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Review of Parsifal, directed Langridge, conducted Pappano, Royal Opera House, London, 2013.

March 2014, Volume 8, Number 1, 60–62.

A video projection of a laughing, lipsticked mouth superimposed upon a red front-drop has come and gone and, as the curtain rises to reveal a dull monochrome grey set dominated by a large greyish cube, the omens are not good. But these first impressions are soon swept aside by the Royal Opera House’s superb new Parsifal, directed by Stephen Langridge and designed by Alison Chitty. This was one of those rare occasions when uniformly fine vocal and dramatic performances, excellent music-making in the pit and a brave, shocking, thought-provoking production came together in a fully satisfying night at the opera. It also served to prove, yet again – especially when compared to Mark Elder’s and the Hallé’s sublime sonic effects at the Proms Parsifal last summer, in a concert performance which nevertheless failed to take wing and soar – that Wagner’s music dramas belong on the stage, and not on the concert platform.