Those of who who have been watching my linklog or noticing my autoblog posts will have noticed, in particular, two blogposts on this subject
Berlin: Embarassingly underprepared Domingo as Parsifal with Meier, Salminen and Barenboim
As Parsifal, Plácido Domingo was notoriously underprepared,
relying heavily on audible prompting, especially in the second act.
Famous for his acting skills, he had no connection with the character
at all, seemingly stretching
himself to the maximum to get through it alive and pronounce the words
at least partially correct. Has he ever been dramatically convincing as
the innocent fool? I suspect not. But yesterday he was painfully
unconvincing, almost downright terrible, I (as a staunch Domingo-Wagner
fan) am very sorry to say. The tones, however, were beautiful and
probably not to be heard better by anyone today in this part. In a
concert performance he would have been stunning. However, is it really
possible to watch a performance with no chemistry between Plácido Domingo and Waltraud Meier? I wouldn´t have thought so, but apparently it is.
with 'lively' comments thread
Parsifal, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, 6 March 2009
The true musical disappointment, I am sad to say, was Domingo’s Parsifal. When I have heard him as Siegmund, most recently for the Royal Opera,
I have been greatly impressed. Here, however, it sounded as though
detractors of his Wagner performances might have been right along.
Given that I, not a native speaker, was constantly troubled by his
pronunciation, then Germans most certainly should have been. More
seriously, he seemed to have forgotten more than a little of the text,
both verbal and musical. At one point, he simply gave up on a line,
whilst there were plentiful instances of mangled syntax – it sounded as
though the spear were to melt rather than to heal Amfortas’s wound –
accompanied by all too audible interventions from the prompter. To
begin with, I thought the latter was a deranged member of the audience,
so loud were her contributions. Moreover, Domingo, for the first time
in my experience, both looked and sounded old. One simply could not
believe that this was Wagner’s ‘pure fool’. Salminen, hardly at the
outset of his career, seemed a youthful Gurnemanz by comparison: a
strange and troubling inversion.
Obviously, anybody reporting on anything but the basic facts is bound to introduce subjectivity. However, I have been reading both these blogs more or less since they began, both in 2007, and they rank amongst the best writers on opera on the web. Neither puts their ego before their desire to report accurately, they are both deeply knowledgeable about their subject matter,and they are amongst the blogs least requiring a pinch of salt.
This morning I received an email from Raffe who attended
All the bad things
you've read on blogs are true... The prompter costarred extensively
during the 2nd act. :-( I send two (crap) photos from the curtain call,
plus one photo of a PD concert flyer that I got outside the opera house.
Picture of PD is here obviously taken during the fairly recent hunky, bearded,
slim period. This Placifal is best
forgotten. I'm considering switching to the Salminen crowd
;-)
to which I replied
I think we should campaign for a return to hunky, bearded, slim Pláci
(says me who is having chocolate cake for brunch!)
Thanks Raffe!
He looks just stunning in that picture, although the sharp eyed among you will notice the Amore Infinito CD cover, so what with flying Ryan Air to Baden Baden, several kilometres walk to the Rennplatz Iffezheim and Papal Poetry, I think I can miss this concert! All it really needs is Katherine Jenkins as support singer to make it unforgettable!
Of course René Pape cancelled this appearance and Monday's, plus Thursday's at the Barbican. I'm thinking of cancelling, too - a no-name cast, a cello concerto I didn't book for and have no interest in, and sitting downwind of Valery Gergiev. So if anybody wants Stalls Row G ticket for £30, face value £32, email me before 3pm Monday, if you can meet up for exchange in Brixton or Westminster/Victoria areas at a mutually convenient time.
