New York, NY (January 18, 2023)—Wagner’s soaring masterpiece Lohengrin returns to the Met stage after 17 years, in a new production by internationally renowned director François Girard. Girard, creating his third Wagner production at the house following his revelatory Parsifal, collaborates with award-winning multidisciplinary artist and designer Tim Yip—who won an Oscar for art direction on the 2000 movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and is also known for his work on the 2004 Athens Olympics closing ceremony. Yip has created sets and costumes that convey the otherworldly dimension of this opera.
Conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, the production features a cast led by tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role of the swan knight. This is Beczała’s second appearance at the Met this season, following his critically acclaimed portrayal of Loris Ipanoff in the new production of Giordano’s Fedora. The stellar cast includes internationally renowned sopranos Tamara Wilson and Elena Stikhina sharing the role of the virtuous duchess Elsa, who is falsely accused of murder, and soprano Christine Goerke as the cunning sorceress Ortrud, who seeks to undermine Elsa. Distinguished bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin is Ortrud’s power-hungry husband, Telramund, and acclaimed bass Günther Groissböck is King Heinrich. Critics applauded Groissböck’s portrayal of King Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo earlier this season, and his next performance will be as Baron Ochs in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, opening March 27. Conductor Patrick Furrer leads the cast on March 10 and April 1.
Led by Girard, the creative team also includes set and costume designer Yip, lighting designer David Finn, projection designer Peter Flaherty, choreographer Serge Bennathan, and dramaturg Serge Lamothe.
Lohengrin Worldwide Broadcasts in Cinema, Radio, and Online
The March 18 performance will be transmitted to cinemas worldwide as part of the company’s The Met: Live in HD series. The March 2 and 18 performances of Lohengrin will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Channel 355. Audio from the March 2 performance will also be streamed live on the Met’s website, metopera.org. The performance on March 18 will also be broadcast over the Toll Brothers—Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.
Lohengrin Artist Biographies
The 2022–23 season marks Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s fourth season as the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. Since his 2009 Met debut with Carmen, he has led more than 100 performances of 18 operas. He has served as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2012 and artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal since 2000. In 2018, he became honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as music director for ten seasons, and in 2016, he was named an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Between 2008 and 2014, he was principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also led operatic performances in Baden-Baden and at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Salzburg Festival. He recently conducted the world premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours and is scheduled to lead the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion, a revival of La Bohème, and concerts with the Met Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Europe.
Swiss conductor Patrick Furrer returns to the Met after making his debut last season leading The Magic Flute and David McVicar’s new production of Don Carlos. He has conducted numerous new productions, including Hänsel und Gretel, Jonny Spielt Auf, Un Ballo in Maschera, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merry Wives of Windsor in Innsbruck; L’Elisir d’Amore at the Vienna Volksoper; Die Fledermaus with the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; and Béatrice et Bénédict at the Northwestern Bienen School of Music. He also conducted performances of Rigoletto in St. Gallen, Un Ballo in Maschera and Die Zauberflöte in Mannheim, Hänsel und Gretel in Nuremberg, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Zurich.
Polish tenor Piotr Beczała makes his Met role debut as Lohengrin, a role that he has performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, Bayreuth Festival, Zurich Opera House, and Semperoper Dresden. He made his Met debut in 2006 as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, a role that he reprised multiple times in subsequent seasons, including in the premieres of new productions by Michael Mayer in 2013 and Bartlett Sher in 2021. His Met repertory also includes Rodolfo in Luisa Miller, Vaudémont in Iolanta, Lenski in Eugene Onegin, the title role of Faust, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Chevalier des Grieux in Manon, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Gustavo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, and Loris Ipanoff in Fedora. Other performances include the title role of Werther in Zurich, Jontek in Halka and Werther at the Polish National Opera, the Prince in Rusalka and Lohengrin at the Vienna State Opera, Rodolfo in Luisa Miller in Barcelona and in concert at the Salzburg Festival, and Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival. He has also appeared at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. Later this season, he is scheduled to sing Calàf in Turandot in Zurich, as well as a solo recital at the Vienna State Opera and a concert with Sondra Radvanovsky in Barcelona.
American soprano Tamara Wilson makes her role debut as Elsa. She made her Met debut in the title role of Aida in 2014, reprising the role in 2018. She has performed leading roles at the Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Sydney Opera House, among others. This season, she is scheduled to sing the title role of Tosca at Houston Grand Opera, Minnie in La Fanciulla del West with the Cleveland Orchestra, and Sieglinde in Die Walküre at the Vienna State Opera.
Russian soprano Elena Stikhina makes her role debut as Elsa. She made her Met debut singing the title role of Suor Angelica in 2018, followed by the title role of Tosca last season. She has performed in leading opera houses, including Covent Garden, La Scala, Staatsoper Berlin, and the Bavarian State Opera. Later this season, she is scheduled to sing the title role of Aida at the Bavarian State Opera, the title role of Salome at Staatsoper Berlin, and Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Salzburg Festival.
American soprano Christine Goerke makes her Met role debut as Ortrud, a role that she has performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Covent Garden, and Houston Grand Opera. Since her 1995 Met debut, she has sung more than 100 performances of 14 roles, including the title roles of Turandot and Elektra, Brünnhilde in the Ring cycle, and the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Earlier this season, she reprised the role of Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites with the company. She has also appeared at the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, among others.
Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin makes his Met role debut as Telramund, a role that he has performed at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Dutch National Opera. His Met highlights include the title role of Der Fliegende Holländer, Gunther in Götterdämmerung, Klingsor in Parsifal, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, Rangoni in Boris Godunov, Orest in Elektra, Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Colline in La Bohème, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, and Dolokhov in War and Peace, among others. His recent engagements include Scarpia in Tosca at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Shaklovity in Khovanshchina at the Paris Opera, Don Pizarro in Fidelio at the Grand Theatre of Luxembourg, and Jochanaan in Salome at the Vienna State Opera. Later this season, he is scheduled to sing Klingsor at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
Austrian bass Günther Groissböck makes his Met role debut singing Heinrich, a role that he has performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna State Opera, and Dutch National Opera. Since his Met debut in 2010 as Colline in La Bohème, he has performed many roles, including Filippo II in Don Carlo, Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Hunding in Die Walküre, Fasolt in Das Rheingold, the Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila, Don Fernando in Fidelio, Landgraf Hermann in Tannhäuser, Lodovico in Otello, and Banquo in Macbeth. Later this season, he is scheduled to sing Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier at the Met, Vodník in Rusalka at the Bavarian State Opera, Boris Ismailov in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Vienna State Opera, Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Caspar in Der Freischütz in Dresden.
American baritone Brian Mulligan makes his Met role debut singing the Herald, a role that he has performed at San Francisco Opera. He made his Met debut singing the Watchman in Die Frau ohne Schatten in 2003, followed by Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a Philistine in Samson et Dalila, Valentin in Faust, and Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra. Other recent highlights include singing Wotan in Die Walküre in Stuttgart, Amfortas in Parsifal at the Paris Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Bregenz Festival, and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples.
Canadian director François Girard returns to the Met after staging Der Fliegende Holländer in 2020. He made his Met debut in 2013 staging Parsifal. Other opera production highlights include Kaija Saariaho’s Emilie in Lyon and at Dutch National Opera; a double bill of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms at the Edinburgh International Festival and Canadian Opera Company; a double bill of Brecht and Weill’s The Lindbergh Flight and The Seven Deadly Sins in Lyon and at the Edinburgh International Festival ; and Siegfried as part of a multi-director staging of the Ring cycle with the Canadian Opera Company. He has also written and directed feature films, including The Song of Names, Cargo, Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Silk, and the Academy Award–winning historical drama The Red Violin.
Oscar-winning set and costume designer Tim Yip makes his Met debut with Lohengrin. Renowned for his multidisciplinary works in costume design and visual and contemporary art, his accomplishments include an Academy Award for Best Art Director for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001, as well as the stage and costume designs for the 2004 Athens Olympics closing ceremony. His opera and theater credits include designing the sets and costumes for Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber at San Francisco Opera in 2016 and director of the stage play Love in a Fallen City at Shanghai Grand Theater.
American lighting designer David Finn made his Met debut in 2013 with François Girard’s production of Parsifal, followed by new productions of Tosca in 2017 and Der Fliegende Holländer in 2020. He has created lighting designs for numerous opera productions, including the Canadian Opera Company’s Ring cycle and productions of Der Fliegende Holländer and Tannhauser, as well as Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung at Covent Garden. He began his career working for puppeteer Burr Tillstrom on the television show Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and has also designed extensively for choreographers such as Merce Cunningham, James Kudelka, Ashley Page, Dana Reitz, Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Helgi Tomasson, and Sasha Waltz. For film, his work includes lighting design for Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence.
American projection designer Peter Flaherty previously designed François Girard’s productions of Parsifal and Der Fliegende Holländer at the Met. His video designs include Sondheim on Sondheim for the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway, which was later adapted for HBO’s documentary Six by Sondheim; Girard’s production of The Flight of Lindbergh and The Seven Deadly Sins in Lyon and at the Edinburgh International Festival; and Chen Shi-Zheng’s My Life as a Fairy Tale at Lincoln Center Festival. His other work includes directing The Dial, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019; The Surrogate, a virtual-reality narrative; and a large-scale video installation, Pass Back a Revolver, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.
Canadian choreographer Serge Bennathan made his Met debut choreographing Robert Carsen’s production of Eugene Onegin in 1997. With Vancouver’s Les Productions Figlio, which he founded in 2006, he has produced and choreographed seven full-length dance works. He served as artistic director of Toronto’s Dancemakers from 1990 to 2006. Twelve of his Dancemakers works have received Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations, with both Sable/Sand and The Satie Project winning the award for Outstanding New Choreography. He is also a recipient of Canada’s prestigious Alcan Rio Tinto Performing Arts Award. He has received commissions from companies in Canada and around the world, including the National Ballet of Canada, Teatro San Martin Ballet Contemporaneo in Buenos Aires, and Le Jeune Ballet International de Cannes. At the Canadian Opera Company, he has directed Rossini’s Tancredi on the main stage and Stravinsky’s Renard for the COC Ensemble.
Canadian dramaturg Serge Lamothe previously worked on François Girard’s productions of Parsifal and Der Fliegende Holländer at the Met. He collaborated with Girard on Kaija Saariaho’s Emilie in Lyon and has also worked on stage adaptations of Alan Ayckbourn’s Intimate Exchanges, Kafka’s The Trial, Inoue’s The Hunting Gun, Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. An accomplished writer, he has published five novels: Tarquimpol, Les Baldwins, L’Ange au berceau, La Tierce Personne, and La Longue Portée.
For More Information
For further details on Lohengrin, including casting by date, please click here.
