Wagner arrives at the Teatro Costanzi for the first time in fifty years and with it, a landmark debut for Michele Mariotti. The new season of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma opens with Lohengrin, marking the first encounter with Wagner’s music for both Mariotti, the theatre’s Music Director and stage director Damiano Michieletto.
For Mariotti, this is a natural milestone in a journey deliberately built around artistic breadth: each season opener under his tenure has featured a different composer, with the aim of creating a theatre open to curious audiences willing to engage with a range of musical languages. In his own words, Lohengrin holds together historical drama and legend, its score reflecting both the solemn grandeur of the choral and political world, and a suspended, visionary quality that opens onto something almost fairy-tale in nature.
The new production, co-produced with the Palau de les Arts in Valencia and Teatro La Fenice in Venice, features sets by Paolo Fantin, costumes by Carla Teti, and lighting by Alessandro Carletti. The title role is taken by Dmitry Korchak, winner of the Premio Abbiati 2019, in his role debut as Lohengrin, alongside Jennifer Holloway (Elsa), Ekaterina Gubanova (Ortrud), Tómas Tómasson (Telramund), Clive Bayley (Heinrich) and Andrei Bondarenko (Herald). The Orchestra and Chorus of the Opera di Roma perform under Mariotti’s direction, with the Chorus led by Ciro Visco.