Wagner: Parsifal

Best Parsifal on DVD
Waltraud Meier delivers the greatest performance I've ever seen in an opera or even movie. Not only is she as compelling an actress as she usually is, but she's in her vocal prime (1992) and takes vocal risks with her performance that all pay off. Easily she's the best Kundry you'll ever see and hear. Even if you have the Baden Baden or the MET DVD with her, you should get this one to see her at her thrilling peak. I'm not prone to hyperbole, but I cannot praise her performance here enough. It's that good. Honestly, I showed parts of Act II to a total stranger on the street who doesn't know opera and they were riveted by Meier's performance.

Barenboim is no Knappertsbusch (for that true Parsifal sound, the 1962 Kna Bayreuth recording on Philips CD is the definitive Parsifal) but he's better than sluggish Levine at the Met and surface Nagano at Baden Baden.

I prefer Salminen's Gurnemanz for singing, but Tomlinson is close and a great actor to boot. And that's...

I will be hated but...
Everyone so far has loved this Parsifal. I don't. I admire Kupfer, an outstanding director, but think this, unlike his superior Ring Cycle, is misjudged.

He is an important part of the so called Regietheater movement in Germany: these directors make choices that deliberately fly in the face of any and all traditions. They are hated by many American viewers, but the best productions in this style can be revelatory -- cliches are banished, nothing is taken for granted or easily overlooked, and sometimes inconvenient meanings in the text are laid bare.

But this is more often strange than powerful. Schavernoch's sets are just odd. Wagner's text constantly invokes nature. This need not be shown in a literal or obvious way, but Schavernoch and Kupfer chose a post modern, architectural, cold look, that feels wrong (to me). The Knights of the Grail apparently live in a bank vault; upstage walls shift for Parsifal to enter from an invisible forest having killed a swan...

Finally on DVD
Oh wow - I waited so long for this production to be out on DVD that I almost forgot how how insanely great it is. I used to own it on VHS.

Meier is at her peak - enough said. Tomlinson actually makes you want the Gurnemanz monologues to go on longer, and Elming looks almost as good as he sings and acts.

For real hard core fans the Syberberg version may still be the top choice, but this one runs it a really close second.

It's a must have for anyone with even the slightest interest in this opera.

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