Metropolitan Opera

The music is all center-stage in this geometric and minimalist production of Wagners mythical tale of love and trust. While there is an eery fascination with the visual atmosphere created on a bare stage with simply a few rectangular illuminated panels and the chorus as the main movable stage decoration, it still seemed very cold an unemotional to credibly imply love and trust, beyond a very detached intellectual level - or maybe by contrast underline the emotional richness of the music. In particular the contorted slow-motion movements of the actors seemed to cause somewhat of a cringing agony after a watching for a few hours. It is hard to imagine what Wagner, the father of "more is more" sweeping epic multi-media productions, would have said to this staging. On the other hand, it is extremely treacherous in these days to attempt a naturalistic staging of a Wagner Opera - and Lohengrin above all, without falling into the traps of kitsch, swans and everything.