German director Hans Neuenfels' brand new Wanger Lohengrin production. Neuenfels collaborated with Reinhard von der Thannen's costume design for technicolor leads anchored by a rat-suited chorus. Swans, rodents, and Jonas Kaufmann's hair...it's like Wild Kingdom up in Bayreuth. What's not to love? Conductor Andris Nelsons is all over Kaufmann's high profile Bayreuther Festspiele debute and we're all over these photos. Who put the rodents all up in Lohengrin? Our hero, that's who.

(Above: Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud and Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

 
(Above: Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Jorg Schulze)

Click the link below for so much more...

(Above: Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin and Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

(Above: George Zeppenfeld as Konig Heinrich and Samuel Youn as Der Heerrufer. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

(Above: George Zeppenfeld as Konig Heinrich and Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

(Above: Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud, Annette Dasch as Elsa, and Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

(Above: Jonas Kaufmann as Lohengrin and Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath)

Above: Annette Dasch as Elsa. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Enrico Nawrath

Above: Samuel Youn as Der Heerrufer des Konigs. Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH / Jorg Schulz

Comments

[Claudia4Ever]

I'm glad I was only listening to the live broadcast of the performance -- the music & singing were fabulous! Bravo Jo-K!! Incredible interpretation without the visuals.

[Alice]

Does OC also have the recording?

[Jonathan]

There is something incontinent, and uneconomical in both monetary and other senses, in an artform that takes the length of time, the resources, the people, the money, to tell its stories. Those enormous, ugly sets to distract from the acting, to convince the audience that there is anything remotely of merit aside from the actual music itself.

The fact that opera scores contain fine music doesn't in itself justify staging operas in the way they are usually.

Art and music have reach a nadir in our culture. There is very little understanding of what art is. Art has become a kind of mass spectacle geared to the stadium crowds. Modern theatrical directors often fall into this spiral of seeking attention and headlines in the chronicals by putting themselves ahead of the music for the sake of the classical vices of glory or pride or fame. Theatrical productions of classical opera have often become infantile and often have nothing to do with the music or the ideas and values expressed in the music. It has become all show to gain attention and generate discussion about the director, who thinks of himself as a great creative genius greater than the composer. The worse the designer is, the greater his inflated opinion of himself is generally.

It's just another sign of the decay of the present culture.

[WILLYM]

I was surprised the audience reaction was as tame as it seemed to be on the broadcast. I was expecting more howls of protest.

[Bill Philin-Ploplis]

Can't our wonderful Jonas K. just get a beautiful production to star in? No, it doesn't have to be literally traditional. But all those rats and nonsense!!!!

[Oroveso]

I was out today and unfortunately missed the live Bayreuth broadcast. What a shame that with a Lohengrin like Kaufmann, who has the physique du role in spades, (not always the case with Wagner heros) the public was denied the opportunity to see him appear in shining armor. Oh rats!

[Whatever Lola wants]

It's always the same with Neuenfels. I did his Rigoletto with the frogs and Nabucco with the bees both at Deutsche Oper Berlin. What a bore!!!!

[Renate]

Cute swan. But what's with the rats?

[TiminNY]

Honestly, until one has seen the production and understands what Neuenfels was after one is in no position to judge. Maybe the reason it wasn't booed loudly is that--gasp--it actually has something to say? Maybe, in the context of the production, the rats aren't nonsense?

If you want a "beautiful production" at all costs, perhaps you're better off staring at a pretty picture while listening to a recording.

In the meantime, those of us who consider opera an art form that doesn't require turning off our brains just to enjoy the crooning of a wannabe matinee idol will look forward to engaging with Neuenfels's production.

[yappy]

... and our dear Chancellor Merkel said something like "Wonderful, we liked it, well done, have a biscuit" afterwards. ;-)
(see here: http://tinyurl.com/36yjmeh, and scroll down for obligatory weird red carpet pics)

[yappy]

O Schreck, and that infamous four-letter Newspaper that everybody doesn't read at all has even more pics, subtitled "Bayreuth Film Festival".

[Maggy]

In King Roger in Bastille, kinds of Mickey mouse masks were worn by the cast, now this is a step further: a mass invasion of rats on Lohengrin stage. I had a great sunday listening to the live broadcast and realised J. kaufmann sounds terrific in this repertoire.@Will, at the end of the curtaincalls, the applause and cheering turned into real'booing. I was glad to read some explanations for OC's photos in Parterre!( a pity I could not follow all the interviews in German during the two rather long intervals... At one point the word 'rat' occured frequently!)

[Lily]

It sounded wonderful. Since it would take me ten years to get a ticket to Bayreuth and see it in person, I am happy to take whatever photo crumbs I can and just enjoy the free audio streamed from several European sources. That saves me the distraction of this production, which may or may not a concept that works. The rats look cute, at least. Sort of.

Bravo to Europe for making this music available. And bravo to the singers.

[Agathe]

Well, I was listening and heard an avalanche of boos for the regie. Maybe I was dreaming.

Can't say as it looks that offensive to me, just sort of uninspiring.

I want to hear a tape from the house if possible to hear the true balance. Lots of oversinging going on there, lots, from just about everybody. (Minus the chor.)

Just my opinion.

[Les Mitchell]

I now can finally understand why there those opera lovers who prefer NOT to attend the opera, but to enjoy their operatic addictions on audio CDs and radio broadcasts. I cannot believe these photos.... I mean.... WHO is going to want to see this?? I'm not saying that I'm exclusively for traditionalist stagings, but these stage directors have gone way beyond the limits. When the production is as off-the-wall as this, it DOES get in the way of the music. When I hear the words "a new production", I've come to expect the outrageous. If THIS is where opera is going, and if the public tolerates it, ............... I am totally bereft of words. A concert version would be infinitely preferable to this!

[richie]

Musically allright, not overwhelming, Kaufmann above average but not that outstanding world class that everybody expects, the rest was mostly shit though I am used to european opera staging and do not speak of eurotrash like those who live in the ninteenth century. I recommend: listen to it on radio but don't go there even if you have tickets.

[Jeffrey Sarver]

Do we really need to be there and 'experience' this kind of adolescent nonsense to 'understand' what Neuenfels was about? It's easy to figure that out. He's about HimSelf and rattling the imaginary cages of reactionary conservatives who are still the fossilized bete noirs of the chic left who have claimed the arts as their exclusive territory, that is, until the public stops showing up and the government stops paying for gods like Neuenfels to exhibit their mediocre, and expensive, little brain flashes in the greatest venues of culture.

Keep shoving those strudels down your throat, Katharina.

[El Cajon]

Power went off just before the finale where I live, but up to then, JK sounded fine. Sad to see regie vermin infesting Bayreuth. And I thought the Met's current Lohengrin was bad. It's a masterpiece compared to this claptrap (at least based on Bayreuth's photographic evidence).

[El Cajon]

Further thought on Kaufman's Lohengrin. His voice is too dark-hued for the role, although he lightened it up a bit in the last act.

Rene Kollo and Peter Hofmann were the two best Lohengrins I've seen live. At this point, I'm more interested in hearing Jonas's Siegmund and Parsifal live than his Lohengrin.

The Lohengrin broadcast likely will be repeated (not live, however); check Operacast's Bayreuth 2010 schedule. But overall, yesterday's Lohengrin was hardly a first-rate performance. Ragged choral work, so-so conducting, etc.

[cantor]

So strange in the opera fan blogosphere how certain prominent voices have taken it upon themselves to lecture the rest of us about being old-fashioned, or possibly stupid, just because we aren't very taken with photos from this new production. Not saying that is happening here, though. I think the photos speak volumes, no matter how deep and fascinating the staging might be. One man's "thought-provoking" can be another man's pretentious bs, anyway.

To me it is about good production vs. bad. It has nothing to do with it being modern or traditional. I think the vast majority of fans are past that, with the occasional conservative exception.

These self-appointed professors need to get off their soapboxes and give the rest of us credit for having powers of discernment. No need to run for "Patron Saint of the Indefensible". It seems to be a knee-jerk impulse, this tedious show of finger-wagging to show how superior they are to the rest of us.

[Sam Beckom]

Richard Wagner was a consummate man of the theatre, perfectly suited to devising action and settings.
As we have the means to finally achieve what he directed, should we not use these wonderful tools to finally realize the directions Wagner wrote?

[richie]

The best ever Lohengrin was Sandor Konya. Hofmann was allright, Kollo was allright and Kaufmanns german roles are too italian and his italians too german. His guttural darkenings nerve and when too lyrical he is at times almost not to be heard. He is ages away from a Konya and people should not get that mad on his singing.

[Sam]

There are some German pieces which seem to question the way Kaufmann uses his voice, as well as its suitability for this repertoire, unless I am misunderstanding. I would not have expected them to blindly praise him simply out of pride. Some of the German-language bloggers are also not convinced. Nor am I.

He has only been at this highest level of exposure for approximately 3 seasons, if even that long, so the scrutiny will now become more rigorous - as it should be.

[Bill Philin-Ploplis]

Yes, Konya and Crespin! Himmel!

[Sam]

It is ridiculous that people are berated for making judgements about a production without having seen it first, and yet those who would passionately defend the same production quite often have not seen it themselves. How can they be sure it is worth defending based on a few pictures and second-hand accounts? The double standard is as plain as day and unfair.

They might argue it should be given the benefit of the doubt until they review the DVD (few are ever going to see it in person, let's be honest) - and yet that still won't be the same thing as experiencing it in house, regardless of the comforting illusion.

In the end there is validity and bias on both sides, and neither argument has moral or intellectual authority over the other.

[Nourrit's Number]

Did Neufels mistake his production notes and thought he was doing Nutcracker instead?

[Nourrit's Number]

Samuel Young as Don King, though...

[Fafner]

tHAT'S A GOOD THING, 'CAUSE IT'S TIME FOR BAYREUTH TO BESHOWN AS WHAT IT REALLY IS.
WE DO NOT NEED A THEATER BOSSED BY PSEUDO ARISTOCRATIC/MUSICAL PEOPLE.

LET'S TAKE WAGNER TO THE MOVIE MEDIUM.