Opera Australia: Lohengrin

In a romance of mythical proportions, our Knight of the Swan rescues his damsel asking only one thing in return…

Elsa stands accused of a horrible crime. She prays for a champion, and a noble knight appears. But his help comes with a condition: she must never ask his name. Does true love demand blind faith?

Lohengrin is a fantastical romance. It’s filled with shimmering string passages and angelic choruses, including the famous Bridal March. Wagner described his music as “streams of gold, ravishing the senses of the beholder”.

The world’s most in-demand singer — Jonas Kaufmann— is the noble Lohengrin.

Every Kaufmann performance is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and this marks the first time ever the German tenor will perform a fully staged opera in Australia.

Kaufmann as Lohengrin is “in a class of his own, totally involved and giving a masterclass of daringly varied, sometimes mannered, vocal technique” (The Guardian).

Joined by a brilliant cast including Emily Magee as Elsa, Elena Gabouri as Ortrud, and Simon Meadows performs as the deceived Telramund.

Director Olivier Py sets this battle between good and evil in the ruins of Berlin in the aftermath of World War II. A monumental revolving tiered set depicts a decaying theatre, where emblems of German Romanticism gather dust.