Jailbird Parsifal: stellar cast transcends a problematic staging

By Mark Valencia, 21 April 2021

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“I’ve not heard a finer Kundry, nor seen a more versatile one”

Reviewed at Wiener Staatsoper, Vienna on 18 April 2021

Wagner, Parsifal

Vienna State Opera

Philippe Jordan, Conductor

Kirill Serebrennikov, Director, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Franck Evin, Lighting Designer

Evgeny Kulagin, Director

Olga Pavluk, Set Designer

Tatyana Dolmatovskaya, Costume Designer

Ilya Shagalov, Video

Sergio Morabito, Dramaturgy

Ludovic Tézier, Amfortas

Wolfgang Koch, Klingsor

Elīna Garanča, Kundry

Jonas Kaufmann, Parsifal

Georg Zeppenfeld, Gurnemanz

Stefan Cerny, Titurel

Ileana Tonca, First Flowermaiden / First Group

Anna Nekhames, Second Flowermaiden / First Group

Aurora Marthens, Third Flowermaiden / First Group

Slávka Zámečníková, First Flowermaiden / Second Group

Joanna Kędzior, Second Flowermaiden / Second Group

Isabel Signoret, Third Flowermaiden / Second Group

Patricia Nolz, First squire

Stephanie Maitland, Second squire

Daniel Jenz, Third squire

Angelo Pollak, Fourth squire

Carlos Osuna, First knight of the Grail

Erik Van Heyningen, Second knight of the Grail

Nikolay Sidorenko, Actor

Concert Association Vienna State Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

Jailbird Parsifal in Vienna: stellar cast transcends Serebrennikov's problematic staging