Skill and sensitivity Wagner's 'Parsifal' from Baden-Baden - enjoyed by ROBERT ANDERSON 'The singing is generally superb, with the Gurnemanz of Matti Salminen quite outstanding.'

I am constantly amazed by the timidity of Wagner producers. With so elemental a work as Parsifal to hand, it is nothing but a lost opportunity not to apply it directly to the seething passions of today. Give me the chance to mount the piece and I would scan the world for characters to fulfil Wagner's vision. Kundrys will always abound, uncertain whether to opt for kitchen or career. Equally fascinating ambiguities might be established by a Condoleezza in the role, though Act 2 might have to conclude the performance. As Klingsor why not an Ariel (or Caliban)? There's a start; the rest of the cast would quickly fall into place.

So what's on offer from Nikolaus Lehnhoff (director) and Raimund Bauer (sets) at Baden-Baden? The opening forest is a bullet-pitted grey wall, towards which Kundry alights in a gale of fresh air in a Papagena-like costume, which she presumably had the good sense to pick up somewhere in Arabia when visiting local herbalists on behalf of Amfortas. The Flower Maidens have the right idea when got up as 'bunnies', hunters rather than the hunted. I am not sure about Titurel, who seems to have been lent from some ancient Egyptian 'Mummy' film, ready at some more adventurous moment of return to terrify the passengers on a London bus.

Continue >>

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.