Parsifal
Wagner's final music drama, in the moving new English National Opera production by Nikolaus Lehnhoff , conducted by ENO's former music director Mark Elder and featuring a stunning all-British cast.
The brotherhood of knights who guard the Holy Grail - the chalice used at the Last Supper and which caught Jesus's blood when he was wounded on the Cross - are, it seems, in terminal decline. Their king Amfortas, seduced by a temptress, has lost their other sacred relic - the spear that pierced Christ's side - to the sorceror
Klingsor. Amfortas himself was left with an agonising wound that will not heal. Only a "pure fool, made wise through pity" can bring salvation - but no one knows where he is, where he can be found or what he must do.
Kim Begley stars in the title role of Parsifal - a pure fool, sure enough, but can he resist temptation and learn wisdom and pity? Gwynne Howell is Gurnemanz, the senior knight of the Grail, and Kathryn Harries sings the most complex character Wagner ever created -
Kundry, cursed eternally for mocking the crucified Christ, longing for redemption but in thrall to Klingsor. In conversation with them, and with Nikolaus Lehnhoff , Donald Macleod presents their realisation of Wagner's last masterpiece.
Knights played by Craig Downes (tenor) and Mark Richardson (bass-baritone). Squires: Janis Kelly (soprano), Nerys Jones (mezzo),
Richard Roberts (tenor) and Russell Hibberd (tenor). Rower maidens: Janis Kelly , Sally Harrison , Suzannah Clarke and Elizabeth Woollett (sopranos), Nerys Jones and Rebecca Sharp (mezzos)
English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Mark Elder
Parti
9.05 Rereading Auden
A personal reassessment of WH Auden's poetry.
Repeat For details see Monday
9.25 Part 2