The swan-swastika banners, boots and guns in the Royal Opera’s 2018 staging of Wagner’s Lohengrin, though brilliantly done, had an air of theatrical platitude when new. Now back for its first revival, with an outstanding, watertight cast conducted by Jakub Hrůša, David Alden’s production has sharp immediacy. Empty facades of burnt-out buildings, which previously resembled bleak but elegant examples of constructivism in Paul Steinberg’s designs, now reflect the images we see daily in the news. A herald in leg brace, face bloodied, holds up a mirror to our tarnished world.
Lohengrin (1850), a transitional work for Wagner in his long journey towards The Ring and Parsifal, is set against a backdrop of war. That tumult recedes in the face of the tangled principal relationships, chief among them Elsa von Brabant (Jennifer Davis, returning to the role in gleaming voice) and her saviour-hero of the title, performed with expressive range, and no fear of singing softly, by Brandon Jovanovich. As a knight of the holy grail, he is obliged to travel by swan boat. Nor must he reveal his name, even to his understandably frustrated new wife.
