Metropolitan Opera Archives

NEW YORK (AP) Wagner's "Parsifal," which contains prominent Good Friday references, was sung at the Metropolitan for the first time this season on Monday.

It will be sung three more times in the season's final two weeks, with the second performance on the Saturday matinee, which is broadcast, and the last performance on Good Friday.

Timothy Jenkins of Oklahoma City was Parsifal; Tatiana Troyanos of New York was Kundry; Hans Sotin of Dortmund, Germany, was Gurnemanz, for the first time at the Met; Simon Estes of Centerville, Iowa, was Amfortas, king of the knights of the Holy Grail, and Donald McIntyre of Auckland, New Zealand, was Klingsor, enemy of the knights.

Jenkins is a big man with a big voice. He tends to attack each note on its own instead of singing a line of music. This detracts from the beauty of the music but possibly Jenkins does it to keep from scooping from note to note. He has the power for the part and his voice took on more of a heroic tint as the more than five-hour opera went on.

Parsifal is meant to be an innocent youth. Jenkins acts him as though he'd lived all his previous life isolated in a jungle or mountains. He moves with impetuous haste, is amazed by everything, eager to learn and deeply cast down if he makes a mistake.

Miss Troyanos triumphed as Kundry, having all the honeyed tones for her lengthy attempt to seduce Parsifal. In the magic garden scene, she wore a strapless gown. It isn't necessary for this shapely mezzo to hide inside a caftan and pretend she looks alluring.

Estes helped make the communion scene of Act 1 moving. He was able to give his voice an "other-worldly" tone which was very effective. He also conveyed weakness from injury without sacrificing vocal beauty or authority.

Sotin sang with legato line, spinning a golden thread through his arias. McIntyre, singing Klingsor for the first time at the Met, used a rich but incisive tone, instead of the pinched sound some baritones choose to indicate evil. Also, McIntyre walked around a bit on his high platform, waving his arms to call up red light on the coils of lava around him in his domain.

The Met's artistic director, James, Levine, from Cincinnati, conducted.

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