Bayreuth Festival 2016: Parsifal

No burkas and no bikinis – long before Bayreuth’s latest Parsifal had opened in Uwe Eric Laufenberg’s new reading, these two phrases had done the rounds, their emotive content ensuring that the production was hotly debated. Laufenberg shows us everything: the Grail chalice, the dead swan, the wound, the lance. Such realism in the staging, which above all reveals an eye for intricate detail, creates the impression of a new radicalism. With Klaus Florian Vogt “as a powerfully heroic Parsifal (…), the beautiful gold, silver piercing iron of Elena Pankratova’s voice as Kundry (…), Georg Zeppenfeld as a slim Gurnemanz providing unparalleled vocal command (…) and Ryan McKinny as a noble and agonised Amfortas.” (The Telegraph)