Bridging the Sexual Divide: Barry Millington is stimulated but ultimately unmoved by François Girard’s new ‘Parsifal’ for the Met

Review of Parsifal, directed Girard, conducted Fisch, New York Met, 2013.

July 2013, Volume 7, Number 2, 49–52.

Whatever else Parsifal may be about – and that fetid ideological undergrowth harbours a good many dubious possibilities – the relationship between the sexes has to be an issue of primary concern. The opera does not of course advocate chastity, any more than it proselytises for religion. But the ultimate reuniting of spear and grail, those legendary symbols of male and female sexuality, celebrates a fusion of sexual identities marking the final stage in Wagner’s lifelong search for a resolution of sensual and spiritual conflicts. François Girard’s new production for the Met engages powerfully with the notion of womankind as the agent of redemption.