New York
Metropolitan Opera Live in HD seen at FACT Liverpool.
Note that any potential “spoilers”
in my description of this production reflect elements of it that have previously
been revealed in trailers and publicity from the Met and in their own picture
gallery.
For this new production
the Met have assembled both an astonishing cast of singers and a brilliant
creative team to bring us a sweeping vision of a very difficult work.
Producer François Girard
and designer Michael Levine have placed on stage a series of images that are
descriptive, congruent and occasionally provocative and which enable the cast,
dressed very simply by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck, to act out this story of
complex emotions with remarkable clarity. Peter Flaherty’s Video
design and David Finn’s lighting are exemplary and give the designs a
tremendous sense of atmosphere.
On a desiccated landscape
divided by an almost dried up stream and with a continually changing backdrop
of stunning video projections, we see groups of singers in slow, elegant
movement, mixing symbols of both Christian and Buddhist devotions. As the first
act draws to a close, the stage separates, causing the stream to open up into a
chasm, into which Parsifal gazes as the curtain falls, contemplating the
journey he is to embark upon.
In the second act we
find ourselves within this wound that will not heal. The rear wall of the stage
becomes a massive cliff face with a fissure running its full height, behind
which again are abstract moving images, appearing at times to run with blood.
Klingsor’s magic garden is a thing of elegance if not beauty, with long haired,
white draped maidens standing amidst a forest of steel spikes. As the action
slowly develops we see that the entire stage has been flooded with 1200 viscous
gallons of stage blood, the flower maidens’ feet red as they walk about in it. During
the act this seeps into the costumes of everyone on stage, with Kundry’s
seduction scene played out on a blood soaked mattress. Klingsor himself is a
chilling figure, his hair and clothes matted with blood from his first entry.
The scene in which the spear is caught by Parsifal is always a problem to stage,
and Girard’s solution is both inventive and magical.
The final act finds us
in a modified version of act one, with the landscape now littered with the
graves of knights, in obvious and pitiful decline since Amfortas’s refusal to
reveal the Grail. In the closing scenes as Amfortas is healed and uncovers the
Grail, the staging is quite simply breathtaking.
The vocal performances
are about as fine as one could hope for throughout. René Pape’s Gurnemanz,
Peter Mattei’s Amfortas, Jonas Kaufmann’s Parsifal, Katarina Dalayman’s Kundry and
Evgeny Nikitin’s Klingsor are all performances that command our absolute
attention. Every one of the principals has genuinely bought into Françoise
Girard’s reading of the work and their characterisations have real depth. I
would incline to say that they are about as close to vocally flawless in their
roles as we could hope to get. When the Met declare this to be a dream cast it would
be very hard to disagree with them.
Daniele Gatti too has a
clear and consistent feel for the music and directs the Met Orchestra in a
broad sweeping reading of the score that allows the music time to breathe
without ever losing the sense of forward movement. The chorus too are on top
form and support the principals with some superb ensemble singing as well as
beautifully coordinated stage movement.
Parsifal is a tremendously
difficult work to stage successfully, not only because of the problems of
casting singers who are up to the vocal demands, but also because of the demands
of the stage directions and in interpreting the emotional plot. Girard’s
clarity of concept for this production really does do justice to Wagner’s
vision.
One lady I spoke to was
uncertain; disappointed that the magic garden lacked the fairytale quality that
she preferred, but I would incline to say that even fairytales can be played
out dark without losing their magic. Whilst this reading may not suit all
tastes I think it would be a hard person to please who could not find a great
deal to like in this production, which must be destined to remain in the Met’s repertoire
for some time.
Screen direction for the
HD cinema relay was excellent, with good use of camera angles giving a feel for
the sweep and scale of the production. The voices were very immediate, if at
times a little too prominently miked. I am inclined to agree with a friend who
was present that the orchestral sound occasionally lacked a little weight in
the lower registers, but I am sure that this was more to do with the sound
reproduction than in the playing itself.
There will be a repeat
screening of this as “Met Encore” this Tuesday, 5th March at 1:00pm.
For further details of screenings
from the Met see: http://www.fact.co.uk/ or
http://www.metoperafamily.org
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Jonas Kaufmann as Parsifal - Photo: Ken Howard/Met
Opera
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