Lohengrin inspires in Passau: a magical castle festival experience!

Lohengrin inspires in Passau: a magical castle festival experience!

The weather was painted for the Burgen Festival on the Veste Oberhaus in Passau today. On July 13, 2025, the Lower Bavaria Landestheater showed the opera "Lohengrin", and the numerous audience was enthusiastic right from the start. The exemplary discipline of the spectators and their great interest in what is happening on the stage contributed to the successful atmosphere of this outdoor performance. Online Merker reports that the uniform stage, which characterized the medieval setting well, and the outstanding, historicizing costumes by Ursula Beutler joined the spectators.

The staging directed by Thomas Ecker told the action of "Lohengrin" unadulterated and let the dramatic elements of history come into their own. But not everything found undivided approval: some scenic decisions were perceived as questionable how the wedding choir and Elsas appear.

The course of the action

The story takes place in Brabant, where there is a power vacuum. Elsa, the protagonist, stands in front of a court of God under the German King Heinrich, accused of murder on her brother Gottfried. The manipulative Ortrud raises the indictment, supported by Friedrich von Telramund, who himself strives for power. In the middle of this intrigue, the mysterious swan knight appears, which proves Elsa's innocence and wants to marry it - on the condition that she never asks him for his name. Such tragic phrases represent the topic of the search for identity and home that Wagner addressed in this opera.

The impressive musical implementation of the evening came about through the orchestra, not least due to the differentiated reproduction of the score. The choir, rehearsed by Guiran Jeong, showed particularly strong performances in the second and third act. While Edward Leach at the beginning showed a good performance in the title role, he had difficulties in the crucial third act. The Landestheater Niederbayern emphasizes that Iryna Zhytynska as Elsa also had to overcome some hurdles, especially with regard to the comprehensibility of her performance.

The actors in the spotlight

Nevertheless, other soloists impressed the audience: Philipp Mayer as King Heinrich demonstrated excellent technology and diction, while Kyung Chun Kim was positively noticed as Telramund. Yian Luan, whose natural musicality and technology caused a lot of applause, was particularly worth mentioning. Even if the criticism of production did not fail to do so, the evening ended with a lot of applause and approval from the audience.

The castle festival in Passau makes a lot of fun and are worth a trip. Regardless of whether you want to enjoy the performance outdoors or visit the indoor version of the "Lohengrin" in Landshut - the opera is a hit! Tickets for the performances can be purchased directly at the box office or via the card demand form, while in Landshut the ticket purchase is also possible via the web shop.