Parsifal (Nagano) (2005)

"Director Nikolaus Lehnhoff's re-interpretation of Wagner's religious festival play is controversial. In notes accompanying this 3-DVD set, he says that "Parsifal is an endgame in the wasteland," and that "Wagner's music mercilessly tells of total loneliness, of living in an empty world stripped of all its former meaning." The sets and costumes by Raimund Bauer and Andrea-Schmidt Futterer, respectively, work ideally with this conception. We are in a gray, barren, post-apocalyptic landscape, filled with scraps and rotting. The cast is splendid. Christopher Ventris may not have a voice that is instantly recognizable (à la Vickers, Kollo, etc.), but his Parsifal is well thought through and handsomely inflected and sung. This is a perfect example of a performance that must be heard and seen, and the camerawork is sensitive and telling, allowing us to read the shadings and changing emotions on the characters' faces." (ClassicsToday; waardering: 9/10; voor complete tekst, klik op link)