When reviewing the production of
Parsifal from the Netherlands
Opera towards the end of last year I lamented bitterly the lack of a video
of the music drama which adhered with some degree of fidelity to Wagner’s
stage directions. I cited the Metropolitan Opera as a best representation of
the ‘authentic’ school despite some below-par singing and in a more
minimalist style what I described as Wolfgang Wagner’s “tired” Bayreuth
production from the 1980s. That production by Wagner’s grandson is not the
same as that on display here, and the singing is a distinct cut above that
on the Metropolitan video. Indeed, this might well be the
Parsifal
of choice for a video collection.
When the Bayreuth Festival re-opened in 1951 it featured a production of
Wagner’s
Bühnenweihfestspiel by his grandson Wieland, which
stripped the scenery back to the barest of essentials. This was done to a
degree that occasioned protests from the conductor Hans Knappertsbusch who
was to conduct. That production remained in the Bayreuth repertory for many
years, until it was replaced by a new one by Wolfgang Wagner, who largely
followed Wieland’s lead while adding a few more scenic effects. It had a
decidedly imitative and second-hand air to it. Here in his second Bayreuth
production Wolfgang has been much more adventurous. I complained in earlier
reviews about the lack of nature in the productions by Nicholas Lehnhoff and
Romeo Castalucci, which since the love of the natural world is an essential
part of Wagner’s scheme, seemed to me to leave out one whole dimension of
the score. The booklet notes here state that “nature is more alluded to than
present”; but in fact the omnipresence of nature is suggested beautifully by
the green illumination given to the polyhedral unit set. The only jarring
element is the sacred spring in Act Three, enclosed in a hemispherical globe
like some water feature in a municipal park.
In general this is a well-produced and faithful presentation of the score,
even down to the glowing Grail at the end and Parsifal actually catching the
Spear when it is thrown at him by Klingsor. The transitions from one scene
to another are smoothly handled. For those seeking a ‘traditional’
Parsifal this one should appeal strongly. Not that there are not
also some original touches: Kundry helps Parsifal to raise the Grail from
the shrine in the final scene, for example. There are also elements that are
unobtrusively right. The entry of Parsifal in that same scene is often
staged so that he comes onto the stage during Amfortas’s ravings to the
accompaniment of the Klingsor theme: not here, where his appearance is
properly delayed until the moment when the ‘Dresden Amen’ becomes audible in
the orchestra. Those who are looking for a more modern directorial
interpretation, however, will look elsewhere. This Blu-Ray comes into direct
competition with only two other video presentations which fall into the
traditional category – the earlier Wolfgang Wagner production from Bayreuth
conducted by Horst Stein, and the Metropolitan Opera version conducted by
James Levine. I shall therefore confine my comparisons to these two sets,
with apologies to those readers who find points of interest in the video
versions by Syberberg, Lehnhoff and Castalucci - the only other productions
I have seen at various times.
It has to be said firstly that the Metropolitan Opera version conducted by
James Levine, produced by Otto Schenk with designs by Gunther
Schneider-Siemssen, is more conventionally beautiful to look at. It has
real-looking flowers in the Good Friday meadow and bare-breasted Flower
Maidens to tempt Parsifal in the Magic Garden. The Temple in this version is
less satisfactory, with what appears to be a big hole in the roof to admit
the light. Wolfgang Wagner’s circular gathering – as in his earlier
production, and that of his brother – gives more real sense of ceremony. The
main problem with the Metropolitan Opera video however lies in the casting.
Not with Siegfried Jerusalem and Waltraud Meier, the two leading
protagonists in the roles of Parsifal and Kundry, but in the other parts.
Franz Mazura is frankly well past his best in the role of Klingsor. He is
rough-toned and approximate in a manner which goes a considerable way beyond
characterisation. Bernd Weikl is a bullish Amfortas and although Kurt Moll
is an expressive Gurnemanz, he is not given much to do by Schenk.
Wolfgang Wagner’s earlier Bayreuth production also had Siegfried Jerusalem
as Parsifal, younger but less experienced than at the Met. It paired him
with Eva Randova as Kundry; and Randova, although dramatically fiery, sounds
highly uncomfortable in the higher reaches of the role which lies beyond her
mezzo comfort zone. Nor is Wolfgang’s earlier production as imaginative as
his later one. The manner in which Amfortas stares at Parsifal during the
Communion in the Temple, half in hope and half in bewilderment, is here
riveting and gripping. It adds impetus to what can be a dangerously static
scene.
The singers in this new reissue may be slightly less starry names but they
are by no means second best and they function well at all levels. Poul
Elming converted from baritone to tenor in order to undertake the title role
— which does not rise very high above the stave — but there is no sense of
strain in his heroically inflected singing. Jerusalem in his sets shows more
delicacy of approach in places, but Elming’s tone is rich and warm and his
acting is well considered. Linda Watson as Kundry is properly a soprano as
Wagner instructs, which means that she can rise to the higher passages in
Act Two without any sense of strain. She has a good strong lower register
which stands her in good stead in Act One. Again, Waltraud Meier is more
subtle in various textual nuances. Otherwise Watson is a joy to hear, not
least in the high-lying climax of
Ich sah’ das Kind where there is
none of the clear effort that many mezzos manifest in their attempt to reach
the notes.
Falk Struckmann has attracted criticism over the years for what is
regarded in some quarters as his over-forceful style of singing. Here in his
earlier career he brings a real sense of lyrical line to the laments of
Amfortas. Hans Sotin is a rich-toned Gurnemanz — he also took the role in
the earlier Wolfgang Wagner production. Although he could be more expressive
he makes much of the words and he never evinces the slightest sense of
strain even in the longer-limbed and high-flying parts of the role. Ekkehard
Wlaschiha, a noted exponent of the role of Alberich, is full of menace and
character as Klingsor. Matthias Hölle is a solemn Titurel. The Grail Knights
and Squires are cast from strength and although the Flower-maidens do not
feature any starry names — Solti’s audio recording had Dame Kiri te Kanawa
and Lucia Popp leading the ensemble — they form a delightful unit.
What makes this new reissue so compelling is the conducting of Giuseppe
Sinopoli. During his lifetime critics constantly complained about his
interventionist approach to scores, highlighting passages by the use of
excessively slow speeds in a manner that the composers might not have
recognised. He doesn’t put a foot wrong here and there are many subtle
inflections which pass unnoticed in less carefully considered performances.
By comparison Levine is weightier but less imaginative, and Horst Stein on
the earlier Bayreuth production is simply workmanlike.
I commented on Hartmut Haenchen’s use of tubular bells, some three octaves
too high, in his supposedly ‘authentic’ realisation of Wagner’s intentions
in the Netherlands Opera production. Here we have what seems to me to be the
ideal solution in the form of the electronic synthesiser developed by
Eckhard Maronn and Rainer Hecht of Hamburg and in use at Bayreuth since
1976. At least, I presume that is what we hear, although the booklet
contains no acknowledgement of the fact. The bells are slightly subdued on
their initial entry, but afterwards they come sounding through the texture
in exactly the right pitch, the right balance and the right proportion.
The box contains the warning that this “historic document of outstanding
artistic significance and quality” justifies the “minor shortcomings in the
sound and picture that are discernible in this live recording.” Actually
this does
not appear to be a live recording, but a recording made
under studio conditions from the Bayreuth stage without any sign of the
presence of an audience. Bayreuth did that sort of expensive thing in those
days. There is no need whatsoever to make any apology for shortcomings in
either sound or picture, both of which are exemplary in every respect.
Indeed for many viewers – including myself – in both its avoidance of
extraneous and disruptive directorial ‘concepts’ and its faithfulness to
what Wagner’s music is telling us, this might very well be the video
representation of choice for
Parsifal. One only wishes that
Bayreuth had done as well since.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Masterwork Index:
Parsifal
