PARSIFAL - 2025
I was fortunate enough this year to see "Parsifal". It was the first time that it was staged at Glyndebourne. Consequently, the expectations ran high. Well, in my case, at first I thought the cast had walked into the wrong stage, because the setting for the First Act was the inside of a Manor House ready for a chapter of "Downton Abbey". Traditionally the First Act takes place in a monastery or an abbey. This change of venue lessens the epic of the story, as in this production the plot is introduced as a Family affair instead of the religious conflict from the original libretto. This, of course, affects the development of the plot as sometimes you don't know whether to take it as a parody or the hard drama that it is. In my case, I found the arrival of Parsifal laughable, after he had shot down the swan. Instead of the mysterious hero he's supposed to be, he resembles more the dissolute boy of an upper-class family who arrives home after having done his ...