Friday, February 11, 2022

Hans Neuenfels

The German director, of spoken theater and opera, died earlier this week of COVID-19. He was 80.

I haven't seen anything indicating that Neuenfels ever worked in the United States. I've seen only one of his productions, the famous "rat" Lohengrin, staged at the Bayreuth Festival from 2010 until 2015. I saw the very last performance, at the end of which there was a 20-minute ovation for the performers. I reviewed Lohengrin (and all of the 2015 productions) for SFCV. I am not sure that I succeeded in conveying the strange beauty and charm of the production. There's a video; it's a good one and you should try to see it, but seeing the production live was something else. I'm deeply sorry that it's the only one of his productions that I have seen.

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