Murder Mystery: Richard Laing is thrilled by a brilliant Brabantian ‘whodunnit’

Review of Lohengrin, directed Wieler and Morabito, conducted Thielemann, Vienna, 2024 (C major, 1 Blu-ray disc).

March 2026, Volume 20, Number 1, 78–9.

Sexual politics have moved on so far since Wagner wrote Lohengrin that, perhaps alone in the composer’s output, it seems almost unconscionable to present the opera in anything resembling its original dramatic form. Elsa simply cannot be a swooning damsel dependent on her dashing knight. And so in contemporary productions we are treated to a multiplicity of interpretations, seeing the story through modern, wiser eyes. The emotional and even physical abuse that Lohengrin inflicts on his wife, and his unwarranted sense of entitlement, must be clear; for her part, we expect Elsa to be presented with more agency than her creator could ever have envisaged. But there are still unexpected angles to explore.