May I be so bold as to offer a few thoughts on Lohengrin. (Pardon my grammar and spelling, English is my third language).

Lohengrin the most fragile of all the Wagner operas. It needs a great conductor who can combine both the lyrical and the dramatic and some aspect the same is required of the singers in the leading roles. A good conductor starts from the first bar of the work to paint the halo around the legend, the best preludes are intimate, hushed and unhurried. The conductor should really hold in the reins and not let the orchestra crescendo until it is absolutely unavoidable and then you let it bloom. (Böhm does this to great effect on the live recording from Vienna in 1965). The conductor must throughout the work keep the action going while at the same time be alert and willing to allow the more tender moment or the more expressive and beautiful ones to bloom and have their proper effect. (You really need to cuddle it a little). Nothing short of a first-class orchestra will do the job properly - those strings really need to shimmer.

Lohengrin also needs a big and accomplished chorus, especially the male part. Some of the most rousing music involves the male chorus and they need to be impressive but also precise and parts of the music are complex and can easily fall apart – mainly the section leading to Lohengrin’s first entrance in act 1. Reserved forces will not do – not for me.

The orchestra, strings specially, creates a hollow around Lohengrin and the swan, but Elsa has to make her own. For that the singer needs a beautiful, young sounding, divine-like voice, and a singer who know how to float a note, specially a high-lying soft note. (Emphasis on the young sounding part). Elsa has to be young, innocent and pure – no verissimo chest voice and not matronly. The best in my mind, by far, are Grümmer, Janowitz and Elenor Steber under Keilberth in Bayreuth 1953.

The most important role to cast is Ortrud. She is the backbone on which the whole opera rests, specially the long second act. One can tolerate a dull Lohengin or Elsa and even forgive and less then mediocre Telramund, but a dull Ortrud will kill the show. She doesn’t have to be vocally perfect, but she must be expressive and dramatically involved. (Vocal amplitude helps a lot). For this reason also, a good Ortrud can easily steal the show, I have witnessed this in the opera house and we have a recording of such an event in the 1965 recording from Vienna with Böhm and Christa Ludwig.

I usually don’t have too many demands when it comes to the leading tenor role in a Wagner opera, vocal amplitude and dramatic involvement usually carries the day for me. Lohengrin on the other hand is not subject to the same leniency. A good Lohengrin requires both a hefty voice and a lyrical quality. It cannot be too heldentenor-like, not too dark, not such much a Tristan or a Parsifal - the voice emerging from the orchestra halo in act 1 must be tender but handsome - he is a warrior but also a holy man and a lover. The role can be sung by a more Italianate spinto tenor to great effect. I believe Jussi Björling had started to prepare for it before his death and we are lucky enough to have a beautiful recording of In fernem Land from his last concert in Sweden (sung in Swedish, which surprisingly works pretty well). Sandor Konya is a personal favourite, he had a dramatic voice but with an Italian spinto sound and could sing beautifully, almost bel canto. Jess Thomas was also a great Lohengrin with his handsome, masculine tenor. His co-patriot James King did a good job of it too (I particularly like his live account from Bayreuth under Kempe in 1967). Peter Seiffert is a more recent accomplished exponent of the role. (Many will expect me to mention Kaufman at this point, which I understand, but I have some reservations regarding his voice projection or the sound he makes).

Other roles are not as important although Telramund does carry a lot of the first act. I prefer a dramatic baritone with great diction, meaty voice and good high notes, my favourites are Thomas Stewart and Herman Udhe. Walter Berry also did a good job and more surprisingly so did Ernest Blanc in Bayreuth in 1959. (Yes, yes, Fischer-Dieskau was great too.) King Henry, who gets some beautiful music, profits from a solid dark, regal bass voice with cantante elements. The role requires some high notes and both heft and fatherly tenderness. (Hearing a dark bass throw of an impressive high note can be a very thrilling thing in the opera house). Favourites in the role are Franz Crass, Ridderbusch, Frick and Moll. The role of the Heerrufer is actually quite substantial but sometimes undercast. It requires a good baritone and perhaps for that reason Wächter sang it regularly both at Bayreuth and Vienna. It is however not a deal-braker.