What are your Top 5 Recordings of Parsifal?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Mistake? What mistake! 

Not that it makes a huge difference.

[kishnevi]

Revoted, but the same as before.  Boulez remains least favorite. But I see that I ought to get around to listening to Barenboim one of these decades. I have the box of his Wagner, just not listened to it.

I will say that my opinion of the Solti recording is so high I am baffled that no one else has voted for him.

[mc ukrneal]

I didn't like Barenboim, but it was a while ago since I heard it (my library had it). But the Karajan is a bit love/hate for me too. There are exquisite parts, but then there are moments that are...less so. But Kubelik is the one I want - I have the Meistersinger and it is fabulous. I'd also like to hear the Solit. Kegel is a new one for me, so interested to do a bit of snooping around that one...

[Wendell_E]

Nice to see one vote for the underrated Armin Jordan. A very enjoyable reading of the score, with a sweet-toned Rainer Goldberg, the ever-intelligent Yvonne Minton and a great Gurnemanz in Robert Lloyd. It almost made my list...

That vote was me, but then I only voted for three recordings, because that's all I've heard.  And I've actually only heard it while watching the Syberberg film.

[ritter]

That vote was me, but then I only voted for three recordings, because that's all I've heard.  And I've actually only heard it while watching the Syberberg film.

A magnificent film, Syberberg's! 

[Barbebleu]

I didn't like Barenboim, but it was a while ago since I heard it (my library had it). But the Karajan is a bit love/hate for me too. There are exquisite parts, but then there are moments that are...less so. But Kubelik is the one I want - I have the Meistersinger and it is fabulous. I'd also like to hear the Solit. Kegel is a new one for me, so interested to do a bit of snooping around that one...

The Kegel is good but very quick  He doesn't dwell on it too much but there's room for all sorts of interpretations so you might like it.

[Mandryka]

Kna's last because of the story about someone dangling a picture of some doves in front of his face at the end because he absolutely couldn't conduct it unless he saw a dove. Also because of the extraordinary way Vickers does the final sill syllable of "Enthüllet den Gral! - Öffnet den Schrein!"  in the last act at the end, introducing a long imaginative diminuendo which blends  with the orchestra magically.

The Syberberg film because it needs that sort of thing to spice it up. I especially like the androgynous stuff because I do.

Goodall because I saw him do it on a disastrous night in London, when Parsifal's costume started to fall apart in the last act, and he wondered around the stage singing  dragging around stuff from his armour . Embarrassing for audience and no doubt for singer (Siegfried Jerusalem) So the recording always makes me think of that.

Karajan because of the unforgettable sight of Peter Hoffman almost naked in the second act in Covent Garden, the most sexy thing I've seen in an opera apart from some S and M style Verdi in Berlin.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Kna's last because of the story about someone dangling a picture of some doves in front of his face at the end because he absolutely couldn't conduct it unless he saw a dove.

No, it was Kna's first at the reopening of Bayreuth after the war (1951). He didn't want the dove visible for himself - he objected to it being eliminated from the Wieland-inspired minimalist staging, feeling it was an integral part of the work/audience experience.   

As a makeshift, the dove was supposed to be hung by twine and lowered appropriately for the audience to see but Wieland shorted the twine and only Kna could see it.

Afterwards, in response, Kna placed some extra twine on Wieland's desk.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

No, it was Kna's first at the reopening of Bayreuth after the war (1951). He didn't want the dove visible for himself - he objected to it being eliminated from the Wieland-inspired minimalist staging, feeling it was an integral part of the work/audience experience.   

As a makeshift, the dove was supposed to be hung by twine and lowered appropriately for the audience to see but Wieland shorted the twine and only Kna could see it.

Afterwards, in response, Kna placed some extra twine on Wieland's desk.

That's a fantastic anecdote. :-)

Just bought Antoine Golea's "Conversations with Wieland Wagner", which a Wagner-maven colleague of mine recommended highly, but haven't started on it yet. Do you know it?

(Also available in French. )

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Hey, who thinks that Levine's interminable MET Parsifal is the bee's knees? 

[ritter]

Just bought Antoine Golea's "Conversations with Wieland Wagner", which a Wagner-maven colleague of mine recommended highly, but haven't started on it yet. Do you know it?

No...but wishlisted. Thanks!... It must be said, though, that Goléa's book on Boulez is an example of uncritical flattery--even the rabid Boulezian in me must admit that  . As an anecdote, it created some uncomfortable situations with Vera Stravinsky when it was being offered for sale in the foyer of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées during the disastrous Paris pernière of Threni in 1958 

Hey, who thinks that Levine's interminable MET Parsifal is the bee's knees? 

Longer than the 1985 Bayreuth ?? Jesus Maria!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Just bought Antoine Golea's "Conversations with Wieland Wagner", which a Wagner-maven colleague of mine recommended highly, but haven't started on it yet. Do you know it?

No, haven't read it myself but I'd be curious to know what you think of it!

[ritter]

Just orderd a copy of the original French edition of Antoine Goléa's book of conversations with Wieland Wagner:


As an anecdote, the seller indicates that this copy has a stamp indicating it belonged to the library of none other than Wieland's mother, Winifred Wagner. 

[JCBuckley]

Goodall because I saw him do it on a disastrous night in London, when Parsifal's costume started to fall apart in the last act, and he wondered around the stage singing  dragging around stuff from his armour . Embarrassing for audience and no doubt for singer (Siegfried Jerusalem) So the recording always makes me think of that.

I was there too. A bizarre night, with Siegfried Jerusalem (an emergency replacement for Warren Ellsworth) singing in German while everyone else communicated in English. And a truly dreadful production: for the first scene, as I recall, the stage was strewn with what looked like gigantic lengths of asparagus; and Klingsor had a flying tricycle, didn't he?

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Just orderd a copy of the original French edition of Antoine Goléa's book of conversations with Wieland Wagner:

[img 240]https://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/entretiens-avec-wieland-wagner-de-antoine-golea-1072014164_L.jpg[/img]
As an anecdote, the seller indicates that this copy has a stamp indicating it belonged to the library of none other than Wieland's mother, Winifred Wagner. 

Oh, how nice!! In a way. 'Winifred's own'. I'm reading my tattered German copy now, which is falling apart. In part because I wanted to see if Grace Bumbry appears. (She does, ever so briefly.) Mostly Antoine Golea is busy explaining to Wieland Wagner the meaning of Wieland Wagner's productions and where they fall short. It's an exasperating between obsequiousness and narcissism that we are no longer used to (but Germany/France, 1960s were different times), but it's very worthwhile for Wieland's patient and, one imagines, coyly indulgent parts.