[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 6:43 PM Eastern on 23 Jul. See below.]
Time to start girding your loins. The 2008 Bayreuther Festspiele opens this Friday, 25 July, with a new production of Parsifal with Konzept by Norwegian director Stefan Herheim, and with Italian conductor Daniele Gatti on the podium (he's currently music director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna opera house as well as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra).
From what little we've heard of the production (Eurotrash in spades, natch, one tipoff being that the staging requires the services of a professional stunt man — a Festspiele first — as a stand-in for Christopher Ventris, the Parsifal, to take a 20-foot leap off who-knows-what followed by a few-minutes prancing about going who-knows-where), a cast of singers the names of none of whom we've ever heard before (Gurnemanz: Kwangchul Youn; Parsifal: Christopher Ventris; Amfortas: Detlef Roth; Kundry: Mihoko Fujimura; Klingsor: Thomas Jesatko), and an Italian opera conductor on the podium, we suspect a train wreck of Wagnerian proportions is in the making. If, however, you'd like to hear a live streaming audio feed from the Festspielhaus, you can log onto Bayern 4 Klassik radio on the Web beginning at 9:55 AM, Eastern, by following this link:
Or Bartók Radio (same time) by following this link:
If we're awake and up in time, we'll probably tune in for at least a quick listen, loins fully girded, of course. We won't, however, be setting our alarm clock.
Update (6:43 PM Eastern on 23 Jul): Things may not be as catastrophic as they first appeared to us they might be. Two members of the CM&OF have responded to the above with these reassuring nuggets of information:
I have heard of most of these singers, and they are experienced Wagnerians. Daniele Gatti is a talented conductor who has conducted all over with considerable success. I don't know how good he will be in Wagner, but the fact that he's Italian is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to this composer. After all, Toscanini was closely associated with Wagner....
From Italy, here some details on Daniele Gatti: He’s no more in Bologna, where he worked close to Thielemann (and this can explain why he’s been called to Bayreuth). In January this year he conducted a most appreciated concert-performance of Parsifal in Rome, with the prestigious Accademia di Santa Cecilia orchestra (whose director is today Antonio Pappano, a long time Bayreuth guest). [...] He’s very much acquainted with Wagner and the German romantic and post-romantic musical school.
Sounds encouraging.
Our thanks to these two most generous informants. We now feel somewhat more sanguine about this opening.
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