Lohengrin - BLU-RAY

Seventeen years ago, pregnancy left teen Morgan (Allison Williams) bound to future husband Chris (Scott Eastwood), as his buddy Jonah (Dave Franco)-soon to marry her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald)-pined for her. Today, as Morgan sought to help daughter Clara (McKenna Grace) navigate a crush on classmate Miller (Mason Thames), a tragic car accident would uncover a secret that compounded the survivors' tragedy. Four-hankie take on the Colleen Hoover novel co-stars Clancy Brown. 117 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack English.

Hans Neuenfels's striking new production of Wagner's fairytale opera gives this medieval story of doomed love and sorcery the Bayreuth treatment. As controversial as it is stimulating, this production was the talk of the 2011 Festival, and showcases a new generation of Wagnerian singing talent including soprano Annette Dasch and tenor Klaus Florian Vogt. The performance by Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role is staggering and impressive. There is beauty and purity in his voice, but in this role in particular, one truly senses something unheimlich, other-worldly, which fits superlatively both with work and production.

What are heroes made of and why do our societies need them so badly? At the Staatsoper Stuttgart, stage director Árpád Schilling tries to answer this mythological, political and existential question, lying at the core of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. InchA wonder! A miracle!Inch, the men and women of Brabant agreed when, against all expectations, someone stood up for Elsa and invalidated the allegations made by the plaintiff Telramund. And yet he does the most normal thing in the world to help a person in distress. So why is there a need for this savior, surrounded by the aura of mystery, whose name and origin even his new wife Elsa cannot ask? Why does the collective body abdicates it's moral and political responsibilities and surrenders them to a single individual? And when does the providential man stops being a savior and becomes a threat? For Hungarian stage director Árpád Schilling, a fierce enemy of the very idea of the cult of a personality, and he himself a political exile, these questions lie at the core of Richard Wagner's Lohengrin. For his new production at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the stage director recenters the opera on the expressivity of the direction, and strips the stage of all it's ornamental or mythological elements. He creates a coming-of-age tale, pervaded by the themes of responsibility, trust, and the relationship between the individual and the collective. This powerful and ambitious proposition is mirrored in Maestro Cornelius Meister's expressive and philosophical conducting, and in Michaël König, Simone Schneider, Martin Gantner, Okka von der Damerau's profound singing.