Mobiles, Empty Shells and a Lone Shark: Barry Millington is unimpressed by a revival of Covent Garden’s ‘Parsifal’

In the latter part of the third act of Klaus Michael Grüber’s production of Parsifal, revived at Covent Garden under the baton of Bernard Haitink, there is a spine-chillingly theatrical coup. A fearsome phalanx of black knights, visors down, advances towards the front of the stage, roaring out the demand that Amfortas uncover the grail. It is a truly sinister, monstrous regiment and the gripping visual spectacle is matched by the intensity of Haitink’s conducting at this point.