Richard Farnes, CONDUCTOR; Sam Brown, DIRECTOR; Bengt Gomér, SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER; Stephen Rodwell COSTUME AND WIGS; Toby Spence, PARSIFAL; Katarina Karnéus, KUNDRY; Robert Hayward, AMFORTAS, Derek Welton, KLINGSOR; Brindley Sherratt, GURNEMANZ; Stephen Richardson, TITUREL. Opera North Chorus and Orchestra
This was for me a much looked-forward-to concert. The Bridgewater Hall was – as it should have been – full – though interestingly the gallery wasn’t opened up, which is more evidence maybe that this sort of music is getting a diminishing audience, at least in the UK regions (the only really buoyant place I’ve come across since the pandemic audience-wise is ROHCG). The unanswered question is whether this is because of the pandemic and people’s continuing reluctance to be in crowded places, or because people are dying off, because some have just lost the concert going habit over the last few years or because of the cost-of-living crisis, or some combination of some or all of these.
My ear problems notwithstanding, expectations were more than met by the reality of this concert. This was musically the best Parsifal I’ve heard since Elder’s at the Proms in 2013. Apart from a few rather underpowered bells, the orchestra sounded fabulous. Richard Farnes conducted a very effective account of the work that had both sensitivity – eg flexible tempi in Act 2 – to support the interaction of the singers and considerable power, as in the Act 3 transition music. Farnes seemed to have a clear and coherent strategy for dealing with the 4 hours of music that allowed its ebb and flow to be accommodated without falling into the inflexibility of a ‘slow’ or ‘fast’ approach – Knappertsbusch/Goodall or Boulez! Some sections such as the Good Friday music started surprisingly fast, but then slowed down later on., other parts of Act 3 sounded remarkably slow, but it all seemed part of a well-considered whole. Dynamics were also wide – often the orchestra was damped down a bit to give space to the singers on stage, but when appropriate Farnes let them rip to impressive effect – again the transition music in Act3, and also of Act 1, and the end of Act2. If I had one criticism it would be that the ending was marginally too fast- but others might disagree, and it was still very moving! For the obsessives among us, I calculate that the overall performance time was about 4hrs 5 mins, very similar indeed to (4.04) Herman Levi, in Bayreuth in 1882, and a little faster than (4.10) Knappertsbusch, at Bayreuth in 1962 and (4.12) Furtwängler at Bayreuth 1936! It was interesting to read somewhere recently that Farnes was one of the short-listed candidates to replace Pappano at Covent Garden – wouldn’t that be a great idea!!
This was a concert performance but enriched by the recent experience of the same company’s performing the work on stage in Leeds. All of it was very fine but Act 2 was truly exceptional – probably the best I’ve ever seen – because of that stage experience, and the way Parsifal and Kundry related to one another on the concert stage.
There’s endless discussion about what Parsifal as an opera might mean, but to me the basic starting point has to be the Christian story, which is very heavily referenced throughout the work, even though the references are always to ‘Him’, ‘the Saviour’, and nowhere is the name of Jesus used. While Wagner clearly was not an orthodox Christian, there is evidence, as Prof Richard Bell wrote in the programme, that he took Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross extremely seriously, even if he was unconvinced by an overarching Father creator deity. It is equally clear that simply referencing Buddhism or Schopenhauer is insufficient to explain what this opera is about – and, after all, ‘entering the kingdom of heaven like a little child’ isn’t so different from ” Durch mitleid wissend, der reiner tor”. To me, the issue is that the Grail Knights’ view of religion has ossified so that it has become entirely focused on ritual and the externals of religious observation. Their treatment of Kundry or indeed Amfortas scarcely shows compassion. They seem inward looking and concerned with their own spiritual lives – as in their Communion – to the neglect of the wider world. The distortions of Wagner’s Communion service compared to that of the worldwide church bears this out.
| Wagner’s Communion | Standard Church communion text |
| Take of the bread, turn it confidently into bodily strength and power; true until death, steadfast in effort, to work the Saviour’s will! Take the wine, turn it anew into the fiery blood of life. Rejoicing in the unity of brotherly faith, let us fight with holy courage! | So, Father, we remember all that Jesus did, in him we plead with confidence his sacrifice made once for all upon the cross. Bringing before you the bread of life and the cup of salvation, we proclaim his death and resurrection until he comes in glory. …… Lord of all life, help us to work together for that day when your kingdom comes and justice and mercy will be seen in all the earth. Look with favour on your people, gather us in your loving arms and bring us with all the saints to feast at your table in heaven. |
I think (hope) you can see that the Grail Knights’ version is distinctly more inward looking. And that is reflected in the perhaps slightly coarse triumphalist music they sing….It is only Parsifal who expresses compassion both for Amfortas and for Kundry. Gurnemanz doesn’t to the same extent. Amfortas’ suffering comes from ‘eros’, from the expression of sexual desire as ‘Will’ and the too easily egotistical activity of sex, as well as of course his actual wound, and Kundry also needs our compassion in the way her life has been cursed (though there’s a question about why Jesus might have wanted to curse her for laughing at him – sounds very un-Jesus like – maybe this is a self-imposed suffering in horror at what she has done?). Act 2 is about the difference between eros and agape – ‘sex and charity’, if you like. In ‘Tristan und Isolde’ Wagner creates a world where Eros is opposed to Thanatos, and where it is a positive thing. In Parsifal Eros is seen as wilful, too much ‘me, me, me’ and it is agape – compassion – that drives personal development, Parsifal breaks out into agape through rejecting Kundry’s kiss and then feels compassion for Amfortas.
It’s Act 3 where the ambiguities come – is Parsifal a new ‘Redeemer’ or pointing people to the existing ‘Saviour’, This is unclear and reflects Wagner’s own unorthodox beliefs – does he assume a succession of Christ-like figures, of whom Parsifal is one? The fact that at the end there is a dove – emblematic of the Holy Spirit – hovering overhead might indicate a new Saviour, following the Biblical annunciation of Jesus’s Messiah-ship in the presence of John The Baptist – and also the Mary Magdalene associations of Kundry might support this as well. On the other hand, what Parsifal says to Kundry in Act 3 is My first office I thus perform: Receive this baptism, and believe in the Redeemer!’ – suggests it’s the ‘existing’ Redeemer, Jesus, who is intended. I’m not sure – this is work in progress in my thinking about this great work. Within this context the much commented-on phrase “Erlosung an dem Erloser” is not such a complicated concept in my view. If referring to Jesus, it is suggesting that Parsifal has purified the Grail Knights’ corrupt practices so that the Saviour can again be fully honoured through the right balance of ritual and compassion; if referring to Parsifal it suggests that he who has changed the lives of others has also had his own life changed irrevocably. How interesting that this term ‘Erlosung’ features throughout Wagner’s oeuvre, from Fliegende Hollander to Parsifal…..Roger Scruton’s take on Parsifal I have always found very helpful: “I suggest that we are redeemed when the taint of wrong relations is washed away, when we can rejoin the community, freely accepting and accepted, able to lead a new life without sin. To achieve this condition we depend on those who can heal our wounds, who can perform the priestly office of retrieving, from the dark places of humiliation, the precious part of ourselves that was then severed from us. The outgoing part of us, the will that seeks to imprint the trials and triumphs of individuality on the world, once ventured forth, only to fall into sin. Redemption does not consist……. in the renunciation of the will, but in the recuperation of the will from tainted relations, and its return to a life of agapē. This work of recuperation cannot be achieved alone. Agapē comes to us from others, and in particular from the great examples of compassion”
Anyway……one final set of comments – about misogyny. While it is true that you can see all the female figures in the opera as in some way or other symbolically subordinate to the men, this is actually an observation about how the women are controlled by the men rather than a statement of how things SHOULD be, and it is heartbreaking when Kundry is released from that control – OK, by a man, but that raises much wider issues about a Saviour. Work in progress….
In terms of the performers, there were three stand-outs. For me an unexpected star was Kundry – I have never heard the role sung as well as it was by Katarina Karnéus. She had it all – some beautiful phrasing (in ‘Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust’), the fire to deliver the ‘Lachte’ notes, and the acting ability to convey the agony she experiences. Brindley Sherratt was an ideal Gurnemaanz – beautiful voice, beautiful diction, imposing presence; this was world class. And Derek Welton’s Klingsor was pure malevolence – a bit over the top, maybe, but strongly sung (I remember him being excellent at Bayreuth in 2017). But Toby Spence as Parsifal and Robert Hayward were in their different ways almost their equal -Spence had much more vocal strength and projection than I was expecting and conveyed very well the transition from Fool to ? Redeemer/signifier to Redeemer. His Act 2 duet with Karneus was memorable for its intensity. And Hayward was much better than I remember him being in the ON Ring – strong-voiced and Amfortas was well-characterised.
All in all – a great evening!!! And made more enjoyable by the presence of some other Manchester Wagner Society colleagues and an old friend and his partner
This is being broadcast sometime by the BBC – watch out for it!!
John's musical journey 