Metropolitan Opera Archives

A new Parsifal brought special interest to the season's first performance of Wagner's consecrational music drama, last heard on April 4, 1958. He was Karl Liebl, who proved a musically adequate and dramatically tasteful and intelligent Parsifal - something we have needed for a long time. There were five other Metropolitan "firsts" in the cast, in lesser roles: Mildred Allen (First Esquire), Robert Nagy (Fourth Esquire), and Teresa Stratas, Mignon Dunn, and Joan Wall (Flower Maidens).

Since "Parsifal" is a drama of the spirit rather than the flesh, of the imagination rather than reality, the mood, the spirit in which it is performed are all-important. And here I reach a critical dilemma, for while I deplore the violence and highly unmystical approach of Erich Leinsdorf, I must give him great credit for maintaining consistent emotional and musical vitality and carrying his audience with him. The orchestra won some of the major ovations of the evening. Nonetheless, I must point out that the brasses seemed to be playing "Götterdämmerung" all evening (never have I heard such volume and brio) and-admirable as the orchestra sounded-the divine tenderness and serenity, the infinity of Wagner's music often eluded Mr. Leinsdorf. Only in the Good Friday scene did he weave this spell.

It has long been plain that Hermann Uhde is one of the most distinguished singing actors at the Metropolitan. His Amfortas was a joy to watch. True, one had to make vocal allowances-he had to spread his voice a bit in climactic phrases and it was not always full or stable enough. But what a magnificent portrait! Here was a knightly figure of grace and majesty-transfigured by suffering. Seldom does one encounter such finish and subtlety of characterization and plastique in the opera house.

Jerome Hines is, of course, the ideal Gurnemanz. A man of deep personal religious convictions, he dedicates his superb voice and commanding stature completely to Wagner's sublime music. Few people ever hear him in the Good Friday scene without tears in their eyes. Mr. Hines' make-up (with silvery locks and beard) is right in Act III, but he should have a more flexible and natural-looking beard. It was disturbing to see it moving rigidly with each musical phrase.

Martha Moedl is an excellent Kundry (even though she does not reach the heights in this role that Astrid Varnay and Kerstin Thorborg did). Her voice caused her trouble in top phrases in Act II-but then, it always does. Miss Moedl is a shining example of an artist whose dramatic and musical intelligence triumph over fundamental vocal weaknesses, making us forgive them through the sheer magnetism of her performances.

Gerhard Pechner is a veteran Klingsor and I regretted the cut in the scene between him and Kundry in Act II, Scene I. Her savage question, "Bist Du keusch?"-a marvelous touch-was missing.

The flower maidens are still hideously costumed, but they sang very smoothly and beguilingly. William Wilderman was a properly sepulchral Titurel, and all of the lesser figures sang well.

The choruses did not fare so well. The offstage choruses were frequently almost inaudible and the knights also sang somewhat anemically. Of course, the terrible acoustical conditions of the Metropolitan stage make these "Parsifal" choruses an all-but-insoluble problem.

To sum up-with all its shortcomings, this "Parsifal" welded the audience into a communal realization of Wagner's shattering musical and psychological genius. People left the house purged and purified - even though the last word had not been spoken!

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