IN a haze of blue light, Robert Wilson’s shimmering yet controversial staging of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” reappeared at the Metropolitan Opera House Monday night for the first time in seven years.
As then, the ever-improving Canadian heldentenor Ben Heppner took the title role, with the great Finnish soprano Karita Mattila as Elsa. Making her Met debut was American Luana DeVol as Ortrud, while Phillipe Auguin became the latest in the bench roster of conductors to substitute for the sidelined James Levine.
Wilson’s production – stupidly booed at the 1998 premiere – is as slow-paced as growing coral, but just as beautiful. Then again, no one ever accused Wagner’s score, conducted here with more amplitude than passion, of making a hasty statement.
“Lohengrin” – which has won a place in popular culture for its “Bridal Chorus” and its hero’s unique method of swan transportation – tells how Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail, tries to save Elsa from the machinations of the conniving Telramund and his wicked pagan wife, Ortrud.
It doesn’t end happily but magically – after 4 ½ hours, with intermissions – and it is this theatrical magic that concerns Wilson. With his stylized gestures and startlingly brilliant lighting, he views the opera largely as myth, untethering it from its semi-realistic spear carriers and 11th-century Teutonic background.
Heppner was in great voice, showing a musical subtlety rare in Wagnerian tenors, while a lustrous-voiced Mattila interpreted Elsa splendidly, singing with just the right expressive weight.
DeVol also acted impressively as the evil Ortrud, with a fine voice that should acquire darker tones for the role. Richard Paul Fink provided a suitably unpleasant but handsomely sung Telramund, and making an unexpected Met debut as King Henry, Andrew Greenan (replacing an ailing Stephen West) revealed a sonorous bass, although he could do with a little more confidence in his lowest register.
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LOHENGRIN
The Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center; (212) 362-6000. Performances tonight, Monday, April 29, May 3 and May 6.