[Met Performance] CID:32150



Lohengrin
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, December 12, 1903 Matinee





Lohengrin (207)
Richard Wagner | Richard Wagner
Lohengrin
Ernst Kraus

Elsa
Johanna Gadski

Ortrud
Edyth Walker

Telramund
Anton Van Rooy

King Heinrich
Robert Blass

Herald
Adolph M?hlmann


Conductor
Felix Mottl


Director
Anton Fuchs





Note: New costumes for many in the cast, including the entire chorus, were introducted in this performance. Some new scenery elements were also introduced.
Lohengrin received eight performances this season.
New costumes for many in the cast, including the entire chorus, were introducted in this performance. Some new scenery elements were also introduced.

Review 1:

Review in the New York Daily Tribune

Mr. Conried departed widely from the conventions of his predecessors at the Metropolitan Opera House yesterday. Both performances were devoted to first productions for the season - "Lohengrin" in the afternoon and "La Traviata" in the evening. In the first opera there were several features to inititate curiosity and interest - new costumes for several of the principal singers and all of the choristers, a new representation of Ortrud, some new bits of scenery and, a peculiarly telling impersonation of Telramund by Mr. Van Rooy. There was also a draft on the Opera School for the pages who have the few proclamatory measures to sing before the wedding procession in the second act. It, too, was new, and its varnish ought never to be subjected to wear again. Any eight members from the old church guard would sing the strain if called upon; yesterday it was not sung at all, and, having made a mess of the music, the young aspirants for operatic honors took attitudes of conscious misery, on the minster steps and prolonged the wretched memory of their vocal performance till the scene was over.

The additions to the stage pictures were agreeable, and the touch of archaism in the costumes was decidedly attractive, so much so, indeed, as to create a desire to see the reform in the furniture of this opera instituted by Herr Possart and Herr Leutensehl?ger some ten years ago in Munich carried out in its integrity. Mme. Gadski, who sang and acted tellingly. disregarded the innovation in the main, but Herr Van Rooy respected it and his impersonation of the weaker of the two vessels of evil in the drama was the most convincing and thrilling performance that NewYork has yet experienced. The new costumes do not add to the, brilliancy of the old scenes, but they do enhance their characteristic picturesqueness and satisfy the desire for historical accuracy. It is an easy matter to fix the date of the incidents of Wagner's drama.

The king is Henry the Fowler. In his address to the nobles in the first act he speaks of an expedition against the Huns. Henry being an historical character, and the trouble with the Huns an historical fact, the time of the action is not at all speculative. The year is A. D. 933. Tenth century costumes and customs may, therefore, he assumed as essential in a representation of "Lohengrin" and the rude forcefulness and barbaric appearance of Herr Van Rooy's Telramund yesterday were justified, though they appeared in rather crass contrast with their surroundings at times. It would make an interesting study to follow the evolution of the American representations of '"Lohengrin" since it became a regular feature of the repertory here. Year by year it has grown away from the old operatic lines and become more of a drama, taking in steadily more and more of an infusion of red blood, losing occasionally some of the unqualified melodic charm which seemed so potent back the days of Nilsson, Cary, Campanini and their companions, but gaining steadily in virility and dramatic force. Some day we may hope to see it reach its perfect state as it loomed up in the imagination of its composer.

Miss Walker's conception of the character of Ortrud is conventional throughout, and her action stilted. But she has the range of voice required by the music, abundant skill in its use and command of the technicalities of the stage. For the expressive potentialities of the Frisian sorceress she has no tones, for her voice is not emotionally vibrant, nor a vehicle of feeling, nor capable of varied colorings. It is simply beautiful and mechanically capable. Her exclamation, "Gott!" in the first scene of the second act yesterday was a fine musical tune. but did not at all convey the composer's intention and left Telramund's comment on its fearfulness without a shred of appositeness or meaning, No one could have guessed that it was the cynical shriek of a devotee of the old religion of her people. Yet, though it did not compare favorably with the impersonations to which Mmes. Brandt, Brema and Schumann-Heink have accustomed us, it helped the musical features of the performance, which, under the firm direction of Herr Mottl, were frequently inspiring. Herr Kraus was the Lohengrin, consistently tuneful and inspiriting: Herr Blass an orotund-voiced King and Herr M?hlmann an intelligently declamatory Herald.



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