Reginald Goodall Conducts Parsifal (ROH, April 1971)

[Conchis]

I've just listened to the first disc of this performance - 71 minutes and he hasn't even reached the Transformation Music yet!

This is a bad performance, in which everything is sacrificed to Goodall's fixation with SLOWNESS. The 'drama' is forcibly extracted from the 'music' and the orchestra is frequently left hanging about, clearly wondering what 'dear old Reggie' is going to do next (or when he's going to do it).

The Covent Garden musicians are clearly not enjoying themselves - and who shall blame them?

The idea that Goodall was a great Wagner conductor really needs to be put to bed, once and for all. He may have been a decent pedagogue and trainer of singers but his presence on the podium renders these works dramatically inert and incoherent.

No wonder Solti (Goodall's fascist politics aside) 'didn't see the point of him.'


After only half an act, I felt so enervated, I had to play the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks....to recover!

[edashtav]

My father, who had encountered Goodall when he was living in Bournemouth during WWII, never tired of listening to his LPs of Reggie's Wagner. For me, Dad's Christmasses were easily 'sorted' by buying Reggie's latest set. However, I must admit to needing much whisky before, during, and after 'listening with Dad'. Yes, Reggie was slow but he knew how to showcase his singers. Those who heard him conduct Elgar's Serenade for Strings with his Bournemouth Orchestra thought that his interpretation was excellent. His strings thought otherwise having been drilled for weeks as Reggie sought perfection.

[Conchis]

My father, who had encountered Goodall when he was living in Bournemouth during WWII, never tired of listening to his LPs of Reggie's Wagner. For me, Dad's Christmasses were easily 'sorted' by buying Reggie's latest set. However, I must admit to needing much whisky before, during, and after 'listening with Dad'. Yes, Reggie was slow but he knew how to showcase his singers. Those who heard him conduct Elgar's Serenade for Strings with his Bournemouth Orchestra thought that his interpretation was excellent. His strings thought otherwise having been drilled for weeks as Reggie sought perfection.

It's been al long time since I listened to his Rhinegold, but I can remember (in my twenties) being quite struck with what he did with the scene where Alberich forces the Nibelungs to pile up the gold. It had what might be called 'cumulative power' but, even at that age, I had the feeling he was making the music do something it wasn't meant to do.

[gradus]

I only heard him conduct live once and thought it absolutely tremendous -Tristan and Isolde at Snape. Don't particularly recall slow tempi though.

[Richard Tarleton]

I only heard him conduct live once and thought it absolutely tremendous -Tristan and Isolde at Snape. Don't particularly recall slow tempi though.

Likewise - in my case, Siegfried at the Coliseum, with Hunter and Remedios (1973). As it was only my second live Wagner (after a Dutchman at ROH with Schmidt-Isserstedt) I didn't have anything to compare it to, but I was mightily impressed.

[verismissimo]

Likewise - in my case, Siegfried at the Coliseum, with Hunter and Remedios (1973). As it was only my second live Wagner (after a Dutchman at ROH with Schmidt-Isserstedt) I didn't have anything to compare it to, but I was mightily impressed.

I was there for his whole Ring and Mastersingers at the Coli. In the theatre, he wove a magic spell, but recordings of those same performances? Wading through mud.

[Conchis]

I was there for his whole Ring and Mastersingers at the Coli. In the theatre, he wove a magic spell, but recordings of those same performances? Wading through mud.

Usually in not very good sound, either.

The appearance of the Swan in the Parsfial I listened to this afternoon was very illustrative of what I don't like about Goodall's Wagner: there is absolutely no change of pace, no quickening of the pulse, everything is leaden.

[Conchis]

Thinking about it, Goodall only made two proper studio recordings, both with WNO forces.

I've not heard the early digital Tristan with Mitchinson and Linda Esther Gray and I can't remember much about his Parsifal studio recording (made under 'live in the studio' conditions at Brangwyn Hall), except that it also suffered from elephantiasis.