Wagner: Lohengrin (complete opera recorded in 2016)

Wagner: Lohengrin (complete opera recorded in 2016) cover $60.00 Special Order
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RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner: Lohengrin (complete opera recorded in 2016)
Dresden Opera / Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala, Tomasz Konieczny, Georg Zeppenfeld / Christian Thielemann (cond)

[ Deutsche Grammophon DVD / 2 DVD ]

Release Date: Friday 15 September 2017

This item is only available to us via Special Order. We should be able to get it to you in 3 - 6 weeks from when you order it.

Rated: G - Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993Suitable for General Audiences

An operatic dream came true in May 2016, when two singers made their role debuts as Lohengrin and Elsa at the Dresden State Opera.

Previously at home in French and Italian lyric tenor roles, Piotr Beczala was expanding his repertory in a direction that many opera fans had long wanted him to explore, while Anna Netrebko - previously hailed as the "queen of bel canto" - was undertaking her first Wagnerian role. It was also her first foray into the lyric-dramatic repertory.

Both singers had been persuaded to take on their new roles by the Dresden Staatskapelle's principal conductor, Christian Thielemann, one of the leading Wagner conductors of our day.

Seldom has the world of opera been as excited as it was by these performances, public and press revealing a rare unanimity in hailing them as outstanding. Die Presse spoke of a "starry occasion", while Die Welt described it as "musically one of the finest Lohengrins of all time - a Lohen-Dream". This punning was evidently catching, for the Münchner Merkur attempted a conflation of the German terms for swan (Schwan) and madness (Wahnsinn) and produced the portmanteau word Schwahnsinn. A substantial part in the production's success was played by Georg Zeppenfeld as King Henry, Evelyn Herlitzius as Ortrud, Tomasz Konieczny as Telramund, Derek Welton as the Herald and the Dresden State Opera Chorus. Together they formed a Wagner ensemble so splendid that - in the words of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - "none better could currently be wished for".

Picture Format: 1080i High Definition 16:9 | All Regions | Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0

Subtitles: German (Orig. Language) · English · French · Spanish · Chinese

"Beczała looks well, his basically lyrical tenor assumes adequate power and ring, but he never achieves the vital otherworldly aura of great Swan-Knights…Netrebko, no ingénue now, sings a passionate even frantic heroine, but with unwieldy German…Altogether this isn't a bad performance, and Netrebko fans will snap it up." BBC Music

"The cast are good to look at on camera and are no slouches as actors - but the main interest of the release remains musical...Netrebko brings a sensuality and an outraged awareness of how this woman is exploited not that common in Elsas, and the role lies well for her vocally at the moment...Beczała also sounds here to have an ideal weight of voice and a cunning balance between dreamy lyrical and heroic." Gramophone Awards Issue

Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczala & Christian Thielemann: Lohengrin - Wagner