Lohengrin
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Finally – here is Karita Mattila’s debut at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. She is a cunning sorceress and deep-voiced plotter in Wagner’s opulent Lohengrin. And what a Finnish celebration the evening will be, with Tuomas Katajala, the most internationally successful Finnish tenor of today, singing the title role.
‘Only one Finnish star can fill Olavinlinna alone.’
Helsingin Sanomat about Karita Mattila’s concert, 15 July 2012
Wagner’s mythical work of art is a fairy tale about the relationship between utopia and reality. ‘It is a child’s dream of an intact, reconciled world. The world has dreamed of this hundreds of times and keeps dreaming of it again and again. The work is about this human longing – and the painful realization that it can never come true’, says director Roman Hovenbitzer.
Right from the intense prelude, Lohengrin grips the listener. There’s a rumble of thunder in the castle walls. The music is highly charged, even hypnotic. With Wagner, time loses its meaning. When the secrets are revealed and the performance ends, you walk out of Olavinlinna into the summer night and ask yourself what really happened.
Program and cast
TEAM
Conductor
Stephan Zilias
Director
Roman Hovenbitzer
Set designer
Hermann Feuchter
Costume designer
Hank Irwin Kittel
Lighting designer
Wolfgang Göbbel
Video designer
Andreas J. Etter
Chorus master
Jan Schweiger
Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir
Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra
Savonlinnan Oopperajuhlakuoro
Savonlinnan Oopperajuhlaorkesteri
Language
German
Surtitles
Finnish and English
Duration
approx. 4 hrs 30 min, 2 intervals
Savonlinna Hall
The conference and concert venue Savonlinna Hall on the Kasinosaari Island was built in 2002, and the oldest section of the building, Wanha Kasino (Old Casino), dates from 1896. Savonlinna Hall combines the long traditions of the area, the celebrated skill of Finnish timber construction, and modern technology.