Wagner - Parsifal / Levine, Weikl, Mazura, Metropolitan Opera

Starring:Bernd Weikl, Jan-Hendrik Rootering, Kurt Moll, Franz Mazura, Siegfried Jerusalem, Waltraud Meier, Paul Groves, Jeffrey Wells, Heidi Grant Murphy, Jane Bunnell, John Horton Murray, Bernard Fitch, Kaaren Erickson, Korliss Uecker, Gwynne Geyer
Director: Brian Large
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

gorgeous music
ABSOLUTELY STUNNING - An Exerience of Music and the Sacred
'Waltraud Meier' and 'Siegfried Jerusalem',are the stars!!!!
Onward and Upward!
The ring it's not but still very good

Wagner - Parsifal / Levine, Weikl, Mazura, Metropolitan Opera
Starring: Bernd Weikl , Jan-Hendrik Rootering , Kurt Moll , Franz Mazura , and Siegfried Jerusalem
Director: Brian Large
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00006J9OV
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Customer Reviews:

gorgeous music.......2007-01-16

Parsifal is my favorite of Wagner's music-dramas. It has the most of all of them - Parsifal incorporates Catholic, Buddhist, and mythical themes into an overwhelmingly beautiful story infused throughout with a sense of devotion, piety, and worshipfulness.

The recording here is very good - Levine and the Met Opera Orchestra are in fine form as always. Siegfried Jerusalem makes a great Parsifal, Bernd Weikl makes a fine Amfortas (though I like Jose van Damm under Karajan better), and Waltraud Meier brings a wonderfully sensuous quality to the role of Kundry. Kurt Moll really steals the show though as far as singing is concerned, with an incomparable portrayal of Gurnemanz. The only complaint I can make about the singing is that Franz Mazura sounds really, REALLY old and doesn't successfully bring off the role of Klingsor.

The staging is very traditional - which seems to be hard to find these days - and the video quality is very good. The DVD menu allows for selections of running subtitles in several languages, including English.

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING - An Exerience of Music and the Sacred.......2004-07-05

For me anyhow - this is Wagner's greatest gift - even better than the the Nibelung. Having played excerpts form the opera in amauture orchestral venues -- I can say that this work is "Erlebnis" (Experience). At once Wagner captures the piety of medieval Europe (now but a dim memory in an almost completely secular place), the foundational reverence of the Holy Sacrament, and essence of Christian grace. All of this with combined with was has to be one of the most moving musical scores of German romanticism. And thank you Met. Opera and James Levine for both re-igniting TRADITIONAL Wagnerian vision/stagings (and not those rancid "revisionist" directions), and making such respectable again.

'Waltraud Meier' and 'Siegfried Jerusalem',are the stars!!!!.......2004-03-29

When I saw her name 'Waltraud Meier' listed,I said wow! I've seen her performance as 'Kundry' at 'Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin',conductor Daniel Barenboim. She again reprises her role as 'Kundry',last time with co-star 'Poul Elming'(as Parsifal),this time with 'Siegfried Jerusalem'(as Parsifal). Very mind blowing,under 'James Levine',we should get as good a performance as we got from conductor 'Daniel Barenboim'. Your awesome Waltraud Meier!!!!

Onward and Upward!.......2004-03-10

Some years back,a popular PBS crime series "Inspector Morse" ended. The inspector in question was a lover of opera and classical music. He suffered a sudden fatal heart attack. As he lay at peace in the hospital bed, the opening bars of the prelude to Wagner's Parsifal played. Momentarily,I was transcended. This ethereal music always has this effect on me.
I find only 2 problems with the acting in this drama. Vocally,the production is a masterpiece. Waltraud Mier's Kundry wasn't wild enough and Franz Mazura's Klingsor wasn't menacing enough.That said,on to the good stuff!
The great Kurt Moll as Gurnemanz is the standout here.His voice is so perfect and beautiful.I wish he had recorded a Wotan.
He is a fantastic Sarastro in DG "The Magic Flute".
ActIII is the one I most enjoyed. The healing of Amfortas and the ascension of the former "fool" Parsifal to power were breathtaking. With Wagner,it's so much more about the music than the vocals. This music is glorious. The Met Opera orchestra deserves special thanks for this tremendous achievement.

The ring it's not but still very good.......2004-01-05

I feel in love with opera after seeing Wagner's ring; the power held in opera and it's ability to communicate our human condition is rearly matched. Parsifal, like the Ring, was taken by Wagner from German lore; yet, the Ring is very much a pagan tale, with gods, elves and enchanments, while Parsifal has its roots in christian mythology and grail lore.

I purchesed Parsifal and, at first, had trobule getting into it (The way Albrich cursed love in Das Rhinegold can spoil you). As the opera went on though, its message and strength became more clear and potent. the essence of the story is the nature of the christan detity and the belief and hope of redemption from past sin. Amfortas, the one who must care for the grail, is a "spotted sheep" like Lancelot in the questa del grail. smote with a wound that will not heal (the Fisher king), he is the dammned man that can only be saved by grace and the deeds of an "innocent fool".

The plot of the wizard is purely medevil, yet the villan is given depth in that he is a fallen knight who tempts others with a sin he himself has not commited. He is 2nd to the temptresses that the knights face and the condemed woman saved by Parsifal. It is refreshing to see that, at one time, chasty and honor were in vouge.

Of course, there are many views on the meaning of the grail-one need look no farther than the mondern Da Vinic code, Indian Jones, or the ancient Quest de Grail (and who can forget the indepth research of Monty Python in to Grail lore?). But what I got from Wagner was the dualism of Christiany: the same God that can damn men to endless suffering-Amforas through his wound-also is their only hope of salvation-the grail and the spear. The death that saves (Christ) is symbolically the spear; it can give and take life.

Notable in Wagner's works is the child like heroes-Sigfired,Parsifal- caught up in a complex world of evil. An enjoyable work, I gave it only four stars because I felt that the subtitles were somewhat lacking in clarity. This, like most great art explores how man falls, suffers, and is either redemed-through some heroic act or intervention- or destroyed by his own devices.

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