Lohengrin -- San Francisco Opera Performance
Lohengrin
SF
Opera Performance, October 20, 2012
The concept of love put forward in Lohengrin is that of a fragile flower very dependent upon
maintaining illusions. Love is
equivalent to blind Faith in goodness and constancy that must be absolute and
unquestioning. But the underlying
anxieties of this kind of naive faith ultimately undermine it and do it
in. Lohengrin echoes Christianity in its
demand for simple faith and the basic concept of a man is sent from God to
rescue a damsel in distress, accused of a terrible crime. He saves her, not through self sacrifice, as
in the Christian model, but through militaristic combat -- a Wagnerian variant
on the Christian theme. Superior prowess
on the battlefield saves the girl from her enemies and wins her love. The woman's love is the hero's reward for her
rescue from desperation. But there is
one condition. The woman cannot ask her
rescuer who he is or where he comes from.
She has to take him completely on faith and let his actions of rescue
and his superior strength in battle be the sole foundation of her devotion and
love. If she is to question him and
demand to know more of who he is, then he will be forced to leave her and
renounce her. It is love founded on the
most narrow, simplistic grounds and maintained with a gun pointed at the
woman's head, so to speak. Love can only
be maintained with the woman in a desperate position of neediness with the man serving
as the heroic figure of strength who magnanimously saves her from perpetual
impending catastrophe. Love as worship
of the conquering hero. While a woman
may feel grateful to be delivered from impending doom -- at least for a time
-- she will soon feel the extreme
vulnerability of this position of helpless dependence, as the opera
demonstrates. She will question her own
worthiness of the man's continuing love, she will want to broaden the base of
the relationship and feel more appealing to the man beyond mere helplessness
and need. She will feel the fragility of
the connection to him. She feels
vulnerable to his tiring of her and moving on. She seeks to strengthen her position through a
greater understanding of the man, who he is, and what his own needs and
vulnerabilities are. The message of Lohengrin is that this is a destructive
tendency, that love can only be this primitive, blind devotion stemming from a
condition of imminent undoing. Love
between a man and a woman essentially depends on a woman being in a perpetual
state of crisis. But on the other hand,
if the woman gets to know who the man is and where he comes from, then she will
realize that he is not the invulnerable hero, not the idealized figure of
goodness and strength that he presented himself to be, and thus her love and
devotion will be annuled. The man's
insecurity and feelings of unworthiness are activated upon a deeper probing of
his true self. It is a very pessimistic
outlook on relations between the sexes.
Love can only be born and continue within these very narrow confines of faith
sustained through willful ignorance, and that fragile foundation gives rise to
the anxieties and demands that sabotage and destroy it. It is an outlook on life that is essentially
dark and tragic -- and a little silly too.
A few quibbles with the San Francisco Opera's performance.
This production of the opera is set in a modern context in
modern costumes, although Wagner's original conceptualization set it in 10th
century Saxony. On the cover of the
program is a photograph by Erich Lessing of the destruction of the Stalin monument
in Budapest, Hungary, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The idea according to Director Daniel Slater
is that a contemporary setting would make it "more exciting and relevant
for the audience." Well, most
Americans living today can probably relate to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
about as well as they can relate to 10th century Saxony. Many of us would be surprised to discover
that there was a revolution in Hungary in 1956.
And where is Hungary, by the way?
There are some militaristic and nationalistic elements in
the opera that resonated well with the National Socialists, but you have to
keep in mind that Germany did not even exist as a unified nation at the time
this opera was composed. Invasion from
the East was a long standing European fear that would be readily grasped by any
European audience. The fact that this was a pressing matter in the 10th century
would not be peculiar to that time or have any compelling significance as a
factor in setting the opera in that time and place. I think Wagner's purpose in setting the opera
long in the past, aside from these nationalistic overtones, was to give the
opera a context where the kind of romantic idealizations in the personal sphere
that the opera treats would have traction for the viewer free from the
distractions of a contemporary political and social context. Moving it forward in time and bringing up
contemporary political issues in my view disrupts the essential focus of this
opera on the nature of human relationships.
True, the opera takes place under the threat of impending war. But this was a condition of European life as
far back as one cares to look. So in
that sense it did not matter when the opera was set, this background factor of
imminent war was going to remain a constant in whatever time period it occurred. Wagner set it long in the past precisely to
expunge the contingencies of the immediate contemporary circumstances. Bringing the opera forward and setting it in
our own time defeats that artistic purpose and makes the whole thing sort of
confusing.
Director Slater sees Lohengrin as a problematic character
who renounces his godlike status in order to experience human love with Elsa. This is based on musings external to the
opera itself. Within the opera there is
nothing problematic about Lohengrin. He
was sent on a mission by the Grail. He
fulfilled the mission, he accepted Elsa as his prize, he accepted the
leadership position as a warrior, he laid out his conditions, and he stuck to
them steadfastly and departed without any apparent signs of misgiving. Slater says he is seeking redemption through
Elsa's love and is willing to sacrifice his immortality to achieve it. There is nothing in the opera to substantiate
this view. Within the opera, Lohengrin
is a knight in shining armor coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress and then
to lead an army into battle. Slater puts him instead in a leather trench
coat, which tends to deemphasize his heroic qualities. But counterculture figures don't usually lead
armies. I'm not sure that it works. Lohengrin is not Hamlet.
Generally the staging is rather static and
unimaginative. At times it gets dull
because there is not enough activity in the staging or aesthetic interest in
the lighting to sustain one's attention.
The lighting in the first act is bright and harsh. The early part of the second act feels a
little cramped against the front edge of the stage. In the original conception the swan was
supposed to pull a boat down the river bearing Lohengrin. Slater gives that up and opts for much less
impressive imagery of a static pair of wings from which Lohengrin emerges. At the end the long lost Gottfried reappears
as a small boy from the transformed swan.
But it doesn't make sense that Gottfried should reappear as a small
boy. He disappeared years ago as a
child. His sister Elsa has grown into a mature
woman. He should be contemporary with
Elsa. Furthermore, he is supposed to
arrive ready to lead an army into battle, to step into the role being abdicated
by Lohengrin, but he can barely lift a sword.
What is Slater seeking by casting Gottfried as an 8 year old boy? Some sort of cutesy sentimentality? A child's appearance at the end of this dark,
gloomy opera trying to wave a sword is a rather ridiculous juxtaposition if you
ask me, and I take it to indicate that he completely misunderstands what the
opera is all about. This is not a
child's opera at all and introducing a child as a final punctuation mark on
this tragedy is a colossal malapropism.
What works in this opera is the music. If it wasn't for the music, it probably
wouldn't even be staged. The orchestra,
the singers, the chorus, did a superb job and made it a musical success, even
if it left much to be desired as a dramatic production. Wagner's great creativity and strength was as
a composer of music more than as a dramatist or as a prophet. It is clearly evident in this dark opera and
in its problematic staging in this San Francisco Opera production.