Wagner: Lohengrin

Piotr Beczała (Lohengrin), Anna Netrebko (Elsa), Tomasz Konieczny (Telramund), Evelyn Herlitzius (Ortrud), Georg Zeppenfeld (Heinrich), Derek Welton (Der Heerrufer des Königs)

Staatskapelle Dresden, Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden, Christian Thielemann

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... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 7th Jul 2017
Catalogue No: 0735322
Label: Deutsche Grammophon

International Opera Awards

2018

Nominated - Complete Opera Recording
Opera

November 2017

Recording of the Month
Diapason d’Or

March 2018

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Wagner: Lohengrin

Piotr Beczała (Lohengrin), Anna Netrebko (Elsa von Brabant), Tomasz Konieczny (Friedrich von Telramund), Evelyn Herlitzius (Ortrud), Georg Zeppenfeld (Heinrich der Vogler), Derek Welton (Der Heerrufer des Königs)
Staatskapelle Dresden, Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden
Christian Thielemann

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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

Reviews

November 2017

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.

Awards Issue 2017

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.

November 2017

...the two Wagnerian debutants [Netrebko & Beczala] are mightily impressive, backed up by a cast that could hardly be bettered. Thielemann's conducting and the playing the Staatskapelle are major glories, too.

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Wagner: Lohengrin

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