LOHENGRIN
opera by Richard Wagner
State Opera Budapest
WORLD PREMIERE NOVEMBER 2025
WORLD PREMIERE NOVEMBER 2025
Conductor Martin Rajna
Director Andras Almasi-Toth
Stage and Lightdesign Sebastian Hannak
Costumes Krisztina Lisztopad
Director Andras Almasi-Toth
Stage and Lightdesign Sebastian Hannak
Costumes Krisztina Lisztopad
Named as a "lavishly cinematic staging, that might qualify to be in the top ten largest and most opulent productions of Lohengrin ever created inside an opera house", this opera is a feast for the eyes and a technical extravaganza.
Situated in a completely golden fantasy of a shopping arcade of the turn of the 19th century, we experience the story of a saviour unravel. LOHENGRIN is the name of a mysterious knight, who arrives to defend a woman against accusation of murder- a figure that she has only seen in her dreams. He agrees to marry on the condition she never asks his name. A tragedy that the opera is, she ultimately succumbs and asks him. Thus, he is forced to leave her and return where he came from. Richard Wagner believed in transformation as a solution to societal problems and tried to implement his beliefs in his many operas. He sought to liberate society through his art.
For this spectacular opera setting, i conceived a two-story shopping arcade with an open ceiling, built with meticulous details allover by the wonderful workshops. In the first act, a huge bridge with a detailed relief of working class men divided the stage into different levels.The more private scenes of Act 2 were set in a suspended room, divided by half into a black and a golden part, equally mirrored in the midddle, with a LED frame around it and surveillance monitors in the black half. From the second Act on there was a huge field of Lilies in full bloom in the midddle of the stage, which after the break in the third act were completly wilted and gone, emphasizing the desperate situation the protagonists are facing.
