Wagner - Parsifal
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Movie Reviews of Wagner - Parsifal
Movie Review: Enthralling
Summary: 5 Stars
It's not hard to imagine more subtle sets and costumes. Yet these, despite their obviousness, are never less than effective. The performance is all one could wish. I've never arrived at a convincing interpretation of this mysterious work. It's the most magical and most beautiful of fantasy operas, whose enduring mystery is central to its allure. It seems to me the perfection of Wagner's method. Every motif is memorable. The interweaving of motifs creates a glowing sound fabric that responds to every nuance of the libretto. The score exhibits the most marked contrasts between dark and light, chromatic and diatonic, serene and anguished.
The only unknown in the cast is Leif Roar, and he proves an excellent Klingsor. Everyone performs with convincing gravity. This is an enthralling account of Wagner's masterpiece.
Movie Review: Good but not good enough
Summary: 4 Stars
While this "Parsifal" is traditional, which is to the good, it is marred by some stiff acting and questionable production touches by Wolfgang Wagner. The singing is very fine but Levine's with the Met (the only other traditional "Parsifal" on DVD) is just as good, and Otto Schenk's production is far better. The Met scores on nearly every point in terms of scenery, staging and acting. There is a magic in New York that is not there in Bayreuth, which has a more plain, homespun quality, attractive in its own way (similar in that regard to Wolfgang Wagner's "Bayreuth "Meistersinger.").
Wolfgang Wagner's sense of stage acting comes basically from the stand and deliver school, with not a great deal of compelling interaction between characters to bring the drama to life. The drama here is not exactly gripping; static is more like it. The Met production is on a different level, and Schenk's handling of characters is far more involving, inviting and compelling. The Met's "Parsifal" has seemingly real people facing important issues.
On its own, the Bayreuth forest that opens acts 1 and 3 is fine, but next to the Met's grand and realistic outdoors, feels a bit cramped and artificial after a while. Bayreuth's second scene of both acts (the hall of the castle of the grail), a la his brother Wieland's 1951-75 production, is abstract yet compelling, too, in its own way. But the Met has a more spiritual setting and a more deeply affecting result.
Act 2 starts out in Bayreuth with Klingsor's castle looking like a cheap science fiction B-movie scene with cheesy-looking smoke, abstract curved pillars on the side and Klingsor dominating from above like a tacky evil superhero. Unconvincing. Laughable even. Sad when Leif Roar is a most compelling Klingsor, full of menace and in vibrant voice. The Met's scenery and staging are more believable, richer in imagery and impression, but Franz Mazura as good as he is, can't compare vocally to Roar, and looks a bit old.
Vocally, both casts are very fine. Each Gurnemanze, the vocal center of the opera, offers rich vocal portrayals, although Wolfgang Wagner has Hans Sotin act rather too condescendingly toward Parsifal in Act 1, losing some of our sympathy. The Met's Kurt Moll is rather more the wise-old grandfatherly type in the spirit of the well-meaning Gurnemanz.
Siegfried Jerusalem is both Parsifals, and his extra 12 years of stage experience shows more strongly at the Met. The voice may be slightly fresher at Bayreuth and his youthful looks a plus, but his Met Parsifal is deeper, more natural and more eloquent.
Bernd Weikl also graces both productions as an outstanding Amfortas. His Wieland Wagner-enforced less-is-more movement at Bayreuth is not a hindrance in this spiritually and physically wracked character, and in some ways is a plus.
Waltraud Meier's Kundry is one of the Met's highlights. She is more fetching and physically expressive than Bayreuth's Eva Randova, well as she sings. Meier brings a sensuality and stronger vocalizing to Kundry that is most compelling.
The conductor comparison surprised me, as I have not been a fan of Levine's Wagner, finding his "Ring" protracted and heavy handed. But "Parsifal" is a different animal in the Wagner canon; my two favorite recordings both come from that master of grand, Knappertsbusch (Bayreuth, 1951 and 1962). Levine, while not quite on his level, brings off a spirituality and conversely, more animation when called for, that the straightforward Stein, who is a good but not overly compelling (similar to what I felt about his Bayreuth "Meistersinger").
Levine may unduly stretch tempos now and then, but to my taste, his is a more involved and felt journey than Stein's. All the fuss Stein has brought out in these posts I don't understand. He offers a solid, mainstream reading which has the benefit of flow but misses some of Levine's passion and depth.
Overall, the drama is more real, believable and interactive in New York than Bayreuth. The sets and staging are more natural and compelling, too. Overall this Bayreuth production is good but not quite good enough, with excellent singing helping compensate for some lesser production and acting values.
Movie Review: Good visuals and acting but two casting flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
The visuals overall are excellent. So is the conducting. If you're only going to see Parsifal once, this is a good one. With two caveats I describe below.
Siegfried Jerusalem is not nearly as bad here as he was later in the same role and also as Siegfried. I actually enjoyed watching him this time. His shiny, almost brassy top suits him well in this role. And you don't need to be big and loud to play it convincingly, his violence all takes place off stage.
There are two great vocalists in the cast and they are Hans Sotin and Matti Salminen. Each a world-class demonstration example of a very different type of bass. Sotin purrs with extraordinary lightness and depth, like a cello but richer, and Salminen booms like the biggest church bell (from under the stage). Dramatically Sotin manages to make the yammering old codger (Gurnemanz) interesting which most people agree is a rare accomplishment.
The two flaws I mentioned are the baritones Bernd Weikl and Lief Roar, both vocally way too small and dramatically boring for their roles. When Amfortas roars "Straffe" and "Erbarmen" it's supposed to hurt or at least astonish the listener. Same problem applies to Lief Roar--Klingsor is supposed to be able to broadcast his voice over distance to his enchanted knights. And he's supposed to be menacing. And "Fuchtbar Not!" should sound like the howl of a wolf. Roar fails on all these counts and he's not even funny.
Eva Randova is convincing although kind of conventional as Kundry if that's not an oxymoron. She's supposed to freak me out more.
If I were introducing someone to Parsifal I might use this but they'd also have to hear the baritone roles done by real Wagner-baritones. The CD with James Morris and Ekkehard Wlaschiha is OK in this regard (although Domingo sucks) but I never really appreciated Amfortas' personality until I heard George London's famous recorded performance from 1962 at Bayreuth under Knappertsbusch. If a pneumatic drill could sing this is what it would sound like, except George London is smarter and feels pain. Another great one for size and intelligence is Hans Hotter from 1954 (he sang Amfortas before switching to Gurnemanz which he did when he got too old to lift his instrument). In both performances Klingsor is Gustav Neidlinger who epitomizes Wagnerian dark bass-baritone villians of the howling-and-spitting type and even manages to sound like one when he sings Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Bach's B-Minor Mass.
Movie Review: Beautifully sung Parsifal
Summary: 4 Stars
For years I have resisted the appeal of Parsifal, finding the music somewhat arid and unmelodic. This is not to say that Wagner is not a favorite composer of mine. I adore Tristan and Meistersinger and the Ring, and LOhengrin. I decided that it was time to at least make an attempt to plum the riches (at least many claimed such) of the score when a friend of mine gave me the Lenhoff production. I watched it act by act, devoting atleast two viewings each. Elements of the production were confusing, but the acting was superb, notably Hampton and Meier. The latter was mesmerising in the second act. singing with great beauty and verbal distiction. What Lenhoff didn't do caused me to purchase the Bayreuth edition with Jersalem, Sotin and Weikl.
I suppose one would have to describe this production as traditional--certainly next to the Lenhoff. Why there is no transformation scene in the Lenhoff is not really addressed in his long and somewhat pedantic documentary that Opus Arte provides. Bayreuth of course is more conventional and does make the appropriate scene changes so that dramatically it does make more sense. What the DGG edition does have is great singing. from Jerusalem, Sotin and Weikl. The Kundry of Eva Randova, judged by most standards is very, very, good, but faced with the competition--Meier--her ability to convey Kundry's pain and conflict and barely suggested. Perhaps on repeated viewings I will change my mind.
Overall this is a Parsifal that can be recommended simply for great singing in an age when Wagner singers are becomming rarer and rarer.
Movie Review: All Around Adequate
Summary: 3 Stars
This, Wolfgang Wagner's first production of his grandfather's final masterpiece, was a traditionalist reaction to his elder brother's famous 30 year old iconoclastic staging. The sets are very attractive, but the direction misses many opportunities for emotional depth and psychological insight. The singers are generally very good, but all have done better elsewhere.
Siegfried Jerusalem was a far better proponent of the title role a few years later. Here, though fresh of voice, he lacks the nuance that distinguished his more mature work. And he had not learned to act. Through most of the opera his elbows appear to be nailed to his sides. Eva Randova isn't bad as Kundry. Since mezzo-sopranos have taken over a role Wagner intended for sopranos, we have to expect a certain amount of strain at the top. And not many star level performers want to take on a demanding role whose third act puts them on stage for over an hour with only four notes to sing. Bernd Weikl's Amfortas is firmly sung, but also not yet the characterization into which it would soon ripen. Gurnemanz comes off best here, with Hans Sotin's voluminous and burnished basso resounding throughout. He is hampered by Horst Stein often criticized leadership.
Pedestrian conducting? No, merely prosaic, and precipitous. This is the fastest performance of Parsifal I've found in comparison with 27 others. (The total time is twenty minutes faster than Hermann Levi's 1882 premiere, and that is one of the five fastest I know of.) The result is a perfunctory-ness that refuses to allow the music to unfold as it should, in spite of some sterling efforts on the part of the orchestra's musicians.
If you must have a traditional Parsifal video, this is one of two equally inadequate choices. The MET's production is better sung, less attractive and equally apathetic, but Levine's lethargic and enervated tempi are infuriating.
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