Perhaps not everyone knows this, but our Hungarian ancestors are mentioned in Wagner's Lohengrin: early in the story, King Heinrich tells the assembled nobles of Brabant that the Hungarians are threatening the country from the east... Though a mature work, Lohengrin - along with Der fliegende Holländer and Tannhäuser - comprise Wagner's early output. In spite of its early genesis, however, the story of the 'knight of the swan' points the way forward to Wagner's later work in a marvellous fashion, notably to Parsifal, as it is imbued with a similar spirit: its protagonist is a Grail knight. Lohengrin, as he reveals at the end of the work in the Grail Narration - along with the Wedding March, the opera's most famous passage - is the son of Parsifal, and the ethereal purity with which his musical delivery endows him with his character vividly presages the similar elevated tone that predominates throughout Parsifal. However, this work also does not dispense with the ingredients of genuine Romantic opera: a secret, an oath, treachery, black magic and even the realisation that Ortrud, the work's demonic female character, is a witch. An enchanting mixture of the hallmarks of Wagner's early and mature worlds: this is what Lohengrin is.

Presented by: Müpa Budapest