La Monnaie Parsifal | PreGeneral Challenges

Parsifal's Entrance
Act One

"Life is Short. Opera is Long. Wagner Opera longer."

Today will not be a run thru. We are 2 rehearsal days away and we have a 2 hour break mid-way thru the Pre Generale. We will not ever have run the opera in its entirety until the Final Dress on the 25th of January. Or should I say "Opening Night" on the 25th of January. The entire house is "sold out" with family and friends and I'm telling myself that the 25th is the (unpaid) Opening Night. It used to be you would see a few guests on the Final Dress. A few donors and photographers. Not any more. Here, even in a run of 10 performances the Final Dress is packed. Such is the demand to attend.

And they say opera is dead. Ha!

Going into today, I thought I would share a mental breakdown of the challenges I face going into the performance. Much of it is tedious, but some is perhaps informative.


Vocal Challenges
There is a great temptation to over-produce the middle voice in this role. Because the tessitura is so centrally located, tenors are always wanting to warm up the middle voice. This means adding vocal weight and heft. We all want warmer and warmer voices, to sound like baritones in certain roles and this is the greatest temptress of them all. And it can be done because there are no high notes in the piece above A-natural. But what can be done doesn't mean should be. Let Amfortas have his day in the sun and be the baritone. You aren't gonna out-gun Thomas Mayer anyway. He's way too good. Just be a tenor. Be yourself.

Keep connecting to the words. Despite a zen-like portrayal, keep digging into the delivery of text to carry the emotional impact. I'm stripped of using layered on facial expressiveness and so it's easy for things to become detached. Don't do it. Keep clearly expressing the words but without letting the language close down your throat. The German language is very ee and ay oriented, and tends to bundle up the breath because the pathway of the breath is narrower and pressure greater on these vowels. Also it is more violent on the throat for a non-native speaker. The consonants sharp and crisp and very distinct. They can be all those things but do not necessarily have to build up pressure in the voice. (I think figuring out how to accomplish that is going to take another 10 years.)

Keep the breath low. And resonance high. Keep the vowel warm and the consonant forward.

Character Challenges

Act Three
Alone

The director wants Passivity. Neutrality. Simplicity. This is incredibly hard to do against the natural desire to "deliver" the piece. Action is stripped away from this Parsifal. He must remain unknowing throughout. Keep it Simple Stupid. KISS.

This neutrality should not be be perceived as an automaton. There needs to be humanity always present. Movement is not automatic. It is simple and meaningful but not because I desire for it to be so. Allow it to be transcendental and let the hearer/seer bring their own meaning to movement and singing.

___________

I'm seeing the time. Must get to the theater and get in the makeup chair. For now, this is enough of a challenge. Today will not be perfect. After having had 4 days in a row of 6hour orchestral rehearsal days I'm allowed to be (really) tired, vocally and physically.

The only quest for today is to embrace. Not to perfect.

____________________________

From Leidmotief (loosely translated):

"Parsifal is about a man who is totally unaware of his destiny but the power of innocence. Unconsciously, he makes a hole in a closed, sick, sleepy community that can not proceed to act. This creates an incredible dynamic of transformation, not only of Parsifal itself but everything around him. The paradox is that everything is transformed by the detachment. The breakthrough is not an act, Parsifal does in the course of the piece by its detachment from its original purity. There is a contrary staining.

"…Parsifal can break open a closed society and mankind. I think that is the most important thing about that now to tell. …salvation is for everyone or for nobody. In our time you can not save yourself. "

"Parsifal is often presented as the second Christ…In my staging you will not see any Christian character: no Grail, no spear. The grail for me is a tension, an emptiness, a lack of form. But that lack is what humanity together [shares]. The opening that is created is that of the crossing, the transformation means you're always available for that openness. In this sense, the individual is more important than the community… "

"I have [done away with Parsifal traditions] and want something completely open. I must try to understand the energy lines in the play. For example, the blood in this opera is not the blood of Christ or that of the race but that of women, the menstrual blood. From there I am the woman, or rather the female sex, come to regard as a central force in the play. That sexual attraction to both stands for repulsion. Opposite the alleged purity is the impurity, the masturbation, the poison is medicine. Amfortas has been stained with Kundry, you could say that the blood that flows out of him, the blood of Kundry, Amfortas, … [the] misogynistic community of Grail knights. That sexual aspect is fundamental and not only erotic.The female sex is not that of the mistress, but that of the mother, from birth, understood as a port. "

"In Bayreuth, you see people sitting with eyes closed to this divine music. That appeal is a personal choice - and thus a free-critical attitude of the listener is virtually impossible. I have that in my presentation in a captured image: an albino long. It is a sign for the music and the poison it contained: the snake of Eden, both charm and enchantment, even hypnosis. The music of Wagner is black magic, her beauty is diabolical. "