The 'Cambridge Parsifal'

**Mr Pee** · 29-01-12, 19:41

I didn't know of it, or attend, but after reading that review I wish I had been there. Act 3 of Parsifal with those forces and in that setting must have been wonderful.

**Prommer** · 29-01-12, 20:16

The programme stated that this was the first time 'in living memory' that Wagner opera had been performed by Cambridge students. Can that really be true? If so, even more credit must go to Elder for suggesting it, and for those soloists offering their services for free to encourage the next generation in this repertoire.

**JFLL** · 29-01-12, 22:50

Originally posted by Prommer View Post

The programme stated that this was the first time 'in living memory' that Wagner opera had been performed by Cambridge students. Can that really be true?

According to the Cambridge University Opera Society website http://www.cuos.org.uk/history.html they performed 'The Flying Dutchman' in 2002. There are some real rarities in this list. I remember Weber's 'Oberon', (of which the spoken dialogue (e.g. 'Must I then dissemble?') caused unseemly hilarity among the largely undergraduate audience, and Strauss's 'Ariadne auf Naxos' of 1967. 'Ariadne' was performed, if I remember rightly, preceded by an abridged version of Moliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, with Strauss's delicious incidental music.

**Prommer** · 30-01-12, 09:33

It was a wonderful evening. So good of the soloists and Mark Elder to have given their time and services freely, for the benefit of the next generation (one now hopes) of Wagnerians.

And the news is good on that front. Though the soloists were all professionals, the students had the chance to observe and learn from them, as orchestral players and choristers. There were occasional flubs in the brass and woodwind, which mattered very little, but overall the sense of involvement, commitment and even idiom were unfailingly present. The male chorus of Knights sang their ullulations as if to the grail hall born, beginning up by the high altar and moving down the chapel, through the screen and taking up their places behind the orchestra. A magic moment, well coordinated and controlled. For singers most used to the English choral tradition it was quite a change and quite something.

Mark Elder conducted a concentrated performance, which rose to some thrilling moments of power and intensity. He seems (perhaps just for this occasion?) to have adopted his former mentor Reggie Goodall's baton-less technique: arms mostly held low, fists often clenched, drawing real depth and profundity from the lower strings particularly, and shaping and building a very compelling whole, which had everything 'placed' just so.

As to the singers, well, they gave individual and collective masterclasses. We had heard Victoria Simmonds briefly in the Debussy cantata which opened the concert (La Damoiselle Elue, with its snatch of the descending Parsifal grail motif), and she delivered her groanings and two words as Kundry with great effect. It was a joy to see and hear Robert Lloyd back in a main role, as he has now retired from the front line at Covent Garden of late, preferring to concentrate on priceless cameos such as the Nightwatchman in Meistersinger and Dr Grenvil in Traviata. He gave us a mellow, inward Gurnemanz, marshalling his resources successfully for the few higher-lying outpourings. A generous but unshowy performance.

Simon O'Neill was quite a contrast. His was an extrovert Parsifal, with clarion (and unpinched) singing, ecstatic and overpowering in his healing of Amfortas and final uncovering of the Grail. He was clearly relishing the possibilities of the acoustic which King's was offering.

Robert Hayward was a model of suffering and anguish while delivering a very well-sung Amfortas. His arrival up the aisle to his place by the orchestra was very moving.

As the closing symphony ended the concert, O'Neill and Lloyd looked on from the side, watching the chorus and orchestra work their magic. I think they had been impressed. As Elder was seen to remark to O'Neill during the applause that followed, 'that was something else'. Whether this was a comment on his singing, the students, or the overall performance in such a place, who knows, but it summed it up well.

I for one will remember this as the Cambridge Parsifal. Not quite the 'Croydon Walkure', perhaps, but deeply memorable for its location, its combination of forces, and its quality. Well done CUMS!

**Mr Pee** · 30-01-12, 11:20

Sounds as if it was quite an evening.

**Prommer** · 30-01-12, 15:36

It was - terrific, and a real inspiration.

A good ten seconds of silence afterwards too - would have been longer if a lone applauder hadn't been so determined!

**Prommer** · 30-01-12, 17:00

Incidentally, Mark Elder made these remarks a year or two ago: "I've fallen in love with Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. When I was in New York ... I stumbled across a recording of this symphony in a concert conducted by my old friend Reggie Goodall. I admired him beyond anybody else, and I feel I have to carry his torch and impress upon my younger colleagues what a significant role he played in the musical life of this country. Hearing Reggie's interpretation, the music suddenly made sense to me for the first time".

Given the shape of the reading Elder gave us on Saturday, and the aforementioned 'Reggieness' of his technique on this occasion, it would seem that as the years go by, Elder is leaning more and more on what he learnt from Goodall, especially in teaching the next generation how it can be done. As Hector says at the end of Alan Bennett's play "The History Boys", 'Pass it on, boys, pass it on!'

**Prommer** · 30-01-12, 17:05

http://cambridgetab.co.uk/uncategorized/parsifal-act-iii-and-la-damoiselle-elue

And this review too...

The 'Cambridge Parsifal'

The 'Cambridge Parsifal'

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