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Seen and Heard International, 03/07/2018 |
José M. Irurzun |
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Wagner: Parsifal, Bayerische Staatsoper, ab 28. Juni 2018 |
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The Extraordinary Kirill Petrenko Leads a Dream Cast in a New Parsifal
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The annual July Opera Festival in Munich is one of the best, if not the
best, of them all, including those of Bayreuth and Salzburg. I have been
coming to Munich for the past 14 years, and it is always a special occasion
in my operatic year. What can I say about it this time! The festival opens
with a truly extraordinary Parsifal, one of those events that any fan
singles out as soon as the program is known. It is no surprise that there
were so many people from other countries in the theatre.
A great part
of this Parsifal’s appeal is the presence of Kirill Petrenko on the podium
of the Nationaltheater, with an impressive cast that includes no less than
Jonas Kaufmann, Nina Stemme, René Pape, Christian Gerhaher and Wolfgang
Koch. The result fully met my expectations in musical terms, although it
fell a little short vocally.
For this special occasion Munich
commissioned a new production by Pierre Audi. It is all rather irregular and
weighed down by various details in bad taste. The problems, which begin at
the end of Act I, persist through the entirety of the Klingsor castle act.
For instance, in the final ceremony of the first act, Audi has the Knights
of the Grail take communion while apparently naked (they wear clothes
depicting nudity). In Act II he does the same with the Flowermaidens, whose
supposed nudity seems to be inspired by Botero’s sculptures and bears little
relationship to their reputed beauty. Overall, the stage direction is not
very interesting, and the costumes fairly unappealing.
In the future,
I expect we will see little of Kirill Petrenko in Munich; as is well known,
he is replacing Sir Simon Rattle as the music director of the Berlin
Philharmonic. How we are going to miss him! His conducting here was
prodigious, immense, outstanding; I wish I had the words to be able to
transmit the quality of it to my readers. This was a great Parsifal and will
long remain in one’s memory. As always, the Bayerisches Staatsorchester was
spectacular under his command. The chorus was also impeccable.
The
cast assembled by the Munich Opera is a dream one, and it largely met
expectations. However, it must be said that in the forest scenes the voice
projection was affected by the production, which was very open.
Parsifal was played by Jonas Kaufmann whose performance fell somewhat below
his usual standard. Until the kiss with Kundry in the second act, he had a
few problems, but he improved from then on and was at his best in the second
half of Act II. His voice has not lost quality, but it does not run as
easily as it once did. He is well known for his pianissimos, but this time
they sounded more falsetto-like.
Nina Stemme was a powerful Kundry,
able to convey emotions perfectly, both in the forest acts and in the
seduction of Parsifal. It is always a pleasure to listen to this soprano,
and her Kundry was that of a great singer and artist, although her middle
range has lost some consistency in recent years.
Bass René Pape was
an excellent Gurnemanz, possibly the character who has to sing the most in
the opera, although he does not appear in the second act. His vocal and
stage performance were irreproachable, worthy of someone who is possibly the
best interpreter of the role today.
Baritone Christian Gerhaher was
superb as Amfortas, in terms both of singing and acting. His strong, healthy
voice had no problems reaching throughout the opera house.
Wolfgang
Koch gave life to Klingsor, and he did it with the powerful voice that one
expects from him. Titurel was played by bass Bálint Szabó, who could not
always be clearly heard. The two Grail Knights were handled well by Kevin
Conners and Callum Thorpe, and soprano Rachel Wilson provided a good Voice
from Heaven.
The Munich theatre was sold out, and there were numerous
‘Suche Karte’ signs outside. The audience showed their enthusiasm at the
final bows, particularly for Kirill Petrenko and the orchestra, although the
four protagonists got their share of applause as well
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