Kaufmann in Parsifal, live from the Met 2.3.13

[Bert Coules]

Yes, it would have been a gauze. The old ENO Ring made effective use of one: it's said that when Goodall was told that it was planned he objected, fearing that it would affect the sound from the stage. It was gently pointed out to him that he'd just conducted a run of Parsifals at the Garden where a gauze was permanently in place for at least one entire act - and he hadn't noticed it at all.

Bert

[BBMmk2]

Probably that Boris. He seems to get everywhere.

Just had a scroll down the NY Met's Archive, and could not see any Boris on there!?!? Which does seem rather strange? Maybe it couldve been The Queen of spades?

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

As a non-Wagnerphile, I found this production - and performance - powerful and overwhelming:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=873:parsifal-metropolitan-opera-2nd-march-2013-&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

How I envy friends who have travelled to NY to catch it 'in the flesh'!

[kernelbogey]

I've tried many times to get into Parsifal, and have always found it dull, in the way that some of those long Wotan 'Here's what I was thinking last week about all this' scenes in the Ring can be.

So I'm looking forward - especially given IGI's comment above - to seeing it on stage at the cinema.

Crucial to learning to really love the Ring was following the libretto in dual-language form (an old Friends of Covent Garden publication) and really understanding what was being sung. Which in turn reveals the depths of the subtleties and moral ambiguities in the libretto, further illuminating and being illuminated by the Letimotiven.

[gurnemanz]

As a non-Wagnerphile, I found this production - and performance - powerful and overwhelming:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=873:parsifal-metropolitan-opera-2nd-march-2013-&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

How I envy friends who have travelled to NY to catch it 'in the flesh'!

Thanks for the link to critique + photos. I have printed it off.

[Belgrove]

Well, that did live up to the hype. The only successful performance of the work I've seen. No it did not adhere slavishly to Wagner's stage directions, but I do not care because it made sense and took the work to a new place. Opera is not a museum.

The Met has pioneered the use of large scale full colour video projection and it was used throughout to generate startling and beautiful images.

Act 2 of Parsifal is, quite possibly, the most unwholesome hour in all opera, albeit set to ravishing music. It is where the drama finally ignites after its slow burning first act. Here it was incendiary, Klingsor's realm being distinctly vulval, complete with volumes of menstrual blood. The last act was not in the flowery meadow stipulated in the libretto, but The Wasteland of the first act. The references to Spring I took to be the wishful thinking or deluded hopes of the Grail's adherents and acolytes. But this was not without its redemptive element, Kundry's demise was nothing short of a leibestodt, entirely novel in my experience and a stunning coup de'theatre, which remained true to Kundry's nature throughout the rest of the work.

The cast was ideal, Kaufmann magnificent. Gatti generally took a very slow tempo, but this opera can almost stop and still sound right in the right hands. Having an orchestra of the quality of the Met also helps in making extreme tempi work. This was a remarkable performance given by a remarkable cast in a remarkable production. The Royal Opera will have its work cut out to get close to this quality in their new production next year. Well done the Met.

[gradus]

Npt having seen the production, could somebody who did explain the rumbling noise that accompamied the 20 minutes or so of the first act that I managed to hear. I assumed it was some sort of production MacGuffin? Or mavbe it was just our DAB reception.

[Bert Coules]

The Royal Opera will have its work cut out to get close to this quality in their new production next year. Well done the Met.

Yes, indeed. The work hasn't had a great deal of success, dramatically speaking, at the Garden, though there have been some superb performances musically over the years: I particularly remember Jon Vickers in the lead under Goodall, with a very strong, mainly local supporting cast (including, I think, David Ward as a marvellous Gurnemanz).

Incidentally, I've been told that rumours are in the air in New York that the Met's new Ring is to be scrapped after its next revival. If that's true, the management should lose no time in engaging the Parsifal team to put together a new one. Yesterday's performance abounded in exactly the sort of intimate, deeply felt and closely observed personal interaction between the characters which the Lepage cycle so notably lacks, but it was achieved with no loss of spectacle where it was needed: surely a perfect combination for the Ring

Bert

[duncan]

I think that much - perhaps all - of one's attitude to opera depends on how one comes to it in the first place.

Approach it via the concert hall or the gramophone and I suspect that you tend to regard an opera as a long musical composition which includes some singing and also embraces such rather more minor elements as characterisation, plot, theatricality and the fact that it could (but by no means must) be performed on a stage.

Come to it (as I did) from the world of the theatre and the drama and the view is usually rather different: for me, an opera is a play in which for some or maybe all of the time the characters happen to sing and are accompanied by instruments. That fact is certainly an important one, but no more important than any of the other aspects that combine to make a meaningful dramatic experience in the theatre.

I think this is a good point. Opera has two audiences. This first occurred to me when I visited The Met. It struck me that that house had a much higher proportion of folk coming from (music) theatre than the ROH, ENO and especially the German opera houses that I'd been to. In many ways it felt like an extension of Broadway.

I enjoyed the Radio 3 relay a great deal, although I'm still not entirely convinced by the work yet. I enjoyed the cast and especially Haitink's work in it's last outing at the ROH but the production was dismal. Perhaps the new ROH production will help (who is directing?) though Simon O'Neill is no Kaufmann alas.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Perhaps the new ROH production will help (who is directing?) though Simon O'Neill is no Kaufmann alas.

Firstly, welcome to the FoR3 boards, Duncan!

Alas, O'Neill is certainly no Kaufmann and we do seem to have a surfeit of him in London (he's Siegmund in the Proms Ring). The Royal Opera production of Parsifal is set to be directed by Stephen Langridge, with Antonio Pappano conducting (Wagner not always his strength), with René Pape, Gerald Finley and Angela Denoke also in the cast.

[Flosshilde]

The Royal Opera production of Parsifal is set to be directed by Stephen Langridge,

Some pictures of past productions here -

http://www.stephenlangridge.com/page2.htm

I leave it to others to decide if they bode well or ill for Parsifal

[gurnemanz]

Alas, O'Neill is certainly no Kaufmann and we do seem to have a surfeit of him in London (he's Siegmund in the Proms Ring). The Royal Opera production of Parsifal is set to be directed by Stephen Langridge, with Antonio Pappano conducting (Wagner not always his strength), with René Pape, Gerald Finley and Angela Denoke also in the cast.

It's not easy being a Parsifal fan. Performances are not that frequent. I started with the Boulez Prom in 1972 - standing there on my own like a pure fool with my pocket libretto. In over 40 years I have only managed to catch Parsifal four times live, three of which were concert performances. Perhaps I didn't try hard enough, getting sidetracked for a couple of decades by lack of funds and such obstacles as family and career and not living in London. The only staged performance was the Lehnhoff ENO in English. So I am sure that I will make an effort to see the upcoming ROH whoever is singing, directing or conducting.

[David-G]

It gets better - the very end is missing from R3`s "Listen Again"....!

Does anyone at R3 actually have a clue...?!

You were right. Unbelievable!!! This has been corrected now.

[bluestateprommer]

.....I thought the Parsifal director - to my shame I can't recall her name, and to the Met's shame it doesn't seem to appear on the publicity for the event) had the balance between wide shot, medium and closeup very nicely judged.

The HD-cast director for this Parsifal was Barbara Willis Sweete. The Met generally alternates her and Gary Halvorson as HD-cast directors.

For BBM and others regarding the 2006 Russian opera question, a quick scan of the Met archive gives Eugene Onegin as the one Russian opera that came up.

[Bert Coules]

The HD-cast director for this Parsifal was Barbara Willis Sweete.

Thanks for that. As I said, I thought she did a fine job.

Bert