Prelude
Elsa’s memories

Act 1 Delusion:
On stage is the imaginary inner world of Elsa, a young woman who lost her brother in the war and whose mind has been clouded ever since. This world is filled with demons, chimeras and other terrifying visions that torment and frighten her. From these demons, Elsa hears – again and again – the accusation that her brother died through her fault. She desires nothing but salvation and deliverance from her nightmares, and after her ecstatic prayers an angelic Knight and his companions appear to her. He and his fellow knights promise peace and love to Elsa on the condition that she never asks who he is or where he comes from. The demons are defeated. Elsa is in ecstatic excitement…

Act 2 Reality:
Part 1 The psychiatric clinic
In reality, Elsa is kept in a separate ward of Ortrud and Telramund’s psychiatric clinic. A long time ago, during the war, Telramund survived severe shell shock; now he and his wife work with people physically and mentally affected by the war. Telramund is tormented by Elsa’s condition and also by his own ailments and his discord with his wife Ortrud. He feels a strange sympathy for Elsa; Ortrud is more concerned by the fact that the war that has been going on for years only aggravates Elsa’s condition. She vainly attempts to hypnotize Elsa in order to bring her back to reality. However it is her own state of mind that is shaken.

Part 2 The hospital
The action takes us to a front-line hospital where there are many soldiers: those who have recovered are preparing to be sent back to the front and praise King Henry and the nameless Protector. At the same time, many lie wounded in their cots. Not everyone survives a concussion; the dead are taken to the morgue. Women nurse and mourn men. Ortrud leads Elsa around the hospital. Seeing the soldiers,
Elsa remembers her farewell to her brother... It seems to her that they are thanking and glorifying both her and her Protector. Seeing the fighting spirit of the soldiers, it seems to Elsa that her brother’s death was not in vain. Telramund,meanwhile, is trying to dissuade several generals from leading meanwhile, is trying to dissuade several generals from leading a new war; nobody listens to him. Elsa’s hallucinations intensify. She sees that her Protector watches over her and drives away those who try to touch her. At the same time she tries to understand exactly who he is... She falls asleep.

Act 3 War:
Prelude
The call to war

War is in full swing. No one remembers when it started, no one knows how long it can last. Girls marry their chosen ones on the front line, while they are still alive.

The clinic is destroyed, but Elsa has nowhere to go. She continues to live in her surviving ward; her mental illness is progressing, but she seems to be happy with her Saviour. He promised to lead the people of Brabant to war and to victory. He will avenge her brother’s death! Elsa struggles to find out his name... There is an explosion. The obsession disappears.

The battlefield turns into a mass grave… It seemed to people that Lohengrin – that is the name of Elsa’s saviour – wouldlead them to victory, but there is no more defender, no victory, no hope, and Lohengrin leaves them. Ortrud discovers her husband Telramund among the dead; she mourns for him and curses everyone. Elsa is dying.