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by Richard Wagner, directed by Bernd Eichinger

Staatsoper Unter den Linden

February 8, 11; March 18, 25, 29; June 24, 29, 2007

For non-German speakers Berlin offers a huge range of musical entertainment from cabaret to musicals to opera.  To start at the high end, I was lucky enough to catch the last performance of Wagner’s “Parsifal” this season at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.  The opera was performed in Bernd Eichinger’s production from 2005 and conducted by Daniel Barenboim.  Purely from a musical point of view it was an extraordinary experience.  Under Barenboim the Staatskapelle Berlin played with the kind of precision and unity one only dreams about.  The prelude to the opera was absolutely exquisite.  The singers, too, were all of the highest calibre: Burkhard Fritz (Parsifal), Roman Trekel (Amfortas), Andrea Bauer (Titurel), René Pape (Gurnemanz) and Christof Fischesser (Klingsor) and Michaela Schuster (Kundry).  One revelled in the richness of Pape’s deep velevty bass and Schuster made a warm, human character of the seemingly immortal Kundry. 

The opera, like the Arthurian legend it is based on, uses overt Christian imagery.  The key objects in the work in the Holy Grail, the cup used at the Last Supper, and the spear that Longinus used to wound Christ.  The climactic events take place on Good Friday and Wagner himself equated the wounded Amfortas, the temptress Kundry and the “holy fool” Parsifal, who saves the world from its curse, with Adam, Eve and Christ.  Nevertheless, the primary goal of Eichinger’s production was to de-Christianize the opera as much as possible.  During the overture video projections scan outer space until lighting upon Earth and gradually lower down through the atmosphere until we arrive at a primeval forest on stage. 

Before the first Grail ceremony, video projections create a montage of all sorts of artifacts of human sacrifice from around the world especially from the Aztecs.  Rather than administering the Eucharist as in the libretto, Eichinger has Amfortas hack off a red gelatinous portion of his own decaying flesh, whereupon the Knights of the Grail queue up to slice off small bits of it to eat.  We are left to assume that Amfortas’ flesh is the Grail.  When Parsifal returns to Amfortas’ castle in Act 3 and has to lead the ceremony when Amfortas refuses, his new insight reveals the Grail as the Earth itself while a huge projection of the Earth seen from space rise above the chorus.  Kundry, a kind of Earth-spirit, who is supposed to die when the curse is lifted, rejoices in a renewed life. 

In the multicultural world we live in where religion has become such a source of conflict, it is good of Eichinger to try to view the opera from a more general standpoint.  However, instead of relating Christian myth more general archetypes of myth, Eichinger seems to suggest that Parsifal’s insight is to replace primitive religion with concern for ecology.  No matter how important it may be, global ecology seems too pedestrian a notion to suit the ecstatic conclusion of the opera.  Yet, despite some odd costuming that saw the Flower Maidens’s covered busts bursting out of their slinky costumes and the decadent Grail Knights turned into modern day punks, the imagery did not interfere with one’s enjoyment of the beauty of the music.  “Parisfal” is not in the repertoire for 2007-08, but both Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” and “Tristan und Isolde” are and will be conducted by Barenboim--a fact that in itself should make them unmissable.  For more information see www.staatsoper-berlin.org.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in TheatreWorld (UK) 2007-07-28.

Photo: Burkhard Fritz and Michaela Schuster. ©2007 Monika Rittershaus.