A famous 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner wrote operas, was a man of extraordinary talent and strong spirit. His inexhaustible energy, his fanatical conviction about his own righteousness, helped him to revolutionise music. Wagner himself proclaimed that he was creating “the music of the future”. The “work of the future” is an example of the synthesis of the arts. The composer had little interest in what went beyond the opera genre. Wagner’s greatest achievement is his operatic reform. He called his operas musical dramas, integral works of art – Gesamtkunstwerk. Fascinated by the legend of the kingdom of the Holy Grail and its highest moral ideals, Wagner composed the opera Lohengrin. The main character of the opera, Lohengrin, the Knight of the Holy Grail, is sent to earth to defend the truth, and represents divine love incarnate in man, while Elsa – the weakness of man, which prevents Lohengrin from accepting with honour the blessing he is granted. This symbolic interpretation is presented in the opera’s overture (Prelude), which depicts the descent of the

Holy Grail from heaven and its return. The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Victorien Vanoosten, principal guest conductor of the LNSO.