Parsifal, Royal House, Amfortas and now tries to soothe his Live in Cinema, 18 December 2013 wound with balsam. She appears here in a A personal review by Andy Ross plain drape, with a bald pate and bare feet, to signal her untamed soul and her free- House has staged an dom from social convention. But Amfortas excellent rendition of ’s had his sacred spear stolen by Klingsor, so final opera . A notionally modern his wound will not heal. and minimalist but essentially timeless and inspirational stage setting presents the Enter Parsifal (Simon O’Neill), led on as a work well for modern sensibilities. A cubic hapless fool who has just shot a swan with frame suggests a hospital room for the his bow and arrow. He is played as a plump sickbed of the suffering king Amfortas duffer in rough clothes with an unkempt (played by Gerald Finley), who as the cur- beard. The scene introduces him to Kundry. tain rises is attended by medical orderlies Now Gurnemanz leads them off to see the plus a guild of distinguished gents in gray ceremony of the grail. In most productions suits, minus neckties, to give the entire of Parsifal, the grail is a golden chalice, but production a muted palette based largely here it is an innocent boy, clad only in a on shades of gray. This guild is supposed to loincloth, revealed in bright light as a holy represent the knights of the holy grail. innocent. Amfortas cuts the boy and draws blood. Presumably the rite is supposed to Guild member Gurnemanz (René Pape) relieve his own pain. Casting the grail as a narrates the back story. Amfortas was boy emphasizes the blood rituals in the wounded fighting Klingsor, whose attempt myths behind the opera, but perhaps too to join the guild was rebuffed when he heavily. On the other hand, casting a cup as failed to control his lust for women. the grail is a tired cliché that loses the Klingsor castrated himself in an attempt to bloody point. gain admission, but to no avail, so in revenge he set up a garden stocked with In the second act we meet Klingsor maidens to seduce other men hoping to (Willard W. White). He appears as a join the guild. Among the women is a menacing figure in black, with a long black strange and rather wild creature called leather coat, in a characterization spoiled Kundry (Angela Denoke), who had seduced only by his obviously undamaged virility, who presides over the pleasure garden,

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where the cubic frame now surrounds a Important in Wagner’s telling is the music, bed for love and lust. Klingsor orders both orchestral and choral, which has the Kundry to seduce Parsifal. First the effect of slowing down and eternalizing the maidens in the garden get to work, and action as if drowning it in a hot bath of Parsifal is pleasantly amused, then Kundry viscous preserving fluid. What we get is a moves in. The back story here is heavy. It swirl of feelings in which the actions on seems that Kundry mocked the crucified stage lose their quotidian meaning and Jesus ages earlier and was condemned to become consecrated as ritual. an eternal life of bitter regret. Now she The rite of the holy innocent whose wears rags and sleeps in a hole in the redemptive suffering saves all concerned ground. But she looks presentable for the from their respective follies is universal seduction and almost beds him. Parsifal is enough to redeem four and a half hours of of course another holy innocent. He overwhelming music, offset with what we responds by feeling the pain of Amfortas hear as supernaturally or divinely en- and manages to resist her. Klingsor then hanced operatic voices, mouthing German attacks him with the sacred spear and words that on paper seem as crass as any blinds him, but Parsifal grabs the spear pop lyrics. This is a musical version of a and departs. timeless tale, made ponderous and por- The third act is set years later. The framed tentous by the setting and the score but bed of Amfortas is now empty, and looks still at heart a simple story, which lives by like the vacated tomb of Jesus after the the response the music evokes in the crucifixion. Gurnemanz and Kundry meet audience. That response, in my case, was blind Parsifal, weary from long travels and amply sufficient to justify my effort to still carrying the sacred spear. His blind- attend the spectacle. ness has awakened his inner vision, and he So the staging worked, for me at least. A has grown in wisdom over the years. few years ago I saw a more conventional Gurnemanz and Kundry proceed to anoint staging of Parsifal in Germany, where the him as a saviour. A funeral now takes place entire drama was clearly set in medieval as Amfortas buries his father. Amfortas is times and the grail was a golden chalice. in great pain and begs the other guild That was presumably how Wagner en- members to kill him. Parsifal, his sight visaged the production, and it impressed magically restored, returns the spear and me as intended. But many modern viewers heals Amfortas, then exits the stage with would have been left relatively cold by it. Kundry. For them, a fresher staging, with clear That was Parsifal, Wagner’s greatest single modern echoes in business cartels, recent opera, which he took decades to write and wartime atrocities, and media seductions intended as the consecration rite for his of celebrities, must work more viscerally. new opera house in Bayreuth. We can see it To balance that, the religious symbolism of as a reprise of the sort of eternal myth that the grail needs to be emphasized, as in this lies behind many cultures and tribal case by making the grail a Christ figure. groupings since time immemorial. The Therefore I am happy to congratulate the exact details are unimportant, but the on a job well done. elements are all resonant with multiple meanings that invite endless analysis.

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