On 16 October (18.00), Richard Wagner’s stage-consecrating festival drama Parsifal returns to the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre after an eight-year absence. The original production was staged by British director Tony Palmer (production of 1997, modern revival of the Mariinsky Theatre with Marina Mishuk as revival stage director). The Mariinsky Orchestra will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. The performance will feature a remarkable cast, including soloists Mikhail Vekua (Parsifal), Alexei Markov (Amfortas), and Yuri Vorobiev (Gurnemanz). Maria Guleghina, who has been expanding her repertoire over the recent years by adding roles in German operas, will make her debut as Kundry.
Richard Wagner worked to bring to life Wolfram von Eschenbach’s epic poem from the Middle Ages for more than half of his life, that is for 37 years. Since the very beginning, the opera was shrouded in mystery fueled by a 30-year ban to perform it outside of Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where it had its world premiere in 1882. Even to this day, the appearance of Parsifal on any playbill in the world is an extraordinary event. In Russia, Parsifal can only be seen and heard at the Mariinsky Theatre. Richard Wagner’s stage-consecrating festival drama was first staged at the St Petersburg theatre in 1997. In 2010, the Mariinsky label released a full concert recording of Parsifal, which marked the first time the label released anything by the famed German composer. The vocal parts were then sung by René Pape (Gurnemanz), Violeta Urmana (Kundry), Gary Lehman (Parsifal), Yevgeny Nikitin (Amfortas), Nikolai Putilin (Klingsor), and Alexei Tanovitski (Titurel). Conductor: Valery Gergiev. The Mariinsky label was nominated for a Grammy Award for this recording, while the recording itself was named the Best CD of 2010 by The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, the CD of the Month by BBC Music and made it into Editor’s Choice of The Gramophone. Moreover, the CD was named the Best Classical Music Record of 2010 by the ArkivMusic and was included into the top 10 CDs of The Boston Globe.
Richard Wagner’s stage-consecrating festival drama performances will also take place on 8 November and 26 April at the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The performances start at 18.00. On 16 October, a performance of Parsifal will open the Wagner. Strauss subscription, which also includes Richard Wagner’s operas Der fliegende Holländer and Lohengrin, and Richard Strauss’ Salome, Elektra, and Die Frau ohne Schatten.
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