Opera

Opera News, 11. August 2016
..."a coup beyond all expectations. Haenchen, Laufenberg and an extraordinary cast catapulted Bayreuth to Olympus-like heights....
Haenchen’s reading of the score was ultra-quick but never seemed rushed. He gave his singers plenty of time to articulate and kept the brilliantly disposed Festival Orchestra in estimable balance with each singer. He refused to over-romanticize music that already represents the zenith of Romanticism. Haenchen kept the narrative sections of the score moving, turning Gurnemanz’s monologues into gripping theater. It has been years since I have heard such superb intonation from the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, and the singing of the Bayreuth Chorus under the direction of Eberhard Friedrich, always special, was mind-bogglingly so in this Parsifal. ...
Jeffrey A. Leipzig
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