Recordings Review: Shiver Me Timbers

A Guide to The Flying Dutchman on disc.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Flying Dutchman prepares to battle the Silver Surfer.
Art by Jack Kirby from Silver Surfer Vol. 1 No. 8, © 1969 Marvel Comics

Wagner's first "hit" opera, Der Fliegende Höllander captures the imagination from its salt-soaked opening bars. A lot of conductors have committed the Dutchman to disc. Some of them opt for the harp-drenched "happy ending" version. Some break the score into three acts instead of playing it straight through with no intermission. Here's a quick buyer's guide for getting your own coal-black ship with ghostly, blood-red sails....

No One is Coming to Save Elsa

Tenor Roberto Alagna pulls out of Lohengrin.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The next swan will not be arriving for Roberto Alagna, who is out of the new Bayreuth Lohengrin.

In a breaking story from the Bayreuth Festival, tenor Roberto Alagna will not be singing the title role in the company's production of Lohengrin. His excuse: insufficient rehearsal. According to the official statement on the Bayreuth Festspieleblog: "Mr. Alagna has to cancel the new  Lohengrin production because he was unable to rehearse the work sufficiently due to congestion."

Opera Review: The New Kings

Parsifal offers much needed redemption at the troubled Metropolitan Opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Local boy makes good: Klaus Florian Vogt lifts the Holy Grail as Gurnemanz (Rene Pape) looks on.
Photo by Ken Howard © 2018 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera opened its lone Wagner offering of the 2017-18 season on Monday night: a revival of the extraordinary 2013 François Girard staging of Wagner's Parsifal. This production was acclaimed when it opened, for its stunning visuals (including a lake of stage blood in Act II) and its potent, spare message. It was also the second opportunity for the Met's new maestro-designate, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to prove his mettle with Wagner's music, this time conducting the composer's final opera.

Orpheus in Thuringia

Why did Wagner choose to set Tannhäuser?

by Paul J. Pelkonen

This isn't exactly what happens in Tannhäuser but to be fair
it is a long opera. Art by John Byrne from The Incredible Hulk No. 315 © Marvel Comics.

Of the thirteen operas that Richard Wagner brought to the stage, it is his fifth, Tannhäuser that creates the most headaches for singers, conductors and directors. It is a Germanic update of the the Orpheus myth. Wagner distilled his libretto from theee separate medieval legends, creating a complex and flawed work that meditates on the dichotomy between reason and passion, between celestial fate and earthly lust, with an artist and musician trapped in the middle.

The Wagner Project: Parsifal

In Wagner's last stage work, "time becomes space."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Baritone Ryan McKinny as Amfortas in the new Bayreuth production of Parsifal
which opened just this week. Photo by Enrico Nawath © 2016 Bayreuther Festspiele.

Parsifal is Wagner's last opera, the sum tota of everything he tried to achieve in his tumultuous career. It chronicles the journey of its title character from innocent fool to wise ruler of the kingdom of the Holy Grail. It's also a close, and at times unsettling examination of religious belief, Christian imagery and the power of faith. Maddeningly slow at first hearing, it sonic beauties are veiled even deliberately enigmatic--but more rewarding with each listen.

The Wagner Project: Götterdämmerung

The Ring comes full circle.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Act II Scene II of Götterdämmerung as staged by the Mariinsky Theater.
That's Hagen standing on top of the Gibichung Hall. Photo by V. Baranovsky.

Twenty-two years after starting work on  his mammoth four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner wound up right back where he started with Götterdämmerung. The last opera of the cycle tells the story he wanted to tell in the first place: the death of the hero Siegfried and the redemption of the world by the heroine Brunnhilde. Except now the ending was different.

Superconductor Audio Guide: Tristan und Isolde

Love, death and infidelity, both on stage and in real life.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Promotional image for the 2015 production of Tristan und Isolde at
The Bayreuth Festapielhaus. Direction and concept by Katherina Wagner
Copyright 2015 Bayreuther Festapiele.

There is nothing in the opera repertory quite like Tristan und Isolde. Wagner’s meditation on love, death and longing baffled performers and audiences, taking almost a decade to finally reach the stage. When it was finally premiered in 1865 the tenor sang just four performances before dying. Since that inauspiciously start, Tristan has claimed the lives of two conductors since: both Felix Mottl and Joseph Keilberth died after conducting its second act.

Superconductor Audio Guide: Lohengrin

Wagner's medieval legend redefines the words "dream boat."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He who must not be named: Ben Heppner (center) as the swan knight Lohengrin
(oops) in the Metropolitan Opera's 1998 production by Robert Wilson.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 1998 The Metropolitan Opera.

Would you marry a man who saved your life even if you did not know his name and were forbidden to ask? Richard Wagner's sixth opera Lohengrin is a test of faith for its heroine Elsa von Brabant and for the listener, who  is confronted by the composer's distinct style in the grandest manner possible.

Superconductor Audio Guide: Tannhäuser

Caught between two worlds, two women and two versions of the same opera.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The medieval knight Heinrich von Ofterdingen, known to all as "Tannhäuser."
Photo re-coloring by the author.

Wagner planned Tannhäuser to be a grand opera, not a grand, sweeping statement on the nature of duality and the divided self. But it is. On one level, this is the story of a medieval minstrel knight (the title character, pronounced "TAHN-hoy-zer") who tries to win a song contest. However, the hero is doomed from the start, trapped between his lust for the goddess Venus and his chaste love for the pure, saintly Elisabeth. This opera is an examination of the artist in a divided state of ones self, destroyed by the effort to meet all of one's needs at once.

The Ring Goes West

First images of the new Bayreuth Ring revealed.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

The New York Stock Exchange features in Götterdämmerung, possibly
standing in for Valhalla. Photo by Enrico Nawath © 2013 Bayreuth Festival.

The Bayreuth Festival has let slip stage images from the new production of Wagner's Ring, directed by German conceptual artist Frank Castorf.

Evgeny Nikitin takes on...KISS?

Tattooed opera singer blasts American rockers in Der Spiegel.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bassist Gene Simmons (left) of American rockers Kiss,
 and bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin. Yes, this is PhotoShop by the author.
(Actually, it was done in OS X Preview, we're on a budget here.)

In the latest (and hopefully the last) round of the Summer Scandal that Refuses to Die, Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin has launched an attack against American rock band Kiss.

The singer, who lost his job earlier this summer singing the role of the Dutchman in the Bayreuth Festival's new production of Wagner's Die Fliegende Höllander left Bayreuth after questions emerged about a controversial tattoo on his chest that, in an earlier iteration, depicted a swastika.

The American rock band came up when Mr. Nikitin, who is scheduled to appear at the Metropolitan Opera next February as Klingsor in the company's new production of Wagner's Parsifal defended his actions and his skin decorations in an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel.

Bass Booted from Bayreuth

Bass Evgeny Nikitin loses starring role over chest tattoo.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Bass Evgeny Nikitin's chest tattoo (left) has cost him a starring role at the Bayreuth Festival.
Photo from Intermezzo.

The sins of Germany's past are very much on the mind of opera-goers as the Bayreuth Festival opens next week. The big story from the Green Hill: Russian bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin cancelled  his appearance at this year's festival, due to a tattoo that originally depicted a swastika.

Mr. Nikitin, 38 was scheduled to sing the title role in the Festival's lone new offering this season, a staging of Der Fliegende Holländer. His cancellation was announced two days ago. A replacement, Korean bass Samuel Youn as named yesterday for the new production, which opens July 25.

A tattoo on Mr. Nikitin's chest originally depicted the symbol of Hitler's Germany, along with Germanic runes that the singer, a native of the Russian city of Murmansk, picked out in a tattoo parlor many years ago. The symbols have absolutely no political significance for me, but a spiritual one. I was never a member of a political party and am still not today," he said in an e-mail to the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. 

Recordings Guide: Time Becomes Space

A Guide to Parsifal recordings.
by Paul Pelkonen

Act III of Parsifal from Bayreuth 1971. 

Franz Crass (standing), James King (seated) Gwyneth Jones (kneeling)

Wagner's final opera (or as he dubbed it: "stage consecrating festival drama")  was written for the unique acoustics of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the theater designed and built by Wagner In 1876 for the first performances of the Ring.

With a libretto concerned with sin, suffering self-denial and salvation, (not to mention a final act that takes place on Good Friday) Parsifal finds its way into a lot of CD players and iPods this time of year. Here's a quick guide to the best of the many recordings in the catalogue. And yes, three of them are from Bayreuth.

Bayreuth Festival 1951, 1962 cond. Hans Knappertsbusch
"Kna" was one of the greatest Wagner conductors of the 20th century, with a special affinity for this opera. From the depths of the Bayreuth pit, he lent the music a majestic weight, power and sense of pacing. There are two commercially available recordings, the mono 1951 set on Teldec, and the stereo 1962 set on Philips. Both have well-deserved legendary status, but the Philips set has better sound, despite the audible coughing in the audience.

Bayreuth Festival 1971 cond. Pierre Boulez
Boulez conducts the fastest Parsifal on record, getting the opera in at three and a half hours. He has an excellent cast, with James King, Franz Crass and Gwyneth Jones (on a good night) giving stellar performances. This is a delicate performance, with transparent textures that offer a whole new way of listening to the score.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra cond. Rafael Kubelik 1980
Shelved by Deutsche Grammophon in favor of the award-winning (but overrated) Berlin set conducted by Herbert von Karajan, this is the hidden gem among Parsifal recordings.

The Czech conductor is blessed with a strong cast, headed by James King (again) and Kurt Moll. This conductor has a unique understanding of the opera, and it is a shame that this brilliant set languished in the vaults for 23 years.

Bayreuth Festival 1985 cond. James Levine
James Levine has recorded Parsifal twice. This live set from Bayreuth (recorded in 1985) is the better one, and features Waltraud Meier's earliest appearances as Kundry, the role that has come to define her career. (She's recorded the role four times and appears in four live videos of the opera.)

Levine adopted ultra-slow speeds and an ultra-romantic interpretation of the score, chosen by the conductor to clash with the controversial staging by Götz Friedrich. Currently available as part of a large Wagner box set containing all the operas in recordings made at Bayreuth.

Berlin Philharmonic cond. Daniel Barenboim 1991
The first of Daniel Barenboim's Wagner cycle, this is a strong reading of the opera featuing the Israeli maestro's unique, elastic way with the score. This is a studio recording, with fine, crisp digital sound. Siegfried Jerusalem is a keeper in the title role, and has good chemistry with Waltraud Meier.




Hans Knappertsbusch conducts Parsifal at Bayreuth.

Beethoven, Wagner, and...Humperdinck?

Hänsel und Gretel go to Bayreuth.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Arnold George Dorsey, AKA
Engelbert Humperdinck.
by P

Mention the name "Engelbert Humperdinck" and most people in the 20th century will think of the British-born singer who followed in the wake of Elvis Presley with hits like "The Last Waltz." But opera aficionados know that the former Arnold George Dorsey borrowed his stage name from the German composer of the opera Hänsel und Gretel, currently playing at the Metropolitan Opera in an English translation.

The older Humperdinck is chiefly remembered for his work in the genre of märchenoper or fairy-tale opera. Hänsel (which premiered in 1890) tells of two lost children and their encounter with a nasty old Witch in the forest. Königskinder (Royal Children) is less well known but worthy of attention. It received a hearing last year from dell'Arte Opera Ensemble.

Before he found success with his musical trail of bread-crumbs, Humperdinck was associated with Richard Wagner. He worked as an assistant conductor at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the theater designed by Wagner and built in that German city as a shrine to himself. But what is not generally known is that Humperdinck was one of only three composers to have his music heard at Bayreuth.

Siegfried: How It's Done

Or, Remembrance of Rings Past.

Act II of the new Siegfried with Jay Hunter Morris as the hero taking on a Macy's™ balloon.

For those of you on your way to today's 12pm performance of Siegfried (or to the Met Live in HD broadcast) I thought I'd offer up these YouTube nuggets from other productions of the opera.

It's Wagner, the vay it oughta be.

(Oh great. When they scrap the Machine and bring this production back, that'll probably be the slogan. I'll get royalties, which I'll go sleep on in a cave.)

Act I: Part II of the Forging Song. Siegfried Jerusalem in the title role. Heinz Zednik as Mime.

Footage from the telecast directed by Brian Large.

 © 1989 Deutsche Grammophon/The Metropolitan Opera.

Act II: Siegfried's horn-call and the fight with Fafner. (Matti Salminen)

Unlike the new staging, nobody in the audience laughs at the dragon.

Footage from the telecast directed by Brian Large.
 © 1989 Deutsche Grammophon/The Metropolitan Opera.


And finally, 'cos I couldn't find any footage from Act III at the Met, here's a rehearsal of Hildegard Behrens singing Brunnhilde's Awakening, opposite the medium-quality Siegfried of German tenor Reiner Goldberg. He never sang the role in front of an audience, and was replaced for the premiere by veteran tenor Manfred Jung.

This is rehearsal footage from Bayreuth, 1983, with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Enjoy.

"Heil dir, Sonne! Heil dir, Licht! Heil dir Leuchtende Tag!"

Opera Review: A Man, a Machine, and a Big Snake

The Met unveils its new Siegfried.

Snake-handler: Tenor Jay Hunter Morris confronts the serpentine Fafner in Act II of Siegfried.
Photo from the dress rehearsal, by Ken Howard © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

Even the most ardent Wagner addict finds Siegfried a tough pill to swallow. The necessary "middle chapter" of the Ring has a male-dominated cast, and its story of a genetically perfect super-man killing off dwarves and dragons presents problems for both the singers and the director.

Green Hill Loses Greenbacks

Major Sponsor Pulls From Bayreuth Festival

The Bayreuth Festspielhaus opened in 1876

The Bayreuth Festival, founded in 1876 for the presentation and performance of the operas of Richard Wagner, has lost a major sponsor. 

Siemens, the German conglomerate which had regularly donated 1 million Euros to the Festival since 2008, announced yesterday in German newspaper Die Welt that their relationship with Bayreuth had ended.

The company had pumped the money into the festival in order to expand the festival's media presence under the leadership of Wagner's two great grand-daughters, Katerina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier. The two sisters  succeeded their father Wolfgang Wagner, who kept an iron grip over his grandfather's opera house for almost half a century.

In recent years, efforts to raise the profile of the festival have included a DVD release of Katherina Wagner's controversial staging of Die Meistersinger and a live web-cast of this year's Lohengrin, which reimagined the citizens of Brabant as lab rats trapped in a giant, horrifying experiment. The Festival's recent staging of Tannhäuser reimagined Wagner's medieval world as a series of biogas tanks. It met with a mostly negative reception.

The Bayreuth Festival opened in 1876 with the first production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. All operas are performed in the Festspielhaus, a unique, acoustically perfect auditorium designed by Wagner himself and funded by Ludwig II, the mad monarch who ruled Bavaria in the late 19th century.

Tanke Schön: Camilla Naylund as Elisabeth in the new Tannhäuser.
Photo by Enrico Nawath © 2011 Bayreuth Festival

Following the 1883 premiere of Parsifal and the subsequent death of Wagner himself, the Festival has remained a "family" business. Wagner's widow Cosima, his son Siegfried, and Siegfried's widow Winifred ran the opera house until 1943, when it was closed in the last years of World War II. Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner re-opened the house in 1951, recreating Bayreuth as a venue for experimental treatment of their grandfather's operas.

Since re-opening in 1951, Bayreuth has transformed itself from a hide-bound living museum, to become one of the most important venues for theatrical experimentation in staging Wagner's operas. In the 1970s, following the death of Wieland Wagner, his brother Wolfgang established Werkstatt Bayreuth to encourage experimental stagings of these great works. The repertory remains limited, confined to the ten mature Wagner operas and a season-opening performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

The Festival maintains a ten-year waiting list for tickets.

Plácido Domingo Fights Regie Menace

Bayreuth, Salzburg stagings blasted by star tenor.

Plácido Domingo (right) as Siegmund in Achim Freyer's
Los Angeles Opera production of Die Walküre.
Photo by Monika Rittershaus © 2010 Los Angeles Opera.

Tenor/conductor/impresario Plácido Domingo has unleashed an attack on both the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. In an interview with Austrian News Magazin, Mr. Domingo expressed his disapproval of new productions of Strauss' Die Frau Ohne Schatten and Wagner's Tannhäuser at the venerable summer festivals.

"This is beyond me," the tenor, 69, said in the German-language interview. "As an opera director I would never allow something (like this.)"

Christian Loy's production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten moves the opera to a replica of the Sofiensaal, the legendary Vienna ballroom converted into a recording studio. The Sofiensaal was the site of many famous Decca recordings in the 1950s and '60s with the Vienna Philharmonic. Ironically, Mr. Domingo sang on Decca's last major production in Vienna: Sir Georg Solti's studio recording of...Die Frau Ohne Schatten.

"In Germany and Austria it is unfortunately becoming a habit," Mr. Domingo continued. He added that he would intervene in productions that did not meet his approval. "If I don't agree with the production, I have the production stopped."

Sebastian Baumgardner's Tannhäuser is another in a recent spate of Bayreuth stagings designed to provoke thought and dialogue about Wagner's long-lived operas. This staging moves the medieval song contest and spiritual conflict into a biogas facility, with characters literally recycled into raw materials like ethanol. Elisabeth meets her end in a recycling tank.

Mr. Baumgardner's version of Tannhäuser has met with hostile reactions from the über-conservative Bayreuth opera-goers as well as the Press. In recent years, the Bayreuth Festival, currently under the co-direction of two of the composer's great-grand-daughters, has mounted a Lohengrin where the chorus is depicted as an army of lab rats. This summer also featured Katherina Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In Ms. Wagner's version, Hans Sachs transforms into a Fascist strongman and Beckmesser becomes an outsider artist.

"The responsibility is always the director," Mr. Domingo added.

In addition to his singing engagements and occasional moonlighting on the podium, Mr. Domingo currently runs the Los Angeles Opera. The L.A. Opera has recently mounted Achim Freyer's $32 million dollar staging of Wagner's Ring cycle, where the characters are recreated as bizarre tribal puppet figures, armed with lightsabers and papier-maché heads.

Mr. Domingo approved this production, which has met with puzzlement and even incomprehension from American audiences and critics. But then again, he has cast himself in the role of Siegmund.

Opera Review: The Rodents and the Swan

The rats run amok in a surreal Bayreuth Lohengrin.

Lohengrin, Elsa, and long-nosed friends.
Photo by Enrico Nawrath © 2011 Bayreuth Festival.

A bizarre, claustrophobic environment--an asylum or experimental farm overrun with life-sized rats. That's the first impression from this fascinating Bayreuth Lohengrin (from director Hans
Neuenfels) which was broadcast live today from the Festspielhaus.

The live-cast was a pay event from Siemens, (I'm writing about the three or so hours of excerpts as posted on YouTube) part of the efforts by new festival directors Katherina Wagner and Eva Wagner-Pasquier to open the Green Hill to the world and bring the traditions of Bayreuth kicking and screaming into a new century.

Mr. Neuenfels' production, which premiered last year, moves the opera to a white-walled laboratory (or an asylum) where the Brabantines are giant white, black and pink rats with red eyes. They are trapped in some kind of experiment until freed by Lohengrin, and allowed to wear human attire. Fair enough. But if the would-be warriors of Brabant are bad-assed gun-toting ninja rats, then what is Lohengrin's purpose there?

Some clues emerge with the arrival of Elsa (Annette Dasch.) She enters in a white double-breasted trenchcoat stuck with white arrows (think Christian Dior meets Saint. Sebastian) guarded by bow-wielding rodents. As she sings the dream aria, Elsa slowly unsticks the suction cup arrows from
her chest, healing through her visions. Ms. Dasch then lies prone as she sings the second part of the aria, opening up her instrument for the climactic phrases--no mean feat.

This is the start of a strong performance that gets better as the opera continues and the character develops. Ms. Dasch is the heart of this performance, lifting the opera to the next level through her singing and compelling acting. And in Act II, we learn that she is pathologically afraid of...rats. Lohengrin's job is to save her from the rodents.

When Lohengrin finally enters the action, he brings humanity and redemption to this weird world. (He also takes the remaining arrows out of Elsa.) Part of this is because of Klaus Florian Vogt's golden tenor, a sweet instrument ideally suited for the role of the Grail knight turned rat-catcher. Mr. Vogt has a strong three acts, using his instrument to float Lohengrin's long high lines right up with Wagner's divided strings. (He just nails "Heil dir, Elsa" in Act II.) Best of all, the tenor has good chemistry with Ms. Dasch, something that no strange directorial concept can hide. You believe their love is real, at least until she pops the Forbidden Question.


Friedrich (Jukka Rasalainen) and Ortrud (Petra Lang) are paranoid, fascist types in trench coats left over from an old Harry Kupfer production. At the start of Act II, they are loading cash into a briefcase and getting in a (presumably) rat-drawn hansom cab (to get out of the rat race?) Whatever. Their duet is searing, as is Ms. Lang's powerhouse evocation of the Norse gods. King Henry (Georg Zeppenfeld) is another lunatic with a soft cloth crown, a first cousin to Amfortas. Mr. Zeppenfeld is a good actor, but vocally is out of his depth.

In Act III, everything is wedded bliss between Mr. Vogt and Ms. Dasch. The two singers have wonderful chemistry in the often chilly bridal scene, something that does not change even when Lohengrin kills Friedrich (clearly self-defense in this version) and faces up to his deed. Mr. Vogt's "In fernem Land" takes the listener back to the core of the opera, going beyond the gun-toting ninja rats to the essential core of this work.

And then the ending: the swan as a giant egg, and Gottfried, Elsa's brother, the final experiment of this strange laboratory. The future schützer is presented to all from within a white Ovalia "egg" chair: as a half-developed fetus who looks hypoxiated. But the strange zombie baby rises, and walks forth behind Lohengrin: either in horror or terror--I'm not sure which. It's a weird ending, but it fails to ruin a fascinating Lohengrin, one which I'll be seeing again when it is issued on DVD.

DVD Review: The Grail, Unveiled

Linda Watson and Poul Elming in Parsifal.
Photo © 1998 Bayreuth Festival

Sinopoli's Classic 1998 Parsifal Escapes the Vault.
by Paul J. Pelkonen
This 1998 Parsifal stands at a crossroads, between the halcyon days of big-budget opera recordings made at Bayreuth and the collapse of a record industry no longer willing to make new recordings. As such, it is the last such video made at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus for ten years.

It is also the last to be conducted by Italian maestro Giuseppe Sinopoli, who suffered a heart attack in 2001 while leading a performance of Aida in Berlin. Although it was made 13 years ago, this release in May of 2011 is its first appearance in any recorded form.

More importantly, this is a visual and aural record of Wolfgang Wagner's final thoughts on this opera. The composer's grandson had a traditional view of Parsifal, something to be treasured in these days of bizarre regietheater stagings. Wolfgang combines ideas from his grandfather's own 1883 staging and concepts first introduced by his brother Wieland at the 1951 reopening of the Festspielhaus following World War II.


Giuseppe Sinopoli was known for his idiosyncratic conducting style with an iconoclastic approach to tempos and an ear for detail. Here, the late maestro leads one of the slowest Parsifals on record, beating James Levine's 1985 recording by a whole two minutes. This is in keeping with Wagner's own approach to the opera. At the final 1883 performance, the composer took the baton from conductor Hermann Levi and led the third act--and it was very slow indeed.

Mr. Sinopoli is blessed with a decent, well-balanced cast. Poul Elming (Parsifal) and Falk Struckmann (Amfortas) make their second home video appearances in these roles. They had filmed the opera together in the Harry Kupfer staging in Berlin. (Sadly, this is not yet available on DVD.) Mr. Elming had not yet lost the bloom on his top, although he pushes a little during "Nur eine waffe tag." The Danish tenor also looks the part, fresh-faced and boyish at his entrance, and haggard in Act III. Mr. Struckmann looks haggard throughout, the picture of suffering, superbly sung.

Hans Sotin had been singing Gurnemanz at the Festpielhaus for about 15 years when this performance was filmed. The voice is slightly worn but the singer's experience and thorough understanding of the role make his narratives into fascinating listening. Linda Watson is an adequate Kundry, who does not penetrate the mystic hysteria of this unique character. Ekkehard Wlaschiha is a nasty Klingsor, who looks like his about to fall off his little onstage elevator. Matthais Hölle is a stolid, unyielding, and invisible presence as Titurel.

The late, brilliant Giuseppe Sinopoli.

The wealth of orchestral detail is belied by the simplicity of this staging. Wolfgang Wagner presents the opera in a plain black space, with the acting surface dominated by a labyrinthine pattern on the floor. The set consists of four rotating units, which alternate between glowing Star Trek crystals and a set of claustrophobic reversed staircases for the vault of the Grail Temple. This austere approach makes this an excellent first Parsifal to watch before delving into the (brilliant) weirdness of directors like Harry Kupfer and Nikolaus Lehnoff. The sets accompany the performance, without dominating the opera.

The choral singing is very strong, and the Festival orchestra plays superbly, taking advantage of the fact that this opera was specifically written for the unique acoustics of Bayreuth. The Act II chorus of Flower Maidens and the Act III Good Friday Spell are led very slowly indeed, and the gradual approach offers the listener a wealth of sumptuous detail. Scholars of this unique opera may also hear ideas that were previously buried, like the Klingsor motif hiding (in a major key) underneath the final workings-out of the Grail theme at the end of Act III. That alone makes this recording worth adding to any collection.

Don't believe the hype: watch this trailer, which is four hours and 27 minutes shorter than the opera.