La Monnaie Parsifal | The Passions for Parsifal

Sometimes things are easy. Sometimes they aren't.

[note: This post written 19Jan after a tough day. I didn't post it because I knew in its first draft would be perceived as inflammatory. This draft is highly edited, and not up-to-date. I will write in the morning how things have progressed today since writing this post…]

At La Monnaie, we're now 4 rehearsal days away from opening. As I tried to alude to yesterday, things here have been better. I am fully invested in all aspects of the production, and dare I say it, even more invested in reporting what it's like being in this type of production. The process for me has been one of tearing away. Removing layer after layer of what I thought was important to story-telling. Bieito-like Intensity…gone. Natural relating to other singers onstage…gone. Vocal crutches…going. Disdain for the diction police…gone. A need to be seen and recognized immediately…gone.

So much stripping away can leave a person a bit saddle sore. I used to get that way horseback riding as a child on trips with my brother thru the Agua Fria River in Arizona. And I sit here chafed, feeling fearful and unable to write about the last several rehearsals. I'm afraid of the consequences professionally. I'm a realist and pragmatist. And up til now I've been able to censor myself in light of this fact: what I write in this blog may have an impact on my career. It is one thing to have fun, writing about Regie Directors, hopefully in an amusing way where the directors are not as threatened as Robert Downey Jr was at the Golden Globes. It's quite another to stop pretending things are a-ok and give some light to the artistic disagreements surrounding us.

I am stifled as a writer and I hate it. As a singer, I am far too much a sponge. The "energy" around me directly gets absorbed into my voice And before this production wouldn't have dreamt of giving a painful account out of fear of retribution. But this production, this time in Brussels has changed me fundamentally. The artistic process (for me) has been that vital. Since working with Bieito, when I made a conscious decision to stop giving reasons why I couldn't accomplish something, when I set out to even break my own taboo of nakedness, I find the path toward letting go of preconceived ideas deepening and continuing. This blog is about access to the artistic process and I feel if is to have any integrity I need to give account.

It's time to put the cards on the table…

Roméo's methods and rehearsal style are challenging to the type of person who needs things 'set.' From day one, while the overall concept for a scene won't change significantly, the action will. And it changes on a minute by minute basis. Because of his tradition, his artistic home, his creative team is made up of  people who are highly intuitive, who need very little dialogue and often when they do speak in a way that mystifies a room full of Wagner musicians. The team of Roméo are as gentle and giving as he is. They are not confrontational people. And in many ways, personally, I think they serve the music better than most creative teams I've worked with. All of them can talk at length about the deepest philosophical issues, or at depth about great pieces of literature. From what I've seen Castellucci is a highly knowledgeable and creative artist.

And they are quintessentially Italian. They are passionate about creating, seeing things in a new way, building community and relationships. One of the major facets of this production is this relatedness, and how even though we are in community we are alone. The Grail is the quest to fill that emptiness.

[edit note: I wince at breaking it down into stereotypes and national identities to so great a degree but for the sake of expediency am choosing to do so. Of course, things are more complex, but I don't have the ability to address things except in generalities here.]

Along the way, Castellucci has suffered the indignity of his ideas having to be modified to fit a normal operatic way of thinking. The sheer amount of people involved has only exacerbated this. Chorus demands must be met. Leaves onstage during the Forest which is Act 1 must be silent. Technical issues solved or done away with in scenic changes. Grumpy performers (myself included) accommodated and worse yet, listened to while we kvetch and blow off steam. He's a man used to willingness and artistic exploration. He doesn't seem to know limits. He only thinks in terms of intriguing possibilities.

Maestro Haenchen is a man devoted to a tradition, a ideal of Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"). He is passionately committed to classical music and maintaining the highest standards. If Wikipedia is to be believed he resigned as principal conductor of Netherlands Philharmonic over budgetary cuts. He is sincere in his passion for high standards and has put his own livelihood on the line. 


Unfortunately, it is very challenging to accomodate Romeo's theatrical sensibilities in the Wagner Universe. And as accommodating as the Italians are, that's how staunch the Germans are in their set of priorities. The musical staff are passionate about maintaining, about respecting the composer. It is their life's work. and there is absolutely no denying they mean business when the music starts. They certainly care for community, but a kind where flowers are precisely placed in the lawn. (My poor neighbors hated us when we moved to Germany. Our lawn always looked like crap, while the rest of the block were these picture perfect places surrounded by immaculate gardens.) They are as fierce as lions and as loyal as wolves.


In Berlin I know if you ask a shopkeeper if they can fix this or that problem with your order (auf Deutsch), the immediate standard line is: 'But of course not.'And this response of "Of course not" mystifies most of the non-Germans I know. I'm quite sure Germans wouldn't care that this was the number one thing non-Germans talk about behind their backs. So I guess I can write it here. It's a fact of life living in Germany. It's their country so all I'm really trying to do is understand it. It has something to do with pride, I suppose. That German shopkeeper can't fathom you'd want to alter anything in what he sold or did for you. He took great pride in his work.


I doubt Roméo will be shopping in Berlin anytime soon. His creative ideas are perhaps too large. Too grandiose. He's now lost the positive streak and seems dejected. I feel for him and believe he is an incredible creator. But he's bitten off a lot. At times we are near-defeated by the placement onstage. He is so visually acute that asking him to move the singer downstage by 5 meters throws him off. He's upset and angry because he doesn't feel like his production is being made. Like me, he's so "open," so accommodating, that when the point of unwillingness to 'give' anymore is found, it seems out of character. It's a surprise. He's certainly found that point now, giving in to one thing after another. And now it appears he can give no more.


Today I am as lost as Parsifal, a man caught having bitten the apple in the Garden of Eden, standing between heaven and hell. Purity and Foolishness. And because I'm a trained musician I can easily see the musical staff's side of things. And as an actor, now a singer with some theatrical experience, I look for new things to say. Castellucci's theater intrigues me to no ends. Haenchen's knowledge is vast and something I covet. But the differences between the two men now seem at an impasse. And I'm stuck not knowing which way to go.


Having grown up in a very conservative (read: Republican) household, my (very large) family are more often like the Germans than the Italians. Overall, I've become more moderate in my politics and have been known to vote for the democrat's side of things. Dependent on your point of view (and I'm not really soliciting anyone's) I've either "grown up" or "betrayed the faith." More than anything though, I know you can take the conservative out of the tenor, but you can't make him totally comfortable with "touchy feely." That's why I live in Germany today. I enjoy living with the predictable but work elsewhere.


Where do we go from here? I fear to say. I only hope for clarity and patience on all counts. I really just hope we can approximate Castellucci's vision. It's unique visually. And it gives the music time to breathe. We've all worked so hard on this project, pushed so far beyond our comfort zones…


Truth be told, Roméo's public will only get a glimpse of his creative vision, but I firmly believe that glimpse is still important. It's not going to be his fullest intention, but we've all invested in doing without things. 


Opera needs both men, both mindsets, if we are to explore what it has to say to today's listeners.