Moving. Astonishing. Tough. And above all, Cathartic. Many adjectives can be said about the new production of Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera, but never dull. Like the last months, and like many major opera theatres, it has been streamed live on the internet, in an audienceless filmed performance.
Kirill Serebrennikov's staging for Wagner's last opera can be placed not only among the hits of this COVID-19 streamed season, but also among the greatest wagnerian productions in recent years. Serebrennikov, himself sentenced to a 3-year house arrest in his native Russia, and as a result he had to direct from his own home, sets the action in a ruined, old Russian prison named Montsalvat, where dangerous convicts have to live with corrupt wardens. A distant place in the middle of the snowy forest, in which violence, roughness, apathy and jeopardy are in the air, a tense atmosphere about to explode at any minute, said to be a sign of the corruption and injustice in the Russian show trials. In this world, Grail becomes liberty, as German press said. On the top of the stage, short films are shown to delve into the action, making this production close to cinema.
Parsifal is a man in his fifties, who remembers his younger days in prison, as a juvenile delinquent, his former self being on stage performed by the actor Nikolay Sidorenko, in a superb characterization, making to resemble the tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who sings the title role. Montsalvat is a prison (a magnificent set design) in which the knights and squires are prisoners and policemen and policewomen. Gurnemanz and Amfortas are the oldest prisoners, the latter suffering from hallucinations and an injury in constant bleeding. Kundry is a journalist taking photographs of the prisoners for a dossier in a fashion magazine ruled by Klingsor. The Grail Scene is a dismal and at the same tame sober moment, in which after stealing some of the allowance of the prisoners (among them, a Jewish menorah), a police warden takes the golden, shining, richly decorated Grail from a box, showing to all the present people. The final scene of the prision court snowing and Kundry taking photos of a half nude Parsifal, a sign of their mutual sexual attraction, closes an unforgettable first act.
Act Two takes place at the office of the Fashion magazine Schloss, ruled by Klingsor, whose professional relationship with Kundry is based on sexual harassment. Here begins the confrontation of the mature Parsifal with Kundry, in opposite of the mercy and passion she finds in the young Parsifal. At the end of the act, she kills Klingsor. Act Three shows Kundry and some of the former women staff now aging, spinning clothes (a sign to Der Fliegende Holländer?), and Gurnemanz still living the ruins of the prison, now closed but still sheltering the prisoners who doesn't dare to leave it for liberty. Amfortas seems to die after his monologue, and then Parsifal enters opening the big door of the prison, bringing him back to life. He returns as the final liberator, and alongside his younger self he opens the cells and all doors, letting everyone to leave. Young and old Parsifal share a final smiling mutual gaze of approbation. Amfortas and Kundry leave to start a new life together, Gurnemanz is the last one to leave, and the opera ends returning to the present, with an alone Parsifal absorbed in his memories.
Philippe Jordan conducts the Vienna Opera Orchestra, one of the best experienced in Wagner, conducting a solemn, dark but at the same time a bit faster tempi for Parsifal. The sound of the orchestra is superb, with velvet, almost ethereal strings in the Prelude. Jordan's rendition is dynamic, agile, elegiac. The Chorus has done a great job both in acting and singing.
An all-star cast, maybe the best for this opera nowadays, have given a great performance.
Jonas Kaufmann sings Parsifal, one of his signature roles, with this dark-toned voice, now in maturity but still perfect for the role. Indeed, maybe one of the most important performances in his career, in addition to his accomplished acting. Elina Garança has made a successful, historical debut as Kundry. Her warm, seductive voice, with her velvet-like middle register, more and more closer to a contralto tone, her beautiful high notes in Act 2, as well as her exquisite diction, alongside her outstanding acting skills and her beauty are the ingredients for an unforgettable Kundry, probably destined to be a referent, even to replace Waltraud Meier in the throne of this role. Georg Zeppenfeld is a magnificent Gurmemanz, the best of the cast, a powerful and authoritative rendition, with his deep dark bass voice.
Ludovic Tézier is an Amfortas with a lyrical voice. Tézier uses this for conveying the torment and sufferings of this character, in an overwhelming, terrific portrait of an hallucinating prisoner. Wolfgang Koch portraits a villainesque, gloomy Klingsor, here depicted as a creepy pervert using his power to obtain sexual favors, in an interesting singing. Stefan Cerny sings a Titurel with a big voice, but light, run out of authority for this role. The supporting cast sung at a great level, typical of major German opera houses.
Certainly, this is a Parsifal to be remembered, not only by the magnificent cast and orchestra, but also for Serebrennikov's vision, who takes the hope and redemption from Wagner's story to the horrible present-day world of prisons, which himself and many others have gone through. Definitely a must for any wagnerian and opera-fan.
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Great review of an extraordinary production.
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