Director: Brian Large
Claudio Abbado ... conductor
Wolfgang Weber ... stage director
Plácido Domingo ... Lohengrin, t
Robert Lloyd ... Henry the Fowler, bass
Cheryl Studer ... Elsa von Brabant, s
Hartmut Welker ... Friedrich von Teralmund, count of Brabant, baritone
Dunja Vejzovic ... Ortrud, his wife, s or ms
Georg Tichy ... The King's Herald, baritone or bass
Subtitles only in Portuguese (my error!)
My rating is probably unfair. I didn't read any synopsis, and clearly couldn't follow any lyrics. However, this staging is very drab (color pallette, barren set), and apparently there _was_ a sword fight and I missed it? The music did not grab me until the wedding melody still used a lot today, and that was much more beautiful than our common use of it (big orchestra here).
After running this, I'm very surprised by the high rating on both IMDb and Amazon. Either these are Wagner/Lohengrin aficionados, or I'm missing something, which is entirely possible. Unfortunately, without English subtitles, I would need another source to become familiar with the opera, and then come back to evaluate this performance again. But given my lack of enthusiasm for the score...
Vienna State Opera, Pioneer LDC, cond. Abbado; 6
