Have a very superficial grasp of the plot of Wagner's Parsifal but the sick king (whose name I forget) has just begun his first aria (or whatever it is called in Wagnerland). Today is the last day for a free view at the Staatsoper in Munich; only by chance or good fortune did I stumble across a mention of the opera on Twitter or somewhere. I had avoided such secular pleasures during Holy Week and most of Lent etc etc. Kirill Petrenko is conducting but alas I don't know any of the singers thus far.
But I looked. René Pape is Gurnemanz (did recognize him although I couldn't remember his name), Christian Gerhaher is 'the sick king', Amfortas, Nina Stemme is Kundry, Klingsor Wolfgang Koch, and Jonas Kaufmann is singing Parsifal. Kaufmann is looking his age, ahem, but hasn't yet sung a word. His voice sounds perfect enough, to my ears.
Kirill Petrenko is the new conductor (or whatever the title is) at the Berlin Philharmonic; 'new' as in 'this season'. Hmm. They had opened up their archive of performances to free access propter pestilentiam-- I wonder if that still the case? My understanding was that it was for March. Apparently still free access.
The wonderful pianist Igor Levit has been (now for over a month) performing a 'house concert' each day and streaming it via Periscope and Twitter (although a couple of those days he's been at someone else's house or in a small concert venue)-- works of half an hour or small programs of an hour, perhaps. Today was house concert number 33, and he performed Beethoven's 33 Variations on a theme of Diabelli. Had to interrupt that in order to turn on Parsifal; the sound seemed a bit off (I mean the audio apparatus, not his playing) so it was not much of a sacrifice, given that circumstance.
But I looked. René Pape is Gurnemanz (did recognize him although I couldn't remember his name), Christian Gerhaher is 'the sick king', Amfortas, Nina Stemme is Kundry, Klingsor Wolfgang Koch, and Jonas Kaufmann is singing Parsifal. Kaufmann is looking his age, ahem, but hasn't yet sung a word. His voice sounds perfect enough, to my ears.
***
Kirill Petrenko is the new conductor (or whatever the title is) at the Berlin Philharmonic; 'new' as in 'this season'. Hmm. They had opened up their archive of performances to free access propter pestilentiam-- I wonder if that still the case? My understanding was that it was for March. Apparently still free access.
***
The wonderful pianist Igor Levit has been (now for over a month) performing a 'house concert' each day and streaming it via Periscope and Twitter (although a couple of those days he's been at someone else's house or in a small concert venue)-- works of half an hour or small programs of an hour, perhaps. Today was house concert number 33, and he performed Beethoven's 33 Variations on a theme of Diabelli. Had to interrupt that in order to turn on Parsifal; the sound seemed a bit off (I mean the audio apparatus, not his playing) so it was not much of a sacrifice, given that circumstance.
***
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