On 30 March, a new production of Wagner’s Parsifal opens at Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Semyon Bychkov. With further performances taking place on 2, 6, 9, 13 and 16 April, the new production by Latvian director Alvis Hermanis stars Christopher Ventris as Parsifal, Gerald Finley as Amfortas and Nina Stemme as Kundry.
Maestro Bychkov last conducted Wagner’s last opera in Madrid in 2016 of which The Sunday Times said: “Bychkov is undoubtedly one of the finest Wagner conductors of today, and Parsifal benefits from his preference for broadly sustained tempi, unfolding the music in long, seamless paragraphs and rich, blended orchestral and choral sonorities. The amplified bells in the two great transformation interludes of the outer acts made little impact, but Bychkov caught the stately tread of the music to perfection.”