The Met: Live in HD goes all Wagner on us

Above: The Met: Live in HD presents the Wagner opera "Lohengrin." (Photo/The Met)

It took years for the great composer Richard Wagner to compose his opera “Lohengrin.” He based the work on a character drawn from the 13th century poem “Parzival” by the German knight Wolfram von Eshenbach.

Lohengrin, the son of Parzival (or Percival), is a Grail Knight whose charge is to provide for kingdoms that have lost their lords. Told in three acts, Wagner’s opera centers on Lohengrin’s relationship with the noble lady Elsa and the sad way that relationship ends.

The Met: Live in HD series will present “Lohengrin” on Saturday and Wednesday at two area Regal Cinemas theaters, NorthTown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium. Saturday’s screenings are set for 9 a.m., while Wednesday’s will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Director François Girard and music director Yannick Nézel-Séguin lead a cast led by tenor Piotr Beczala and sopranos Tamara Wilson and Christine Goerke.

Writing in the New York Times, critic Zachary Woolfe wrote that the production “boasts a shining musical performance from the orchestra and the two leading singers.”

“Beczala performs the Wagner role – pure, precise and often treacherously exposed – with total security and elegance,” Woolfe wrote, while adding that “Wilson’s voice gradually warms, gently molten in their love duet and palpably angry in confrontation.”

For once, Wagner might not be rolling over in his grave.