How to produce a relevant Parsifal after the shows by Herheim, Warlikowski, and Bieito? Well, ask Romeo Castellucci!
It is COMPLETELY different with respect to anything you've seen before. You have to see the show yourselves to make your own idea on what you think it is. Of course I will try and put in words what and how I saw it.
But before I get to that I must say that the second act of this show contains all the elements of good contemporary theater - something that will be remembered as theater circa 2010. It's a truly monumental piece of work that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone to see. I am obviously thrilled to see that this theatrical form found its way to opera so soon.
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| Had a great seat but the pics I took aren't any good. Sorry! Above: Thomas Johannes Mayer, Anna Larsson, Hartmut Haenchen [take this Christian Thielemann! :)], Andrew Richards, Jan-Hendrik Rootering |
The finale of this production however rubbed me the wrong way: climax is missing... the show ends "unspectacularly". I tried to spin and argue that it represents humanity in a hypnotic walk, a collection of individuals wandering aimlessly (which the postmodern society indeed is starting to look like), so it is natural that it ends... lost in space... wandering. Fine, but how do you reconcile that with the music? This lead me to believe that something's been cut out from the final act during the process of mounting this production.
Other than that, AWESOME SHOW!
