FIRST NIGHT

Opera review: Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival, Germany

The conductor drew Tristan-esque textures from the orchestra in the Act III love duet, but such close-focus attention is not matched in the staging
Waltraud Meier, Piotr Beczala and Anja Harteros in Lohengrin
Waltraud Meier, Piotr Beczala and Anja Harteros in Lohengrin

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★★★☆☆
As sure as Angela Merkel clears her diary to attend the first night of the Bayreuth Festival, so must some kind of rumpus hit the annual Wagner jamboree just before kick-off. This year it was the last-minute withdrawal of Roberto Alagna, who had been cast in the title role of Lohengrin, but withdrew less than a month before curtain-up, conceding that he simply hadn’t had the chance to learn the part.

To the rescue swanned in a new Swan Knight in the guise of the Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, who isn’t exactly orthodox casting himself, but triumphs here. He is reunited with the conductor who first coaxed him into the part in Dresden in 2016, Bayreuth’s music director, Christian Thielemann. Beczala does not have