Search - Violeta Urmana, Gary Lehman, Evgeny Nitikin :: Wagner: Parsifal

A surprisingly dull Gergiev and weak Parsifal eliminate this

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/21/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In the czarist era, Wagner had a toehold in the Mariinsky repertoire, but it took eighty years of neglect under the Soviets before Gergiev reintroduced Parsifal to St. Petersburg audiences in 1999. This performance took place in concert, however, not on the opera stage, during June, 2009. The last major recording of Parsifal was DG's in 2006, its main purpose being to showcase Placido Domingo in a signature Wagnerian role and Christian Thielemann as the yellow label's major Wagner conductor. Given the almost total absence of studio recordings of Wagner -- a vacuum filled by dozens of DVDs -- I'm grateful to hear any freshly minted Parsifal.



Gratitude stops short when you hear the results, however. The Prelude is conducted in surprisingly inert fashion by Gergiev. He doesn't recover later except by fits and starts. It's very hard to pull off slow, quiet music with the right intensity; all too easily the line begins to sag. More than almost any other Wagner opera, Parsifal is a conductor's piece. It's disappointing, therefore, that Gergiev didn't find the magic key. His leadership is musical but undramatic, and there s not much ability to slowly build each scene over the long span that Wagner employs. I had found Thielemann to be overly lyrical at the expense of drama, but he stands quite a few notches above Gergiev.



The two standouts in the cast are Rene Pape's Gurnemanz and Violeta Urmana's Kundry. Pape sings with the most amazingly steady, pure tone, and he conveys a character who for once doesn't sound ancient. The only drawback is that Pape tends to be rather too clam and reserved, a trait I noticed in his solo recital for DG. The pleasure here focuses on the singer's integrity and emotional subtlety. Urmana has emerged over the past five years as a tireless and convincing Isolde, and although the voice isn't as beautiful as it once was, she adds star power to Kundry's role. Memories of Christa Ludwig, Jessye Norman, and Waltraud Meier aren't going to fade. However, Urmana is more alluring and sings better than the steely Dunja Vejzovic for Karajan.



Karajan's 1982 recording is unsurpassed for his orchestral mastery. It also proved that you can get by with half a Parsifal in the title role. Critics complained at the time about Peter Hoffmann's coarse, strained singing, but at least he had the requisite passion and could communicate suffering. If only Gary Lehman could do either one here. The American-born tenor stepped in as a replacement Tristan at the Met in 2008, did a credible job, and found himself launched internationally. But his German is by way of Berlitz, his voice wobbles under pressure, and more importantly, he adds very little in the way of character, delivering the blandest Parsifal I've ever encountered. To be fair, we live in a world of make-do Parsifals. The role is short but intense in its demands. Lehman is willing to sing out, and his timbre is fairly close to right.



Those are the major pluses and minuses, and I'm afraid they weight this production toward the negative. It's fine to have a solid if stolid Amfortas from Evgeny Nikitin, a Mariinsky regular. Nikolai Putilin sounds more like a churlish Alberich than a crafty Klingsor, but the voice is strong. The orchestra cannot be faulted, or the recorded sound. But with Gergiev and his Parsifal not delivering, I can't recommend this set."