La Monnaie Parsifal | Introductions

The Singers

Starting out the first meeting yesterday was Peter De Caluwe giving opening remarks and welcoming all to the rehearsal space. Peter is a dear friend, really a brother to me and one of the biggest believers in me personally. The musical brother that he is, he got a good jab in when introducing me: "Andrew Richards is our Parsifal. And I'm rather upset at him. THIS production was to be his debut in the role, but after signing on for this was then offered another Parsifal in an earlier time slot. He received a lot of positive attention for it so I suppose I have to forgive him." Thanks, mon frere. :-)

Anna Larsson is our Kundry. One thing to say about her so far: BOOTS. Boots with heals. I felt small in Stuttgart standing anywhere near any of the guys. Now I get to feel tiny in all of Act Two standing anywhere near my Kundry. (Doggonit, I'm over 6ft tall. When I complained to another tall friend online she wrote back, "Ah, but what you lack in height you more than make up for with Ego." Hmmm…I think I just got b**** slapped.) This will be her debut in the role of Kundry. Color me extremely impressed. Back now from the first staging rehearsal and noticed she was wearing sporty flats. NOW we're talkin'!

Here's Anna singing Dalilah. Yeah. This is an artist.



Jan-Hendrik Rootering is the Gurnemanz. And this is certainly not his first Gurnemanz as any Wagnerite will know. Usually tenors backsides get a bit prickly when a colleague comes up and begins to give "helpful corrections." No matter how well intended comments can be, there is usually a great possibility you'll step on someone's toes. But when Jan-Hendrik tip toes over and gently says: "You have too beautiful of a voice to not say this, but…your diphthongs sound too foreign. You chew them too much. I'm sorry, I never usually make comments on a colleagues singing but I think you might want to fix them." It's indicative of the community of Wagner singers. A no-nonsense, honest way of working. Stephen Milling had warned me of this last time; there is a comfort in working in Wagner rep. No BS between the artists. And usually no huge egos that have to be nursed. When colleagues take the time to go outside their comfort zone and offer constructive comments, when they sound THIS good, we listen!

No longer the giant he is here:


Amfortas is to be Thomas Johannes Mayer. I first met him in Salzburg this summer on the street after attending the Lulu at the Festspielhaus. He might not be the linebacker that Gregg Baker is, but a complete Amfortas, a commanding performer with a fantastic voice. The same is to be said of Tómas Tómasson singing Klingsor currently performing at Komische Oper in Berlin. Both of these guys voices are like a heavy metal guitars. (Yes, that IS a compliment!) I sat there in the musical rehearsal wanting to see if they were turned up to "11."

Tomorrow, I'll begin to go thru my 5 pages of notes I took during Romeo's talk. But one clue to where the concept is headed can be found here.