Richard Wagner: Lohengrin (PAL) (Arthaus DVD)

Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Lohengrin

Opera in Three Acts

Music Director: Claudio Abbado
Stage Director: Wolfgang Weber

Chorus and orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

Cast: Placido Domingo, Robert Lloyd, Cheryl Studer, Hartmut Welker.

PAL 100 956 2DVD

Running Time: 219 minutes (2DVD)
Picture Format: 16:9
Sound: PCM Stereo,
Region Code: 2, 5
Menu Languages: GB, D, F, SP
Subtitles: GB, D, F, SP
Recording Date: 1990

Richard Wagner was a one-man artistic movement, a figure so massive that his influence was felt by all of his contemporaries and all of his major successors.

Wolfgang Weber¡¦s simple staging, muted colours, dark clouds, barren landscapes and simple shapes, succeeds in evoking clear middle ages symbolism. His staging does not impress by means of the spectacular, but underlines the dramatic sense embodied in the music, allowing the outstanding singers full scope to express themselves.

This remarkable production, under Claudio Abbado, has a stellar cast. Cheryl Studer as Elsa, and Placido Domingo as Lohengrin (a role which he first performed on debut at the Hamburg State Opera in 1968, at the age of 27) are the cornerstone of a dream cast.

"What remains for me to do? He has left me no room, like a mighty tree that chokes with its shade the sprouting young growths under its widely spreading branches."
(Hugo Wolff, 1883)