Richard Wagner’s opera ‘Parsifal’, in concert version, is brought to the scene next Friday at the Porto Coliseum, under the direction of maestro Graeme Jenkins.
[dropcap type=”background”]T[/dropcap]he tenor Erin Caves stars in ‘Parsifal’, whose cast also includes the lyrical singers Ante Jerkunica, Michael Kraus and Sónia Alcobaça, accompanied by the Choir of the National Theater of S. Carlos and the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra.
After Porto, ‘Parsifal’, in concert version, rises to the scene in Lisbon, at the National Theater of S. Carlos (TNSC), on the 15th of this month.
According to a statement from the TNSC, in these two recitations “the prelude and the choral interventions of the scene of the Grail (scene 2) of the I act and the III complete act, which takes place on a Friday of the Passion, are presented“.
The American Erin Caves returns to Portugal, after having played Tristao, in the opera ‘Tristan and Isolda’, also of Wagner, in 2017, in the TNSC.
Another return is that of the English conductor Graeme Jenkins, who directed the operas ‘Peter Grimes’, of Benjamin Britten, in the season of 2916/17 of the TNSC, and, this season, ‘Alceste’, of Gluck, that was carried out by Ana Quintans.
Richard Wagner’s three-piece musical drama was premiered in Bayreuth, Germany, at the composer’s opera house (Festspielhaus) in July 1882.
The German compositor died the following year, at the age of 69, in Venice.
In Portugal, the premiere took place at the TNSC in January 1921, “with a very positive reception from the public and criticism.”
A note from the TNSC explains that “the idea for the composition of ‘Parsifal’ refers to a period in which he had contact with the medieval epic poem ‘Parzival’ by the German knight and poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170-1220).
“The opera, which chronicles the demand for the Holy Grail by Parsifal, one of the knights of the mythical King Arthur, is referred to by Wagner as a ‘sacral-festive theatrical performance‘”, and has been “the target of various readings that underline the centrality of Christian theme “.
