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Christoph Schlingensief, the producer of the 2004 Bayreuth Parsifal is variously described as a Performance artist and the enfant terrible of the German theatre who uses irony to carry his message. He is said to believe that modern society has lost touch with nature and with its inherent spiritualism. Further he believes that western democracies are governed by fear and to demonstrate this belief he has founded 'The Church of Fear' and decreed that we should all worship the god Fear. A major installation at the 2002 Venice Biennale promoted this idea.
With this basis it is no surprise that the new Parsifal was different. It is hard to explain adequately just how different it was, indeed apart from the music, wonderfully played by Pierre Boulez, it was hard to recognise the libretto we all know so well. The production abounded with symbolism layered on symbolism.
The curtain rose on a very crowded stage. The entire set was mounted on a huge revolve which was almost the width of the stage. There were a number of small chainwire enclosures topped with rolls of barbwire. Some had tents but all were crowded with bits of this and that. Gurnemanz, Robert Holl, was dressed as a shaman in animal skins and the two knights were black. Kundry duly arrived with the balsam which looked like a lage pretzel.
There were so many layers to each section of the set which revolved on and off that it was impossible to take everything in and to add to the sensory overload there were frequent periods when apparently unconnected images were projected on to the set. Many signs and slogans were painted on objects but as these were in German we missed the point of most of them but we did work out one that said 'The Death of Art' in a scene that had replicas on many of the world's great paintings strewn about including the Mona Lisa. Also prominent were two rabbits reminiscent of Dürer, and several very large pretzel like idols.
In the scene where Parsifal kills the swan, the Knights, who were dressed to represent all the world religions, dipped their hands into a large stone statue of a woman and then smeared their bloody hands on Parsifal.
Act 2 opened with Klingsor, John Wegner, black from head to foot, clad in a pair of shorts and carrying a crook rather than the spear. We were told that Schlingenslief believes that the crook is a better image than the spear as the force of 'nature' is drawn up through the shaft of the crook and is then reflected back down on the community. Klingsor moved about his kingdom for the rest of the Act including one passage by way of a flying fox. When the garden is destroyed he leaves the scene in a rocket ship.
The Flowermaidens were all black but we saw very little of them. It was in this scene that one of the more bizarre events occurred. Throughout the work a middle aged couple in contemporary dress moved about like sightseers. They apparently are friends/patrons of Schlingenslief and appear in all his productions as a representation of audience/community participation. It was the woman of this couple who performed to the Flowermaiden music. While Parsifal reclined on the floor she gyrated in front of him, hands on hips with the odd pelvic thrust. Seductive it was not.
When Kundry, a Lana Turner look alike in this scene, kisses Parsifal the blood from his clothes is passed to her and he emerges in a spotless white robe looking like a blonde Christ while she now has the front of her gown covered in blood.
Act 3 was equally strange. Kundry is now dressed as a black South African Bushman and the drama ends with all the major characters dead and a projection above the stage of a dead rabbit putrifying complete with blowflies and maggots. We were told that this represents the ongoing cycle of life and the ability of 'nature' to triumph over all adversity.
The music under Boulez was sublime and had a wonderful shimmering quality, never hurried but always beautiful, though he cut nearly an hour from the previous production. The cast sang wonderfully despite the difficulties with which they had to cope. John Wegner was outstanding, singing strongly but with great expression and tone. Michelle de Young, Kundry, Enrick Wottrich, Parsifal and Robert Holl as Gurnemanz were all well cast and performed to a very high standard.
It was a shattering experience and not one I would want to repeat. It did help enormously to be able to talk at length to someone who had been involved in the production and get some insight into what we had seen and start to understand some of the reasoning behind it. It is generally known that Sclingenslief visited Namibia early this year and came to believe that some native tribes have retained their links to 'nature' and have incorporated these links into their spirituality. Despite the fact that the production was effectively finished in April of this year Schlingenslief insisted on making major changes and incorporating his experiences in Namibia
Review by B. McNulty September 2004
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