The luscious string sound, which wafts as if supported on air; the sublime, glowing brass; the dangerously slow tempi which create greater levels of intensity the slower they are: Antonio Pappano’s conducting of Parsifal is as spiritual a realisation of Wagner’s score as can be imagined.
When you factor in the rolling waves of vocal luxury from the expanded chorus, you can prepare your soul to be stirred to its depths.
Stephen Langridge’s good-in-parts production doesn’t quite match the sound.
He sets the story – about a foolish boy who must learn compassion and chastity in order to redeem a brotherhood of knights – in a contemporary setting of recognisable items (a hospital bed, metal chairs) and abstract shapes. It creates the desired human-drama-meets-archetype scenario and builds to a gripping confrontation in Act Two but other stretches of the staging feel curiously energy-lite.
No quibbles with the cast. Simon O’Neill makes a tireless and thrilling Parsifal; in his battle with the compromised seductress Kundry
(an electrifying Angela Denoke), he creates high drama of the first order.
Gerald Finley (Amfortas) and René Pape (Gurnemanz) both possess superb baritone voices and a gift for emotional directness. It’s five-and-a-half hours of nearly unalloyed pleasure.
In rep until Dec 18 (next perf tomorrow), Royal Opera House; live cinema screening Dec 18. http://www.roh.org.uk
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