Evading the Essence: David Breckbill interrogates the dramatic compass of a refined new ‘Parsifal’

Review of Parsifal, conducted Gergiev, St Petersburg, 2009 (Mariinsky, 4 SACDs).

March 2011, Volume 5, Number 1, 100–102.

‘Gergiev had long dreamed, with an almost messianic passion, of performing Wagner’s last opera’, reports John Ardoin concerning the Kirov’s Parsifal production of 1997. Since then, Gergiev has conducted the work often, notably at the Metropolitan Opera in 2003 (the present release retains the Kundry, Gurnemanz and Klingsor from that production), but also frequently in concert. This handsomely produced recording from June 2009 thus allows listeners to come to terms with the aural dimension of one of the most noted and deeply considered Wagnerian interpretations of recent years.