Intermezzo

Die Meisterbaker

We can only imagine how thrilled Matti Salminen must have been when he learned more than just singing skills were required for his role as Gurnemanz in Cologne Opera's new Parsifal.

Director Carlus Padrissa has deemed that the veteran bass will mix, knead and bake ten loaves of bread during the six-hour show. These will be distributed to the salivating audience at the end.

For anyone who can't wait that long, the opera house is for the first time providing a restaurant service during intermssions.

New Salzburg Parsifal photos

I'm not sure which is scarier - the short guy with the weapon or Johan Botha's pulling outfit.

The pictures were taken at the dress rehearsal for Michael Schulz's new Parsifal, which opens the Salzburg Easter Festival on Saturday 23 March with Christian Thielemann conducting. I'll be there for the second and final show, auspiciously scheduled for 1 April.

Cast:
Amfortas/Klingsor - Wolfgang Koch 
Titurel - Milcho Borovinov 
Gurnemanz - Stephen Milling 
Parsifal - Johan Botha 
Kundry - Michaela Schuster  

*many more photos below*

Parsifull-length

If you'd like to see Jonas Kaufmann, Rene Pape, Peter Mattei et al in a full length recording of a certain New York opera house's certain Wagner opera, read on.  As ever, the source material may disappear quickly, so you may wish to preserve it:

Renee Fleming interviews Jonas Kaufmann

Because a day without Jonas is, frankly, barely worth living.  Here he is, backstage at the Met's Rigoletto, subjecting to Renee Fleming's probing.

Watch Stefan Herheim's Bayreuth Parsifal

In case you weren't able to watch yesterday's Arte broadcast of Stefan Herheim's Parsifal live from Bayreuth, here it is in full. It's possible these videos may get pulled, so get in quickly.

Syberberg's Parsifal - free streaming

Hans Jürgen Syberberg's 1981 Parsifal will be streamed free for 24 hours on Saturday 11 August on Filmgalerie451.de.  (Thanks to Wagneropera.net for the alert).

Essential viewing for anyone interested in Wagner performance practice, it's not a point-and-shoot record of a theatrical performance. Instead Syberberg made a film with actors and fitted it (deliberately loosely) to a pre-recorded soundtrack. 

Musically speaking, it's not particularly strong, but cinematically it's arguably the greatest opera film ever made - certainly the most ambitious. Syberberg's visual style and his exploration of the opera's historical and biographical context have proved profoundly influential on later generations of opera directors. Perhaps the most notable of these is Stefan Herheim, whose Bayreuth Parsifal will be shown live in cinemas (German-speaking countries only) on the same day. If you can see both (lucky you), then do.

 The other good news is that the DVD, currently only available at astronomical prices will be released again on 28 September.

Syberberg's own website carries streaming versions of his seminal Hitler, a Film From Germany and other work - also well worth checking out.

Mummy made me

Artist Jonathan Meese explains on his website exactly why he accepted the job of directing Parsifal at Bayreuth in 2016.

Bayreuth Festival goes to the cinema

 

The Bayreuth Festival plans to broadcast opera live to cinemas, Katharina Wagner has said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag. Over a hundred German movie houses are included in the plans, and there are discussions with cinemas in Switzerland, Austria and (yay!) Great Britain too.

 

The first broadcast will be Stefan Herheim's Parsifal on 11 August, accompanied by a break feature with Klaus Florian Vogt and Katharina Wagner.  She expects tickets to cost €27-32.

Castellucci's Parsifal rides again

The most extraordinary opera production I've seen in a very long time, Romeo Castellucci's Parsifal for La Monnaie, has been captured on film. It will be shown at the Avignon Festival on 22 July, and possibly on the Mezzo TV channel too. I doubt if the production could ever be revived in its original format, for logistical reasons, so catch it if you can.

Straight from the Redeemer himself, Andrew Richards.

Parsifal: ENO's knight to remember

Parsifal - English National Opera, 16 February 2011

It’s not often these days that ENO let actual trained opera directors loose on their productions. This Nikolaus Lehnhoff revival is a reminder of happier days, but the welcome is a qualified one. Time may stand still in Monsalvat but it marches swiftly on in the world of opera. Cardboardy sets and holiday camp lighting lend the 1999 production an old-fashioned look unworthy of the thoughtful ideas behind it.  It didn't help that the house lights were up high enough to read a book for the whole evening.

Parsifal - La Monnaie does it Romeo Castellucci's way

Parsifal - Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels, 30 January 2010

ENO are you reading? This is how you bring new blood into opera. Romeo Castellucci's operatic experience may be zero, but he's a seasoned theatrical hand with visual flair, wide-ranging technical skills, a probing intellect, a loyal, talented supporting team and a willingness to push the boundaries. And of course a desire to do the job in the first place without being cajoled. How many of ENO's recent first-timers have demonstrated even one of those qualities?  In the face of his numerous practical qualifications, his unique artistic vision seems almost like a bonus.

ENO's sneaky Parsifal cast change

 
Not as bad as it could have been, but significant nevertheless.

OUT is Irène Théorin as Kundry.

IN comes Jane Dutton.

ENO haven't had the courtesy to make an announcement or email ticket buyers. Instead they've merely tucked this major cast change away in the small print. So who knows what ailment/spat is to blame?

Thanks to eagle-eyed reader Vecchio John for spotting.

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*** UPDATE ***

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Dan Phelan, Director of Communications at ENO, passed on the following statement [see his comment below] from Irène's agent:

“Irène Theorin has withdrawn from the role of Kundry in Parsifal because of artistic differences.”

Parsifal from Amsterdam - full video

Here's last Saturday's stunning concert version of Parsifal, which was broadcast live from the Concertgebouw, in full.

Jaap van Zweden conducted the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the soloists included Klaus Florian Vogt as Parsifal, Robert Holl as Gurnemanz, Falk Struckmann as Amfortas, Katarina Dalayman as Kundry, Ante Jerkunica as Titurel and Krister St.Hill as Klingsor.

If it doesn't work, try Dutch Radio 4's site, where an audio-only version is also available. Although the live streaming was interrupted in the first act, all the recordings are complete. There's also a repeat broadcast tonight 18 December at 19:00 CET (6pm in the UK). A CD will be released next year.

Parsifal in Bayreuth

Parsifal - Bayreuther Festspielhaus, 29 July 2010

Stefan Herheim's Bayreuth Parsifal is that rare thing, a production which succeeds on just about every level. Intellectually stimulating, imaginative, theatrically compelling - and entertaining. In a single design concept he explores the work on several levels - the nominal plot, the festival's history within Germany's own development from empire to federal republic, and the religious search for salvation. It's dazzling and technically virtuosic.

Placido's one-act wonder

Ioan Holender's last night in charge of the Vienna State Opera on Wednesday was marked by a (widely-leaked) 'surprise' substitution as Placido Domingo took Stephen Gould's place in the evening's scheduled opera, just fifteen minutes from the end.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was the work into which this Duchesse de Crakenthorp-style cameo was inserted.

Yes, it seems that when a showbiz send-off is in order, nothing less than Parsifal will do.

Calixto Bieito's Parsifal in Stuttgart

Parsifal - Staatsoper Stuttgart, 1 April 2010

At last I get around to writing this one up, but first the story about how I almost - almost - didn't make it to the show at all.

I booked a ticket in advance. The Stuttgart set-up is that you submit a request, then exactly one month before the performance date, they email you to say you've been allocated a ticket (though not the exact seat number). You then collect your ticket at the theatre. You can't choose your seat, or have your ticket posted - that's just the way it works.

first photos of Bieito's Stuttgart Parsifal - now with added grail

Who needs costumes when you've got cling film?

It's Mad Max Parsifal. From Calixto Bieto's new Stuttgart production (which opens this Sunday, 28 March), here's Parsifal (tenor Andrew Richards) and the flower maidens.

Conductor and Stuttgart boss Manfred Honeck recently told the German press that Richards (who is making his role debut) will be the go-to Parsifal for the next ten years. So no pressure then.

Klingsor and his magic flame-throwing underpants. Claudio Otelli (Klingsor):

*********   more on next page   ********

Calixto Bieito's Stuttgart Parsifal will keep his pants on

Human flesh is on the menu and shirts are nowhere to be seen. Yes, details are emerging of Calixto Bieito's new production of Parsifal, which premieres on 28 March in Stuttgart.

"Apocalyptic sentiment and questions of meaning" are his main concerns.  The setting is a society in material and spiritual collapse, inspired by Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road. "Designer Susanne Gschwender creates a destroyed landscape covered by ash, where a ruined motorway bridge is the only evidence of a bygone civilisation. Mercè Paloma provides the characters with an existential basic outfit: protection from heat, cold and pollution".

That's the konzept, but what is the reality?

"I'm tied to a spit and Kundry is sniffing my armpit," is how the American tenor Andrew Richards, who will play Parsifal, describes one of the rehearsal scenes in his fabulous and revealing blog, Opera Rocks. Bieito's staging, which "promises to be a very controversial telling" includes cannibalism and a flower maiden scene that made Richards feel "nearly unclean". The physicality means he "can hardly move each morning I wake up".

He may be shirtless, but at least, Richards promises, his pants stay on. His one word for the production? "Intense".

ParsiVal

LSO / Gergiev - Barbican, 12 March 2009

If Gergiev isn't truly fired up by what he's conducting, it's painfully obvious. The centrepiece of this LSO concert was the whole third act of Parsifal  - which I would guess on this showing doesn't do it for him. OK, it was efficiently played by the LSO. But a few neatly-crafted peaks aside, it was as tepid as a cup of Barbican tea. And a concert performance really needs drama, in some ways more than a staged version would. Wagner doesn't hand much out on a plate with Parsifal. The themes of suffering and redemption are buried deep beneath the surface. Gergiev fared so much better with the more overt and flamboyant expression of the Russian operas he presented here just a few weeks ago. With Barenboim's magnificent Berlin reading fresh in my memory, Gergiev's Parsifal paled in comparison.

There was one unmistakeable high point, and that was the brief contribution of Evgeny Nikitin as Amfortas. He has that wan, shagged-out Russian look - too many late nights, not enough fresh vegetables - and he looks as if he couldn't care less. But when he opened his mouth he was transformed, as if he'd been sitting there quietly simmering for an hour and was ready to boil over. Amfortas's anguish and guilt erupted in Nikitin's intense, yet finely-controlled performance.

Robert Holl, in the unfortunate position of replacing Rene Pape at short notice, gave a creditable account of Gurnemanz, earnest and human, though with a slight touch of the routine about it.

The Parsifal, Sergey Semishkur was a weak link. There's an interesting if not especially beautiful voice there - steel cored and bright - but it's not reined in effectively, and vibrato and dynamics were all over the place.

Some compensation for the disappointments was provided by the first half's Dutilleux cello concerto, Tout un monde lointain. LSO principal cellist Tim Hugh soloed with care and precision, matched by some exquisitely delicate playing from the orchestra. 

 

 

Parsifal in Berlin - Domingo flubs it

Parsifal - Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, 6 March 2009

This Parsifal has the distinction of being the worst production ever mounted at the Berlin Staatsoper, according to my local source. At its 2005 premiere, normal etiquette was inverted - there were apparently so many boos that the handful of applauders were shamed into silence.

On this showing, I didn't think it was that bad. Incompetent, yes, idiotic (a la Barrie Kosky), no. It was movie producer Bernd 'Resident Evil' Eichinger's first (and so far only) venture into the world of opera - and who knows how the Beverly Hills-based millionaire got the gig? Predictably, his Wagnervision incorporates extensive use of video back projections - technically beautifully executed (by Möller and Hinrichs aka fettFilm). The stage is uncluttered, there's no extraneous detail. So far so good.

It's the content that's the problem. A spinning Earth is projected over the first scene, where the squires are hydrocephalic aliens, the main characters your regular medieval types. Then the grail knights appear as ancient Egyptians (possibly - my history's not that good) in a shattered temple. Klingsor's garden is a bare stage, but a window later reveals a sub-aquatic vista - have we dropped beneath the sea?

The last act opens in a 1940's New York park (hyper-realistic, mums with prams, etc) - but then the knights reappear as a Mad Max biker gang on a climbing frame. Evidently time travel is indicated - but why? And why stop at those specific points?

Eichinger goes some way to redeeming himself by getting a few things absolutely right. 

When the bleeding corpse of the very realistic swan he has just shot is presented to Parsifal, he understands the consequences of his actions, that he has taken a life, in a way that no limp hanky or ceramic bird (just a couple of the other productions I've seen) could ever achieve.

And the image of the swan's death-wound is echoed in the posture and flowing white robes of Amfortas. The grail ceremony begins with his heart - rendered in gruesomely accurate form - which he tugs out for communion-style distribution amongst the knights. The connection with Christian ritual is made explicit. Kundry's transformations are simply but effectively indicated with costume changes. It's just the bits in between that are the problem......

It was certainly baffling, but rarely irritating (though the delicious and deceptively alcoholic himbeer bowle I enjoyed at each interval may have affected my twerp-tolerance), and if there were any boos for the production this time round, I didn't hear them.

The only boos (and there weren't many) were directed at Plácido Domingo, possibly here to compensate for pulling out of a couple of earlier stagings. He looked totally unrehearsed, needed a prompter throughout the second act, and missed, cracked or whispered every highish note. And, even with bad light and squinting, there's no way he could pass for a day under 60. But - but - close your eyes - and the voice (or most of it) is still there, burnished and ardent. And the presence is undeniable. The third act, where in this production Parsifal is older as well as wiser, showed him at close to his best though. Despite all his faults, it was an impressive showing.

Waltraud Meier's Kundry, horridly curdled top aside, was unassailable. Her face, strangely inexpressive in recent months, seems to have relaxed and regained its life along with its wrinkles. An all round lack of direction/rehearsal enabled her to craft the part around her own skills. This incoherent production became Kundry's opera by default.

With Rene Pape suffering from some unspecified long-term ailment, Matti Salminen was drafted in at short notice to play Gurnemanz. Wearing his years even better than Domingo, he provided an authoritative anchor, sage and stately. Even if his singing is not the smoothest or loveliest, that's hardly a big drawback in this part.

The standout performance came from an unexpected source. Hanno Müller-Brachmann has an unusually light and lyrical voice for Amfortas, but the flexibility and the range of colour made his physical and spiritual torment devastatingly real and his vulnerability desperately touching.

And of course Daniel Barenboim was reliably unreliable, his graveyard-pace Vorspiel no clue to the abrupt and idiosyncratic tempo shifts he was to apply later on. But somehow it flexed and breathed organically, even if the gear changes were a little too obvious in places. The Berlin Staatskapelle played marvellously for him, and the translucency of sound, the sheer detail, were just astonishing. I look forward to their joint visit to the Royal Festival Hall at the end of the year.

 

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more curtain call photos over teh page..................