Shooting Kaufmann

Shooting Kaufmann

Opera

norman lebrecht

December 12, 2023

Message from the tenor:

I am happy to announce the release of our live recording of Wagner’s Parsifal! Recorded @WrStaatsoper, I am joined by @elinagaranca as Kundry, Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz & @TezierLudovic as Amfortas, Philippe Jordan conducts.

Comments

  • A.L. says:

    How could anyone be happy after such an atrocious and creepy cover? Is the creep effect worth the, I don’t know, 35 copies they’ll sell worldwide?

    • youknowiamright says:

      It is an image from the stage premiere, with this specific cast, in Vienna. Therefore, you need to see it in the context of the performance and the concept

    • guest says:

      This is a stills from the show directed by Serebrennikov. This is a stills from the show directed by Serebrennikov (this is a live recording). Before you criticize, you can inform yourself (takes less time than writing out nonsense).

    • Kenny says:

      Let’s hear it first, OK? We’re not listening to the cover. (Ach, a “cover” of “the Parsifal song…” Even more dystopia ahead.)

    • Jack says:

      I don’t listen to covers.

  • Larry L Lash says:

    „Parsifal“ with this cast was given at Wiener Staatsoper exactly once, on 11 April 2021. In the middle of the COVID closures, it was played in an empty auditorium except for a camera crew, and was broadcast on several media platforms.

    Kirill Serebrennikov directed. For the first two acts, Parsifal has a much younger double, credited as „Der ehemalige Parsifal“, who acts the role as JK roams around the stage wearing a hoodie.

    • operacentric says:

      So what’s the problem with that? It is a live performance, recorded at the Staatsoper, as the press release states. Why shouldn’t people who weren’t able to see any of the broadcasts hear it – it is a very fine cast. We don’t seem to have a problem with many other eminent singers recording roles they have never sung (or would ever sing) on stage… which I don’t think is the case here anyway.

      • Larry L Lash says:

        I apologise if you were troubled by my comment. I wasn’t judging the singers or the production; I was merely offering further information.

        This performance had been scheduled as the Premiere of a new production (I believe all scheduled Premieres were performed during the Covid Era, usually for streaming on Staatsoper’s website and/or other online platforms or broadcast on ORF).

        The production has entered the repertoire and since been performed in two sets of four performances in December 2021 (Brandon Jovanovich and Anja Kampe) and April 2023 (Klaus Florian Vogt and Ekaterina Gubanova), all with Maestro Jordan.

    • Joel Kemelhor says:

      Thanks for the warning !

    • Kenny says:

      Don’t care about the “production,” especially as it wasn’t foisted on an unsuspecting public (as if that exists there). But the possibility that it may be a one-time performance (with potentially no retakes) is tantalizing. Still, I won’t be one of the 35 fools. Not any longer, did my endless innings.

  • Heifetz63 says:

    What a tasteless cover picture!

  • Amfortas says:

    Appalling cover picture. As crass as one could get. Sony should think again.

  • Marc t' Kint says:

    I saw this on ARTE tv. One of the most impressive Parsifals I’ve ever seen. And I saw quite a few. Whatever the cover.

  • David A. Boxwell says:

    Kundry was a bad-to-the-bone “bottle blonde” dame who was a big dose of poison for any man. But when the man was a boyish virgin, she was double trouble!

  • Anthony Sayer says:

    One hell of a cast.

  • Rob says:

    Give me Barenboim and Jerusalem any day

  • Fred Funk says:

    Hopefully, the violas aren’t too loud.

  • Christopher Stager says:

    Terrible cover – but there’s an interesting point of trivia. Both the father and son have recorded Parsifal. Armin conducted it for the 1982 Syberberg film and released on Erato.

  • Mock Mahler says:

    I saw it streamed. Silly but not really objectionable production (is that about the best you can hope for these days?) but very good listening with eyes closed.

  • Roger L Hubley says:

    This is an absolutely sick cover. I definitely would never buy such a disk despite who the performers are. A real turn-off for me. What kind of moral degenerate would design such a cover?

  • Greg says:

    Hopefully they are more careful with weapons on set than that blowhard Alec Baldwin was.

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