Heppnered Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Friday, January 29 2010
Going to Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB), I felt I was lucky to have a ticket for this ausverkauft and very starry night of Lohengrin :

Lohengrin - Ben Heppner

Elsa- Ricarda Merbeth

Ortrud - Waltraud Meier

Telramund - Eike Wilm Schulte

Heinrich - Kristinn Sigmundsson

King's Herals - Anton Keremidtchiev 

Director - Goetz Friedrich

Conductor - Michael Schonwandt

 

In spite of the very snowy weather, freezing cold and ice on the pavements surrounding DOB, the theater was packed for the opening of the new run of Lohengrin.

Personally I was mostly interested in the DOB chorus, and maestro Michael Schønwandt (whose Copenhagen Ring I tenderly loved), but I think most of the opera-goers were answering to the buzz the PR staff generated about Ben Heppner (many interviews in the daily newspapers; plus huge posters "big voices return to Berlin") and about Waltraud Meier -who doesn't sing that often at DOB- who the Germans simply love.