Parsifal, ENO

[Flosshilde]

This is supposed to be an unmissable production. Has anyone seen it, & what do you think? I'm wondering whether to indulge & make a short visit to London to see it (although I'd better get a move on if I want reasonably-priced tickets)

[Mandryka]

I saw the original production in early 1999.

It was only the second Wagner production I had seen (the first - and still the best, I'd say - was WNO's Tristan). At the time, I was miildly outraged by the liberties Lehnhoff had taken with Wagner's original stage directions (I won't say anything here, as you may decide to attend a performance). Musically (Elder conducted), it was very impressive, though I'm no fan of opera in English at the best of times; and, my ears may have deceived me (I ratherhope they did), but I was sure Act ll's 'Vergeh, unselgiges Weib!' was translated as 'Away, you f****ing bitch!'

However, since then I've seen all manner of outlandish Wagner productions which make this ENO one seem straightforward by comparison; it's certainly a whole lot better than the current (?) imported Covent Garden production, which might as well be a concert performance, for all the imagination it shows.

[Alison]

I thought it was Wigglesworth conducting - superbly by all accounts.

[ostuni]

I'm going tomorrow. Yes, it is Wigglesworth: Mandryka was remembering the 1999 version. Reviews seem to have been pretty positive about most of the singing (glad that John Tomlinson can still produce the goods after all these years - though I suppose he's still got many years in store before he can rival Hugues Cuenod...), and apparently the orchestra is sounding rather fine.

[Mandryka]

Sorry....I thought I'd made it clear that I saw the original 1999 production.

I heard Tomlinson sing Gurnemanz at ROH in 2002 and Wotan in the 2007 Ring: on both occasions, I thought he sounded rather dry-voiced, though he still carries an impressive authority on stage.

I nearly got to 'public' dress rehearsal of this revival, so I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

[Quarky]

Many thanks for alerting me to this Flosshilde, and duly booked.

Missed the performance at ROH a couple of years back, and never had the courage to travel to Berlin for the annual performance at Easter.

Not sure how I'll get on with a performance auf Englisch - will they provide subtitles in German I wonder?

[Flosshilde]

Well, they do have surtitles, Odball (some seats are marked as not having sight of the surtitles), but I think they are in English

[Bert Coules]

I saw this production when it was new and disliked it intensely for what seemed to me to be its perversity, its clumsiness and its overall ugliness. Like so many contemporary operatic stagings it's a commentary on the work rather than a representation of it, and if the comments are not ones that a viewer can agree with, then of course the entire experience is pretty well doomed.

I believe that following restagings in several houses abroad this revival is somewhat changed, but reading the reviews it doesn't sound as if the changes are that extensive: the basic approach, the basic underlying beliefs, are still the same.

The best thing I can say about it is that it provoked one of the finest Wagner-based puns I've ever encountered. On the Usenet group humanities.music.composers.wagner someone posted a question about a prominent scenic feature in act three. Why on earth was it there?

The inspired answer came back: "It's the Holy Rail!"...

[Donnie Essen]

I got my ticket. Looking forward to it. Critics seem to like it a lot. Even that dude called Igor at the Arts Desk who slags off Wagner after every Wagner opera in London wrote -

"Would Wagner have approved? Absolutely not. Can the music take it? Without doubt. Should we encourage this sort of fiddling? Anything that can force a Wagner divorcee like me to eat this much humble pie - to admit that Parsifal is probably after all the greatest opera ever written - is doing something pretty incredible and very right. Hell, I might even go again."

Kick-ass! That whets my appetite. But I note that, in general, the comments posted under the critics' online reviews tend to disagree with them, with the same basis for dislike as Bert here.

As for me, though I know what style of feast is in store, I'll jes' keep my mind open.
I've seen it represented, and I don't usually mind interpretations or commentaries when I've got the matter in hand. Course, it might suck. I guess I'll see.

[Quarky]

I'm wondering whether to indulge & make a short visit to London to see it

If you have not already reserved a seat, I would certainly recommend going. Although I don't think you can apply the word "reasonable" to the price of opera seats in the Centre of London.

As one Wagner Opera I know reasonably well, it certainly fulfilled every thing I hoped for, music, singing, and that peculiar mood hovering betwen life and death. And an all-English cast!

It's inevitable I guess that Wagner sopranos who can sing at the tops of their voices for hours on end, have big lung capacity, and proportions that are somewhat greater than what is the current day fashion. Nevertheless I did find the principal flower maidens slightly less than alluring. However Parsifal was similarly proportioned, so he may have found them to his taste.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

And an all-English cast!

Do you, perhaps, mean English speaking? Jane Dutton (Kundry) and Tom Fox (Klingsor) are American, Stuart Skelton (Parsifal) is Australian and Iain Paterson (Amfortas) is Scottish and would possibly take exception to being described as English!

It was a very good opening night, some reservations about Kundry aside. Easily one of the best Wagner productions I've seen in London for the past decade.

[ostuni]

Yes, Kundry wasn't particularly special (but what an extraordinarily hard part!). But for me, Tomlinson's Gurnemanz was a performance to remember, for many years to come. Wondrously expressive singing. And Wigglesworth's shaping & pacing was superb, with the ENO orchestra sounding absolutely gorgeous.

[Richard Tarleton]

On the Usenet group humanities.music.composers.wagner someone posted a question about a prominent scenic feature in act three. Why on earth was it there?

The inspired answer came back: "It's the Holy Rail!"...

Looking at my 1999 programme I see that Hugh Canning's review is headlined "Knight at the end of the tunnel". He says "...Kundry leads him off on a disused railway track - the Knights' Order has literally reached the end of the line - to found a new and more exclusive order". So that explains it

I was much struck at the time by the lady on the side of the stage signing the entire performance - the only time I've seen this at the ENO.

[Bert Coules]

I wonder if any anti-opera-in-translation diehards complained that she wasn't signing in the original German?

Thanks for the railway line comments.

[Flosshilde]

That's my ticket booked - March 8th, row F in the upper circle (at about 2.5 times the price of the best stalls seat at Scottish Opera ) Add on train tickets & it's a rather pricey visit to the opera - but I'm sure it'll be worth it . Fortunately I've got friends in London I can stay with, so no hotel costs.