Parsifal
A rant about LA Opera's Parsifal directed and designed by Robert Wilson
We went to Wagner's "Parsifal" at Los Angeles Opera in November '05.
And it's been on my mind.
For me, it is one of Wagner's most sublime scores.
Kent Nagano conducted. At the beginning, the orchestra playing sounded a little ragged, but it quickly shaped up under Nagano’s baton. The opening sounded like it was the dress rehearsal for the players. But as the opera proceeded, the playing got better and better – more clear, beautifully phrased, inflected. The singers – soloists and chorus - sounded first rate. And I thought they deserved so much more than what Robert Wilson’s direction gave them.
First the good – Wilson’s lighting design was fantastic. It was poetic and painterly. The singers assumed Japanese Kabuki (or Noh) mask-like postures, never emoting throughout. The costumes evoked ancient Egypt, or perhaps something Masonic. The makeup was thick - white face, and everything was quite static. And it all looked great under his lighting.
But his direction and the stage design were so minimal and there was so little movement of any kind on stage and such a degree of abstraction and non-emoting from the singers, that it seemed idiosyncratic to the point of being pedantic. I don't know exactly where idiosyncrasy crosses the line into pedantry, but sadly the Kabuki-like stylized hand motions that the singers were required to do seemed pedantic and merely distracting, even pretentious. I thought he was trying hard to tell us something through these motions, but after a while I just stopped caring. They seemed so personal and small against the back drop of transcendent music.
I accept that Wilson’s work is minimal and stylized, Asian in its sensibility. I like non-representational and non-historical staging of operas and I love minimal art, so this is not about having an aesthetic axe to grind. It’s that his stage direction just seemed so light, inconsequential, self effacing and self referential to the point of evaporating any interest I had in watching it.
Poor Placido (Parsifal) - you could tell that it was incredibly difficult for him NOT to emote throughout. He was clearly not comfortable in his own skin the night I saw and heard him.
The biggest busts were acts 1 and 3. The "transformation music"/scene in act 1 was a colossal disappointment. Actually it was a catastrophe. The round table descended from wires and looked like a lit doughnut (or candy lifesaver). Then there was this structure that looked like a Spinal Tap sized mock-up of a bit of Superman’s ice palace that came in slowly from the side that intersected the glowing lifesaver. This became the setting for the palace and the grail. It was supremely annoying and except for the lighting did not come close to delivering what is suggested in that music. Oh, the chorus remained off stage and invisible throughout this section too. But why?
The culmination of the opera in act 3 revealed a small barbecue pit- with a fire in it - in the middle of this lifesaver and a tacky looking spear dangling from a thin string (visible to us all) twirling slowly above it. Giving Wilson the benefit of the doubt, it was a very disturbing image (evoking the image of the sword of Damocles?). Giving him no benefit of the doubt, it was supremely disappointing given the resources of lighting and stage available to him at this final moment.
I really wanted to like it and I am generally a fan of Robert Wilson. But in his Parsifal, instead of less being more, less was really really less.
We went to Wagner's "Parsifal" at Los Angeles Opera in November '05.
And it's been on my mind.
For me, it is one of Wagner's most sublime scores.
Kent Nagano conducted. At the beginning, the orchestra playing sounded a little ragged, but it quickly shaped up under Nagano’s baton. The opening sounded like it was the dress rehearsal for the players. But as the opera proceeded, the playing got better and better – more clear, beautifully phrased, inflected. The singers – soloists and chorus - sounded first rate. And I thought they deserved so much more than what Robert Wilson’s direction gave them.
First the good – Wilson’s lighting design was fantastic. It was poetic and painterly. The singers assumed Japanese Kabuki (or Noh) mask-like postures, never emoting throughout. The costumes evoked ancient Egypt, or perhaps something Masonic. The makeup was thick - white face, and everything was quite static. And it all looked great under his lighting.
But his direction and the stage design were so minimal and there was so little movement of any kind on stage and such a degree of abstraction and non-emoting from the singers, that it seemed idiosyncratic to the point of being pedantic. I don't know exactly where idiosyncrasy crosses the line into pedantry, but sadly the Kabuki-like stylized hand motions that the singers were required to do seemed pedantic and merely distracting, even pretentious. I thought he was trying hard to tell us something through these motions, but after a while I just stopped caring. They seemed so personal and small against the back drop of transcendent music.
I accept that Wilson’s work is minimal and stylized, Asian in its sensibility. I like non-representational and non-historical staging of operas and I love minimal art, so this is not about having an aesthetic axe to grind. It’s that his stage direction just seemed so light, inconsequential, self effacing and self referential to the point of evaporating any interest I had in watching it.
Poor Placido (Parsifal) - you could tell that it was incredibly difficult for him NOT to emote throughout. He was clearly not comfortable in his own skin the night I saw and heard him.
The biggest busts were acts 1 and 3. The "transformation music"/scene in act 1 was a colossal disappointment. Actually it was a catastrophe. The round table descended from wires and looked like a lit doughnut (or candy lifesaver). Then there was this structure that looked like a Spinal Tap sized mock-up of a bit of Superman’s ice palace that came in slowly from the side that intersected the glowing lifesaver. This became the setting for the palace and the grail. It was supremely annoying and except for the lighting did not come close to delivering what is suggested in that music. Oh, the chorus remained off stage and invisible throughout this section too. But why?
The culmination of the opera in act 3 revealed a small barbecue pit- with a fire in it - in the middle of this lifesaver and a tacky looking spear dangling from a thin string (visible to us all) twirling slowly above it. Giving Wilson the benefit of the doubt, it was a very disturbing image (evoking the image of the sword of Damocles?). Giving him no benefit of the doubt, it was supremely disappointing given the resources of lighting and stage available to him at this final moment.
I really wanted to like it and I am generally a fan of Robert Wilson. But in his Parsifal, instead of less being more, less was really really less.
posted by Martin at 11:07 PM
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