Intrigue, Amusement and Confusion

KEITH BRAMICH is impressed by Covent Garden's
new production of Wagner's 'Lohengrin'

Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais recently pulled out of Covent Garden's new production of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin in order to ensure full recovery from a routine medical procedure. Opolais and Andris Nelsons, who's conducting Lohengrin in London, divorced earlier this year, but the statements issued at the time made it clear that they both looked forward to continuing their artistic relationship together.

Royal Opera's rather surprising replacement damsel-in-distress, Elsa von Brabant, was young Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, who only previously sang smaller parts for London's major opera house, but who has received good reviews elsewhere — as Donna Anna for Opera North recently, for example. And, at least on Sunday 10 June 2018 in London, Davis' singing and acting were superb, right from her first appearance, one hand at a time, as she emerged slowly through a trapdoor on the stage floor to face (in this production) a firing squad — a performance likely to be a turning point in her career...

LOHENGRIN

RICHARD WAGNER

ANDRIS NELSONS

DAVID ALDEN

COVENT GARDEN

LONDON

UNITED KINGDOM