The production of Lohengrin from the 2008/09 season is by Jens-Daniel Herzog, who has been artistic director of the Nuremberg Staatstheater since 2018. In his view, Wagner's work is about projections and spaces of longing, in which the opera's main female role, Elsa von Brabant, in particular moves. Herzog translated this with the world of cinema, and he thus found an interpretation of the romantic opera that was coherent for both audience and press. Here are some excerpts from the press releases after the premiere on May 3, 2009: "Thus Jens-Daniel Herzog succeeds in Frankfurt in an impressive opera debut, which in many respects plays with the longings of people - and completely without a swan" (SWR2 / Journal am Mittag). - "In what is perhaps his best operatic work to date, Herzog virtuously balances between seriousness and jest, plausibly undercutting even the parareligious patriotic traits that are among the work's less digestible ingredients" (Frankfurter Rundschau). - "Mighty applause for a cleverly conceived and highly exciting production and a gripping musical realization in a great evening of opera that would do honor to Bayreuth" (Darmstädter Echo).
