Metropolitan Opera Archives

Parsifal received three performances this season.

Review 1:

Raymond Ericson in The New York Times
Opera: ‘Parsifal’ Returns
Jess Thomas and Janis Martin Cast in Steinberg’s Devotional Reading

After having been dropped for a season, “Parsifal” was returned to the Metropolitan repertory on Good Friday evening. The sold-out performance of Wagner’s consecrative work was notable in that it brought back to the company William Steinberg as conductor, and there were also members of the cast singing their roles for the first time here.

Mr. Steinberg’s reading of the score was, above all, devotional. The Prelude was slow, almost to the point where the players could not preserve a musical pulse Tempos picked up after that, but this was primarily a serenely paced, subdued performance, unified in the conception of a musician now 74 years old, eloquent in its quiet way.

What such a conception did, however, was to expose the flaws in the singing. Unlike so many conductors at the Met, Mr. Steinberg rarely drowned out his singers, and there were times when heavier and more supportive orchestral sonorities might have been kinder to them.

The cast evidenced intelligencer and style but not the finest of voices. Missing was the vocal authority that helps a singer to illuminate the music rather than merely give it sound The best singling was to be found among the three leading bases. Morely Merridith’s Klingsor suggested role’s evil in the dark forcefulness of his vocalism. John Macurdy sang most sensitively as Gurnemanz, and his voice has a warmth congenial to the veteran knight’s benign character. It lacks, however, the final degree of power needed for the role. And James Morris made a fine effect in the offstage music of Titurel.

Janis Martin, a mezzo-soprano who used to sing small roles with the Met before finding a career in Europe, was Kundry. She acted with an admirable piquancy and was credible as the seductress in Act II, but the voice is not meaty enough to let her color the music in any kind of dramatic fashion. Jess Thomas cut a handsome figure as Parsifal. There is a compelling sincerity in his acting, but to create any vocal impact he had to force. Thomas Stewart’s Amfortas was similarly weak vocally, and he could not do justice to the poignance in this tortured character.

The lesser roles were decently filled, although some of the Flower Maidens sounded considerably less than sensuous.

“Parsifal” remains “Parsifal,” however, with some of the most beautiful music ever written. If it did more honor to the singers than they did to it, the Met can still be thanked for putting it on.

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