Kaufmann in Parsifal, live from the Met 2.3.13

[Flosshilde]

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

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

I suspect that it was a computer what done it, possibly using the same set of programme times that generates the schedule etc on the website. The running time given by the Met resulted in an assumed finishing time of about 10.30 her (in the UK), giving the scheduled start time for the next programme of 10.35. The opera over-ran. I don't suppose that the BBC have someone sitting listening to every programme (the same sort of problem happens pretty regularly in sports broadcasts), ready to over-ride the computer if the programme over or under-runs. When they were alerted to it they fixed it - fairly speedily, too.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Listening to my complete recording (Freesat) it's remamrkable how quiet the audience was throughout.

[Prommer]

I was at the Wandsworth Cineworld, where they provided tea and coffee and biccies in the two intervals! £17 a pop. The ticket, not the refreshments.

However, one could hear pumping bass from adjoining screens which was irritating at certain moments! Clearly not sound-proofed sufficiently.

I shouldn't imagine people watching Wreck-it Ralph would have much enjoyed hearing the Transformation Scene over their film either...(Wreck-it Klingsor?!)

Some reflections:

1. Gatti conducted not just from memory but quite wonderfully - what an orchestra, it sounded phenomenal and unbelievably secure technically.
2. Those bells! They mingled in and out of hearing quite uncannily and tunefully - one really notice not just the tolling and the coordination with the music in tempo but how attuned they were to what was going in the score and its harmonies. I have never hear that done so, or at least not so well, even in Bayreuth.
3. Mattei was a knockout as Amfortas. I saw the evening with a musician-actor friend of mine, who singled him out for especial praise.
4. Kaufman rose magnficently in Acts II and III, especially in the great outbursts of 'Amfortas! Die wunde!' and 'Nur eine waffe taugt' but also in the phrase 'Uncover the grail' (I forget the German for this), ending with a lovely diminuendo. In Act I, I had not been sure he pulled off the 'pure fool' schtick all that well.
5. The playing of the Transformation Music and Karfreitagszauber was wonderful with some lovely and unusual colouring and emphasis/balance pointed up in the strings.
6. The production was very cinematic - I liked it, but it didn't come across as 'theatrical' though clearly live etc. Very different and much less 'interesting' than Herheim's in Bayreuth but that was one in a million for sheer inventiveness and complexity. This was however simple, powerful and effective.
7. Didn't think much of the presenter who was anxiously and rather obviously looking off to the side and over his interlocutors' shoulders at cue cards while trying to interview people. He was not a natural for this, to put it mildly.
8. I do NOT like the immediate cut to offstage interviews within seconds of the end of acts. We need some downtime guys! I also don't like seeing how it all works, leave me to my illusions!

Overall, a very fine performance with a vocally outstanding cast in a good, 'New Bayreuth plus' style modern staging.

[An_Inspector_Calls]

I read in the Sunday Times that this performance is shortly to be issued on DVD.

[kernelbogey]

[...] I do NOT like the immediate cut to offstage interviews within seconds of the end of acts. We need some downtime guys! I also don't like seeing how it all works, leave me to my illusions!

I agree with the first two sentences.

Also, it looked to me as though the interviews were held either during dress rehearsals, or with a filmed backdrop of backstage work during rehearsals.

[Black Swan]

I read in the Sunday Times that this performance is shortly to be issued on DVD.

I enjoyed the cinema live stream. I only have the old Met Parsifal with Jerusalem and Meier which I love but would consider buying the DVD.

[gurnemanz]

I enjoyed the cinema live stream. I only have the old Met Parsifal with Jerusalem and Meier which I love but would consider buying the DVD.

They certainly weren't just pointing a camera at the stage. It was quite something to achieve such a smooth and convincing live cut in real time which came across as a compelling cinematic experience. I didn't notice any glitches.

[Flosshilde]

Also, it looked to me as though the interviews were held either during dress rehearsals, or with a filmed backdrop of backstage work during rehearsals.

Why do you you think it wasn't normal scene-changing? The interview about the lake of blood & cleaning in the second act certainly didn't look like it had a filmed background - the chorus coming off stage & cleaning up weren't quite coming between the camera & the interviewee, but they were as near as dammit.

[notinajumalainukhaju]

I think this forum owes an apology to any Americans viewing some of the disgusting anti-American snobbery appearing on this thread. As for the Met's standards - every opera house, including Covent Garden, has some pretty dire productions and no house is immune from poor singing from time to time. The Met has the advantage of probably the greatest opera orchestra in the world and, demonstrated on a night like tonight, the ability to cast the world's finest singers along with many of the best conductors. We're lucky to be able to hear productions from there week after week.

Well said. Thank you.