Wagner - Parsifal

[Barbirollians]

Surely the opera that inspired the Blackadder joke

" the Teutonic reputation for brutality is well-founded: their operas last three or four days;"-

Parsifal is a very long bore IMO.

[gurnemanz]

Gurnemanz is my kind of guy. The longest role in any opera, I believe.

[Beef Oven]

Gurnemanz is my kind of guy. The longest role in any opera, I believe.

Yes, I think I agree with you, Gurnemanz is the Guvnor!

[Belgrove]

Gurnemanz is my kind of guy. The longest role in any opera, I believe.

I'd have thought that was Sachs. Both are glorious roles though.

[austin]

Gurnemanz is my kind of guy. The longest role in any opera, I believe.

'A wise, if slightly eccentric, spiritual guide, Gurnemanz is a seeker after the truth. '

http://tinyurl.com/ct5cxsw

[Richard Tarleton]

I'd have thought that was Sachs. Both are glorious roles though.

Yes - and I'm grateful to have heard them both sung by the great John Tom

[umslopogaas]

I agree that Gurnemanz is central, he sets the scene and becomes a guide. Yes, he does go on a bit, but so does Gandalf in 'The Lord of the Rings', to whom it just occurred to me he is related. They both go on a bit because they have essential stuff to recount. For Wagner's music, you need time. Webern is fine while you're making the morning toast, but for an evening on your own with a bottle or two, you need Richard.

Oh this is a marvellous opera! I've been away from home for a couple of days and finding those recordings on the shelf was like coming back to old friends. I might even have to play one ...

... there might now be a short intermission. Just a day or two, Parsifal hardly takes any time, once you learn that time can become space ... [as Gurnemanz and Parsifal 'transform' (walk) into the castle of the Grail]

[Barbirollians]

I see Warner issued Callas/Christoff/Panerai in Rome with GUI and in Italian - cut but superbly sung and GUI conducts with a great deal of spirituality rather than Teutonic heft . It’s probably appalling to some Wagnerians but I have enjoyed it much more than other two versions I have heard.

[Wolfram]

Don't ignore Solti. Whatever you think of his Ring / know of his reputation etc etc, his Parsifal is utterly, but utterly different.

Kollo is a very fine Parsifal, his Act 3 particularly - spiritually bleached and exhausted then rising to a quiet nobility , Frick as Gurnemanz is a genuine old man sounding like an old man but with true heft and charisma, Fischer-Dieskau as an angry, impassioned Amfortas, VPO in fine fettle, Vienna Boys Choir for the stratosphere.

Oh, and Christa Ludwig is not bad either. Totally agree with all that is said here about the Solti recording.

[Barbirollians]

I see Eloquence has released all Knappertsbusch’s opera recordings in a 19CD set apparently including both 1951 and 1962 Parsifal recordings.

[Keraulophone]

Hitler commissioned the new 1934-36 production designed by Alfred Roller, Hitler's favourite stage designer. Richard Strauss picked up the baton left by Toscanini, who withdrew. It would be fascinating to eavesdrop on RS conducting Parsifal but all may not be as it seems on YouTube… (not for the first time)…

https://youtu.be/xlkzjvNLMS8

One comment claims that the recording presented as ‘Bayreuth 1933’ is actually a live recording from the Wiener Staatsoper on 4th April 1942 (released by Koch Schwann in 1994):

https://youtu.be/N4ZeOlhTm2Y

with Max Lorenz, Parsifal; Helena Braun, Kundry; Leopold Reichwein, conductor. Can anyone confirm this by recognising the voices as not those of the 1933/34 Bayreuth productions?

‘It is not I who conducts Parsifal faster but rather you in Bayreuth who have got slower and slower. Believe me, what you are doing in Bayreuth is all wrong.’ - Richard Strauss

‘The Master has already composed Parsifal to be very slow, so one doesn't need to add to this by also conducting it slowly.’ - Richard Strauss to the orchestra during rehearsals.

‘With Strauss, the tempo is much livelier than is usually adopted for this sacred play. Yet it loses nothing of its pious and heartfelt mood either, something which of course must always be retained. And the theatrical piece that is Parsifal also received immense drive so far as purely dramatic effect is concerned. Totally new aspects, tensions and triggers which one would hardly ever have expected are suddenly illuminated. Those long drawn-out movements, further extended by slow tempos (for instance in the case of Gurnemanz in the first act) become more comprehensible thanks to tighter tempos. Of course, Strauss is no mystic - but he is a musician of such great calibre that he managed to convince with his Parsifal performance, despite its veering away from all those well-worn paths, and left everyone deeply moved.’
- Oskar von Pander in Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 24 July 1933.

[gradus]

Hitler commissioned the new 1934-36 production designed by Alfred Roller, Hitler's favourite stage designer. Richard Strauss picked up the baton left by Toscanini, who withdrew. It would be fascinating to eavesdrop on RS conducting Parsifal but all may not be as it seems on YouTube… (not for the first time)…

https://youtu.be/xlkzjvNLMS8

One comment claims that the recording presented as ‘Bayreuth 1933’ is actually a live recording from the Wiener Staatsoper on 4th April 1942 (released by Koch Schwann in 1994):

https://youtu.be/N4ZeOlhTm2Y

with Max Lorenz, Parsifal; Helena Braun, Kundry; Leopold Reichwein, conductor. Can anyone confirm this by recognising the voices as not those of the 1933/34 Bayreuth productions?

‘It is not I who conducts Parsifal faster but rather you in Bayreuth who have got slower and slower. Believe me, what you are doing in Bayreuth is all wrong.’ - Richard Strauss

‘The Master has already composed Parsifal to be very slow, so one doesn't need to add to this by also conducting it slowly.’ - Richard Strauss to the orchestra during rehearsals.

‘With Strauss, the tempo is much livelier than is usually adopted for this sacred play. Yet it loses nothing of its pious and heartfelt mood either, something which of course must always be retained. And the theatrical piece that is Parsifal also received immense drive so far as purely dramatic effect is concerned. Totally new aspects, tensions and triggers which one would hardly ever have expected are suddenly illuminated. Those long drawn-out movements, further extended by slow tempos (for instance in the case of Gurnemanz in the first act) become more comprehensible thanks to tighter tempos. Of course, Strauss is no mystic - but he is a musician of such great calibre that he managed to convince with his Parsifal performance, despite its veering away from all those well-worn paths, and left everyone deeply moved.’
- Oskar von Pander in Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, 24 July 1933.

Perhaps Boulez comes closest to this style of performance?