| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 15-Feb-2013 Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House | The music redeems unanswered questions in the Met's beautiful new Parsifal |
 Before the music in the Metropolitan Opera’s new Parsifal starts, a black but reflective curtain drapes the front of the stage. It is dim enough not quite to show the audience, but it picks out the chandeliers. As Daniele Gatti coaxes the orchestra through the opening lines of the score the tableau becomes translucent, first seeming to mirror the front rows of the stalls, but slowly revealing the chorus, sitting in rows. Parsifal stands, in the centre, chosen. The men slowly remove their workaday suits, socks, and shoes, while the women turn.Read full review... | |
| 6-Apr-2012 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Gergiev and the Mariinsky excel in Wagner's Parsifal at the Birmingham Symphony Hall |
 Why attend a concert performance of an opera? What is the point without the action and the spectacle collectively resulting in, hopefully, the awe-inspiring whole? In answer to this I should like to suggest that concert performances of opera are the perfect opportunity to really ‘get under the skin’ of a work, for two principal reasons. Firstly: scenery, costumes, props, lighting effects, choking dry-ice and even pungent aromas used to aid the action are absent, and thus one may connect with the music and plot completely free of distractions. Secondly: why not just listen to a recording?Read full review... | |
