Lohengrin

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