Richard Wagner, Parsifal, directed by Stefan Herheim and conducted by Daniele Gatti, Bayreuther Festspiele (2010 Performance Reviewed), by Michael Miller

Parsifal (Christopher Ventris) and Amfortas (Detlef Roth) before the Bundestag in Act III. Photo Enrico Nawrath.

Richard Wagner, Parsifal

Daniele Gatti, Conductor
Stefan Herheim, Stage Director
Heike Scheele, Set Designer
Gesine Völlm, Costume Designer
Alexander Meier-Dörzenbach, Dramaturg
Momme Hinrichs/Torge Møller, Video
Eberhard Friedrich, Choral Director

Cast 2010//2011:
Amfortas - Detlef Roth
Titurel - Diógenes Randes
Gurnemanz - Kwangchul Youn
Parsifal - Christopher Ventris//Simon O'Neill (2011)
Klingsor - Thomas Jesatko//Martin Snell (8.9.2011)
Kundry - Susan Maclean
1. Gralsritter - Arnold Bezuyen
2. Gralsritter - Friedemann Röhlig
1. Knappe - Julia Borchert/Jutta Maria Böhnert (8.27.2010)
2. Knappe - Ulrike Helzel
3. Knappe - Clemens Bieber
4. Knappe - Willem Van der Heyden
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Julia Borchert/Stephanie Hanf (8.26.2010)
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Martina Rüping
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Carola Guber
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Christiane Kohl
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Jutta Maria Böhnert
Klingsors Zaubermädchen - Ulrike Helzel
Altsolo - Simone Schröder

Ritual is everywhere in Wagner's operas and music dramas. He even has his way of transforming crucial events in his stories into quasi-rituals through symbolism. Ritual is even more pervasive in his final work, hisBühnenweihfestspiel, Parsifal, which is in itself a ritual. The highly ritualized routines of the Grail knights connect their lives and the events of the drama with the continuum of the Grail's history, back to the Last Supper. Their actions are highly deliberate, replete with the significance of faith and tradition. This creates a quasi-monastic environment in which life unfolds slowly, largely ceremonially, on the structure of a time-honored schedule, in which history and precedent are always present. The narrative unfolds with notable simplicity in terms of what occurs on stage, while beneath it, the backstory related in monologues seethes with incident, conflict, and misfortune. In addition to this dramatic foreground purified of trivialities, there is the pure transparency of Wagner's score, consisting of simple thematic material set with surpassing clarity, delicacy, and harmonic subtlety. In this way Parsifal lives up to what we have been conditioned to expect from the late work of a great artist, and this is what we see and hear on the stage, if Wagner's stage directions are observed.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!








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