Pierre Audi’s new Parsifal grinds the gears in Munich

By Jonathan Sutherland, 02 July 2018

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“the lower tessitura of the role suited the tenor’s smoky timbre”

Reviewed at Nationaltheater, Munich on 28 June 2018

Wagner, Parsifal

Bavarian State Opera

Kirill Petrenko, Conductor

Pierre Audi, Director

Georg Baselitz, Set Designer

Florence von Gerkan, Costume Designer

Nina Stemme, Kundry

Jonas Kaufmann, Parsifal

Christian Gerhaher, Amfortas

Wolfgang Koch, Klingsor

René Pape, Gurnemanz

Rachael Wilson, A voice from on high, Third Flowermaiden / Second Group

Elsa Benoit, First squire

Tara Erraught, Second squire, Third Flowermaiden / First Group

Kevin Conners, First knight of the Grail

Matthew Grills, Fourth squire

Manuel Günther, Third squire

Callum Thorpe, Second knight of the Grail

Bálint Szabó, Titurel

Golda Schultz, First Flowermaiden / First Group

Selene Zanetti, Second Flowermaiden / First Group

Vuvu Mpofu, First Flowermaiden / Second Group

Paula Iancic, Second Flowermaiden / Second Group

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Bayerischer Staatsopernchor

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Jonathan Sutherland

Jonathan Sutherland is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg. He is also an internationally renowned concert pianist specializing in the music of the 1930s. Jonathan’s first operatic experience was hearing Maria Callas sing Tosca in Covent Garden and he has since heard performances in all continents of the world including over 60 different productions at the Wiener Staatsoper. He has written for The Australian, Opera Today and The Opera Critic as well as Bachtrack. Jonathan speaks English, French, German and Italian fluently and is based in the south of France near Nice.