Mainly Opera and Ballet
Vociferous boos greeted the production team at the end. The likely reason was that Parsifal had just stabbed Amfortas to death with the sacred spear, though they might also have objected to the Valkyrie-like representation of the Flower Maidens. But under the baton of Jakub Hruša this was musically sublime — see my review in …
Musically this was outstanding under the baton of Antonio Pappano, who has just been made the Royal Opera’s first Conductor Laureate. The singing was excellent all round, and the only thing to mar one’s enjoyment was Barrie Kosky’s production with its obsession in having a naked Erda on stage for most of the time — …
The story of a man who promises to sacrifice the first person he meets on his safe return home, if only the god will rescue him, was imported to Greece from the Ancient Near East. It appears for instance in the Biblical story of Jephthah who made such a vow in order to defeat the …
