Parsifal

I watched this Parsifal when the Vienna State Opera streamed it during the spring pandemic. The four minus stars go to the production, which is somewhat hilarious. The production places the entire opera within a mental hospital, with Kundry being locked in a cage, the Flowermaidens being bodies in a morgue, and the various knights of the grail being patients and doctors. The Holy Grail is very metaphoric, appearing to be a brain or a spear within a brain. This production better associates the opera with Vienna's own Otto Wagner, a well known architect of the Vienna Secession school, rather than Richard. There are a few minor respects to the original production, such as Parsifal who always wears a breastplate, and Kundry's appearance in Act 2 as an Arabian princess. Despite the production issues, they are in part rescued by the cast. Gerald Finley is excellent as Amfortas, though it is humorous to compare him with his Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic. Nina Stemme, one of today's great Wagnerian sopranos, performs Kundry. Personally, the performance is brilliant though the production may make one subject to laughter.