Wagner: Parsifalby Anonymous

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November 27, 2005: Though it is common knowledge that Richard Wagner and his family closely guarded his final masterwork PARSIFAL, forbidding performances outside his theater at Bayreuth for years after his death, the reason for this overprotective custody of this penultimate Sacred Piece is readily evident when the opera is experienced in today's opera houses. Many impresarios demand that the original trappings of the work remain as close to the original as possible and outside Bayreuth that often makes the masterwork seem more superficial than spiritual. Seeking singers that mimic the Bayreuth sound and staging the work with arrow-pierced plastic swans, flying javelins/spears, crumbling evil castles and coping with the appearance of the Holy Grail at opera's end all inevitably distract form the beauty of the music - a score that is Wagner's most complex, most original, and most beautiful.This 1994 recording from the Metropolitan Opera comes as close as any to adapting to the spirit of Parsifal rather than the traditions that often encase it in a sarcophagus that prevents the immediacy of the message to touch audiences in this century. And the primary reason this recorded interpretation succeeds is in the casting of Placido Domingo as the innocent fool Parsifal. His is a richly hued, baritone-informed tenor voice that he uses with utmost intelligence, musicality, lyricism, and insight: the result is a Parsifal so credible that all of the mystery of this tale becomes poignant instead of just another mythological tale about the quest for the Holy Grail. His singing is never less than beautiful and never more than vocal cords can sensibly sustain. His is a Parsifal to treasure. Of incidental interest, now eleven years later Domingo is singing Parsifal in the ingenious production designed, staged, and lighted by the controversial Robert Wilson at the Los Angeles Opera demonstrating how healthy his voice remains and how even more sensitive his interpretation has grown. Though one wishes for the Kundry of Violeta Urmana with whom he performed a concert version of Act II with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic two years ago (rather than the competent but vocally pushed Linda Watson of the current cast), the full cast is rich and well sung and the performance is under the enlightened majesty of Kent Nagano's rapturous conducting. It is a true Spiritual Journey. While for this listener this 4 CD set is the best of the recorded versions of PARSIFAL, it is not without some weaknesses, but those can seem minor in the total result. James Levine is a singer-sensitive conductor and still finds the mystery in the Prelude and Good Friday Spell portions. His overall arc of the score sags a bit in the tough Act II tempi but is compensated by some of the most glorious flower maiden singing on CD. Kilngsor's one act of evil just doesn't frighten nor, sadly does Kundry's enigmatic role in this drama: Jessye Norman sings beautifully but sounds more concerned with the execution of the line than with the insight into the motifs that unravel the secrets that will send Parsifal on his quest for illumination. The remainder of the cast offers a superb Gurnemanz with Kurt Moll and a serviceable Amfortas with James Morris and the choral singing is lovely. But in the end it is the humanity of Domingo's Parsifal that lifts this recording into the realm of the great ones. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp