Not on the Monet: Hugo Shirley has mixed feelings about demystifying ‘Parsifal’

In a video interview published on Oper Frankfurt’s YouTube channel, Brigitte Fassbaender and Thomas Guggeis mention their joint aim of presenting Parsifal without the baggage, with the distinguished mezzo-turned-director expressing her desire to normalise and to bring order to a work around which there is so much accumulated mystery and mythology. These are in many ways admirable aims, but, as was made clear at the first night of this new production, they can mean different things for the musical performance and for the staging.