Bayreuth was a crazy experience.
Day 1: I was supposed to come 30min before the show started to pick up my ticket for Lohengrin. After a series of delays (plane, train...) I arrived only 10 min before the show and the person who had my ticket was afraid I wouldn't show up and has SOLD my tic to one of many "Suche Karte"-ers. Damn!
My part in my own malheur: I forgot to switch back my iPhone from the freaking Airplane mode and obviously didn't answer the series of phone calls from the person holding my ticket in Bayreuth...
Arriving to Bayreuth was extra-awful as it was freezing cold, windy, rainy... Really bad!
Day 2: Life can change from one day to the next. Day 2 went on much better: the weather was beautiful and I could see my beloved production of Parsifal. I'll write a short review on it tonight or tomorrow morning... Even though I saw the same show last year it still takes time to sift all the ideas Herheim had thrown in his best show ever.
Gatti further slowed down the Act-1 --wrt to last year-- and it took him more than 1h50 to wrap it up. You need a perfect orchestra to be able to do that (and they were indeed perfect!), and although it must be hard on the singers (imagine the effort to control the breath!), the result was glorious -- it unfolds the richness of the score in an unusual way...
Tunc vale..
GLORIOUS Kwangchul Youn, and Susan Maclean (what a fantastic singer!)
Is there any more movement / update on a video of this Parsifal? It seems to be such an operatic sin not to have it preserved
ReplyDeleteHi! There are these two "making of" videos, which are, well, better than nothing, I guess :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl0aoFkhEyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB6xk0GSPKQ
I heard Stefan and Katharina are on speaking terms, so maybe... some hope for DVD may come back to life. In any case the 'hysteria' in Bayreuth to find a ticket for Parsifal is as big as for the new productions of Lohengrin (in spite of the fact that this is the 3rd run of Herheim's Parsifal!)
Thanks so much- just curious- what was the beef between Stefan and Katharina? Love your posts!
ReplyDeleteIt's about royalties... as usual, but apparently the quarrel got quite ugly.
ReplyDelete