Wagner’s five-hour finale
Parsifal (Opera North)
Verdict: Well-sung staging ★★★★☆
FINALLY, after a year’s Covid-induced delay, Opera North’s much-heralded production of Richard Wagner’s last and most spiritual work has opened at the venerable Leeds Grand Theatre.
It is hard to think of the fleshly Wagner as a pious being, but there is no escaping the ethereal import of the opening Prelude and the Good Friday music of Act 3. Wagner being Wagner, there is also high-flown verbiage, mumbo-jumbo and even magic.
Much of the strain of a five-hour evening is taken by the orchestra, onstage behind the action. Richard Farnes, the company’s former music director, is an unfussy, sensitive conductor and secures splendid playing — the horns were making wonderful sounds even at the end of the marathon.
Your ticket will be worth it, just to hear Katarina Karneus as Kundry, who does her best to seduce the innocent Parsifal. Now 56, the Swedish mezzo-soprano seems untouched by the years and gives a formidable portrayal of this contradictory character.
Toby Spence, singing his first Parsifal, is admirably clear musically and dramatically.
I am unsure about aspects of Sam Brown’s production. As befits a director named after a belt, he keeps things pretty tight, but I was particularly dubious about the Knights steeping their hands in blood from Amfortas’s wound as part of their communion.
These Knights of the Grail are dressed more like Knights of the Kop in their assorted hoodies and only Kundry, arrayed in deep blue, is impressively garbed.
When the production goes on tour, it will be presented in concert form. It deserves to be heard, as musical values are high.