Pasifal

  The Lyric Opera's production of Richard Wagner's last operatic work, Parsifal, may explain why the composer was reluctant to let it out of his proverbial sight of Bayreuth, even after his death in 1883. It is based on the 13th century long poem about the Arthurian knight, Percival written by Wolfram von Eschenbach. The story takes place in northern Spain during the middle ages. The curtains opens on Gurnemanz and his fellow knights of the Monsalvat kingdom, who guard the holy grail. It is explained that the king, Amfortas, in looking to end the conflict between Monsalvat and the kingdom of the fallen knight, Klingsor, was injured with a Christ like wound to his side with the same spear that Amfortas had been entrusted to look after. He is stricken with eternal suffering and must perform ritualistic acts to honor and protect his Kingdom which causes him great pains. An innocent fool, hunting in the forest happens upon the knights and learns of the prophecy and how a chosen one will right the wrongs of the past and bring peace to the kingdom. The chosen one must remain pure and refuse the amorous advances of woman that may lead him astray from his quest, which is to procure the spear that pierced Christ during his crucifixion and return it to Amfortas.

  With an epic drama as  this, adapted in to an epic opera like Parsifal, one would expect the performances to be epic as well. Unfortunately they were not. Even though the cast was filled with star studded names and promising careers, the performance fell short of what it could have been. There were no major breakdowns or cast changes due to inability on the part of the singers, but it was a simulacrum of Wagner rather than a Bayreuth certified Parsifal.

Making his Lyric Opera debut in the marathon like role of Gurnemanz is bass, Kwangchul Youn. Mr. Youn's voice has a beautiful, deep, and rich tone which has no problem carrying over Wagner's expansive orchestral textures, but his vibrato is consistently unsteady and warbly in the middle register up through the passaggio which taints its innate beauty. This is a signature role of his and one of many that he has performed at Bayreuth over the past 17 years. An achievement that carries with it an extremely high expectation which, in my opinion was not present given how ungrounded he sounds. I wondered if this was something new given the fact that Mr. Youn has been singing the heaviest of Bass repertoire throughout his lengthy career, but in listening to older recordings of him, it sounds as if this unsteady vibrato is a signature of his as well.

In the role of the conflicted seducing sorceress, Kundry, is dramatic Mezzo Soprano, Daveda Karanas. Ms. Karanas possesses a bright and brilliant sound that, for me lacked the depth of color needed for this role. Ms. Karanas who is still at the beginning of an international career sounded a bit immature for a role that would better suited for her later on. Her voice was uneasy and strained in the top of her range, especially when having to be heard over Wagner's wall of sound. In all honesty I do prefer a  mezzo voice similar to that of Waltraud Meier, although she too, had difficulty in the upper range of this role.

 Playing the titular role of Parsifal was tenor, Paul Groves. When I first read the brochure for the 2013-14 Lyric opera season last winter, I was surprised to see that Mr. Groves was going to be singing Wagner, as I remembered him to be more on the Lyric side. After hearing him in this role on opening night, my initial thoughts were confirmed. Mr. Groves has a lovely voice with a beautiful tone, but it is a suit that is not tailored to his abilities. His voice has difficulty battling the huge orchestra and for the most part could barely be heard when singing in his upper register. Once again his voice is beautifully agile, but it does not have the qualities and size even for a lighter Wagnerian role such as Parsifal.

  World renowned baritone, Thomas Hampson sang the role of the wounded King, Amfortas. Much like the wound in Amfortas' side, it pains me to express the following. Mr. Hampson's performance was for the most part, well executed vocally, with some difficulty in forte sections, which may have been due to the fact that his voice (not to sound like a broken record) does not carry the size needed for Wagner, even though Amfortas is not necessarily a huge role,  in weight and scope. Another contributing factor may be with the fact that Mr. Hampson comes across as extremely focused on the dramatic side of his performance which takes away vocally. There were times when the character's affliction seemed to effect Mr. Hampson's singing, as he sounded strained when faced with the task of projecting over the orchestra in his upper range. In the end, I enjoyed his interpretation and I must say, that it is awfully difficult to not like Mr. Hampson performances. Call it an eternal affliction if you will.

In my humble opinion, there were two "Wagnerian" ready singers in the cast and Tómas Tómasson who sang the role of Klingsor was one of them. Unfortunately he was the only one that encompassed every aspect of what a Wagnerian performance should display. His voice projected nicely and his singing adhered to the style needed for the role of the evil King.

 Runi Brattaberg in his Lyric debut, sang the role of Amfortas' father, Titurel. It is a small part, but once again, Mr. Brattaberg's tone was lacking in depth which didn't help projecting in to the large opera house. His tone was insecure and warbly which begs the question; What is a Wagnerian sound in the 21st century?

  The singers who comprised the Flower-maidens sounded beautiful and had wonderful blend with each other. The music in the 2nd Act when the Flower maidens appear adds a wonderful layer to Wagner the composer. When one thinks of Wagner, a French horn or a horned helmet comes to mind. What's interesting is that the music in this section, although complex and thick in texture, remains light and melodic emphasized by the voices it was composed for. Once again, the singers who made up the Flower maidens did a wonderful job. Additionally, the staging of the scene literally brought out the colors and feel of the music as well as the drama depicted in the story of Parsifal meeting "Flower Maidens" in a garden after having defeated their lovers in battle.


  The Lyric Opera Chorus was wonderful, especially the virile sound of the men in the 1st Act. As was the case in Lyric's production of Otello, the director had the chorus off stage in a few sections, which left me wanting as they were  at times covered up  by the large orchestra.

   Sir Andrew Davis, no stranger to conducting at the Civic Opera House, was at the helm once again which made the orchestral interpretation all the more disappointing. The ensemble itself sounded wonderful, but I felt that Wagner was left to conduct the piece himself, while Sir Davis was, how shall I put it...
...administering communion.  
  Anyone familiar with Wagner knows that it's going to be a long night. All the more reason to use those orchestral moments to bring out the dramatic subtext as Wagner intended. There were so many missed opportunities in dynamic shading alone, it was as if, Sir Davis thought that the sounds swelled on their own. In Act 3, we see an unknown knight appear on stage. Wagner gives us the dramatic tension as long as the conductor gets the orchestra to  create it with a sforzando/mp that crescendos and back again into a diminuendo as we, the audience question what is to come next. I feltas though I ordered a decadent 3 scoop hot fudge sundae, only for Sir Andrew Davis to bring out a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The best vanilla ice cream I've had in a long time, but still only vanilla ice cream.

 
I thoroughly enjoyed the sparse staging of John Caird and design of Johan Engels & Duane Schuler. They did less when there were more bodies of stage and more with few. The dull green scape of Act I set the tone which then gave way to the spectacular brightness of Act 2 with the Flower Maidens which I felt did great justice to Wagner's music. The evil Kingdom of Klingsor was a mixture of the famous Bayreuth stagings of Tristan & Isolde of the 60's fused with modern touches and classical theater representation. It was dramatic in its visual presentation without overshadowing the fact that opera is first and foremost an aural medium.

If one truly wants a strong idea of what this opera may have been intended to sound like, after hearing the Lyric Opera's production, I would suggest listening to the 1962 recording at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus for which is was composed with true Wagnerian singers conducted by Hans Knappertsbusch, who incidentally worked with Richard Wagner's son, Siegfried, at Bayreuth.