Cheap Wagner - Parsifal (DVD) (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg) Price
CHEAP-PRICE.NET ’s Cheap Price
$31.49
Here at Cheap-price.net we have Wagner - Parsifal at a terrific price. The real-time price may actually be cheaper — click “Buy Now” above to check the live price at Amazon.com.
"Syberberg's Parsifal" is exactly that: it is not to be approached as a video presentation of an opera but as a full-scale film in its own right. The director's concern with the claims of the romantic and "irrational" in Germany's cultural heritage, demonized as an aftermath of the Third Reich, is here at its apex. An astonishingly intricate profusion of imagery saturates the film--as props, cluttering objects, costumes, part of the set, or visuals projected onto the background--with the resonance of a long, disturbing dream. Striking visuals from the opera's own symbolic world are set alongside a veritable parade of iconography from Europe's cultural history, while the action of the opera is seen to take place within and around an enormous replica of Wagner's death mask as backdrop. Conceptually the intention is to counter Wagner's "narcotic" spell with Brechtian distance or with a Walter Benjamin-like slant on the artifacts of culture.
For all of the radicalism of his imagery, Syberberg hews surprisingly close to more traditional acting styles here, drawing on a "presentational" approach of gesture, the stylization of early film, and intimate reaction shots. The music was actually recorded separately as a soundtrack, to which the actors (mostly a separate cast) lip-synch their performances. Conductor Armin Jordan--a sensitive but never self-indulgent Wagnerian--also actually performs the role of Amfortas, and the distinguished actress Edith Clever is a special asset for her mesmerizing, expressive Kundry, making the role into the opera's psychological epicenter. At the point of the resisted kiss in Act II, in a Jungian split, Parsifal becomes portrayed by a woman (still mouthing the mellifluous tenor exclamations of Reiner Goldberg). Syberberg wallows in contradictory currents and obscure symbolism that sometimes reinforces what he seems to want to take apart. Yet he has also succeeded in locating the work somewhere in a unique space between fetishized ritual and purely aesthetic experience. The DVD transfer is somewhat grainy in resolution, while the soundtrack has a noticeable persistent hiss. Jordin's relatively fleet pacing allows for much texture and offers a fine enough performance, though not a top choice on musical terms alone. --Thomas May
| CATEGORY: | DVD |
| DIRECTOR: | Hans-Jürgen Syberberg |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 01 January, 1982 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Image Entertainment |
| MPAA RATING: | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) |
| FEATURES: | Color |
| TYPE: | Music Videos - Classical |
| MEDIA: | DVD |
| # OF MEDIA: | 2 |
| UPC: | 014381458022 |
Related Products
Customer Reviews of Wagner - Parsifal
Syberberg's Parsifal If Claudio Monteverdi's "L'Incoronazione di Poppea" could be said to be the first opera, then Richard Wagner's "Parsifal" is the last. If, as an article in The New Yorker would have it, it was Adolf Hitler's inspiration, then no other work of art has had such a profound effect on history. That article described the hypnotic power that Wagner's music had over the young men of the time, and Hitler was one such. "Parsifal" would thus be also the most sublime work of art: profound beauty permeated by hatred and enkindling radical evil. A contemporary critic said that Wagner had reached the limit of emotional intensity in music and no one else would be able to surpass him: opera had attained its final goal of maximum passionate expression.
Director Hans Syberberg chose a surreal presentation of "Parsifal" for his interpretation of the opera. He filmed it completely on a sound-stage and based the craggy, rocky set upon the composer's death mask. Wagner's skull splits open to reveal the interior of the castle at Montsalvat and Klingsor's castle; his upper lip is Gurnemanz's herb garden; his eye socket is the sacred lake. Syberberg also plays around with the appearance of the characters: Parsifal changes sex in mid-aria, Gurnemanz is an ageless young man, Kundry has naked hairy breasts in the first act. The set is littered with artifacts from history. The overture opens with a destroyed miniature reproduction of Montsalvat as it appeared in the first performance at Bayreuth. Parsifal approaches Klingsor's castle and passes by Soviet-style monuments and gigantic broken stone phalluses from a Greek temple. The chair that appears in various scenes is Charlemagne's throne from the cathedral at Aachen. Some of the elements of the set seem to be taken from Hieronymous Bosch. Syberberg seems to have scattered all these bits and pieces throughout the film with no overall interpretive purpose and left the audience to sort out the meanings.
But perhaps Syberberg intended to overthrow Wagner's unsavory themes - the anti-Semitism and the misogyny - and allow the beauty of the music to triumph by making the sub-meanings of the drama reflect this beauty less contradictorily This seems to hinge upon the changing of the boy Parsifal into the girl Parsifal. The frustrated heterosexual encounter in the second act forms a fulcrum upon which Syberberg balances a homoerotic relation between the boy Parsifal and Gurnemanz in the first act and between Kundry and the girl Parsifal in the third. Parsifal changes sex at the moment he experiences and understands the same pain and longing that crippled Amfortas. Apparently, Syberberg is making a Platonic assertion that sexual desire is an obstacle to true spiritual love, and that this love cannot be experienced between the sexes. This is also to some degree part of Christian theology, and what has been called "a black Mass on stage" the director may have attempted to reconvert into a true Mass.
Except for Gurnemanz and Klingsor, Syberberg used non-singing actors for all the roles. The trouble with this is that lip-sync seems to be non-existent, and it takes some time to become accustomed to it. Also, the recording is unevenly mixed. On the plus side, the acting is very good. Amfortas looks like he's really suffering, and Edith Clever is an angry and desperate Kundry. This movie is purposely full of cognitive dissonances, but the one that stands out is the powerful tenor coming out of the mouths of both Parsifals. The conductor moves the music along more briskly than usual, and this is quite refreshing. During the overture, Syberberg uses marionettes, among other things, to relate the story that precedes the first act. Like any great work of art, "Parsifal" can bear many different and contradictory interpretations; Syberberg's is the most fascinating I've seen.
Did Nothing For Me!
OK. I recently purchased Syberberg's Parsifal, and to be frank, I really WANTED to like it. I had read previous reviews which ranged from all the way from glowing to dreadful. So, keeping an open mind to new experiences, I took the plunge. I have now watched it twice, and have come to realize that the discs would be better used as coasters or small frisbees! Rather than spending the money to take the plunge, I should have bought a plunger to flush this over-hyped piece of drivel down the drain.
The Nazi allusions, the boy-woman Parsifal, the lack of even an attempt at the "spear trick", the Marx, Wagner, et al busts, the giant Wagner death mask set --- geez, it is as if Syberberg was either on some heavy duty medication, or had recently OD'ed on the writings of Freud and Jung.
I won't even go into the horrendously bad (and often badly spelled) subtitles, nor the miserable timing of the lip-syncing.
The one positive for me was Kundry. This was the only performance that exuded depth and passion. This was my reason for giving it even one star.
I'll take the Met's version anyday.
Great Production, Shame about the Sub-titles
I completely endorse Derrick Everett's thorough and thoughtful review of this production, but would like to express one reservation about the DVD. The English sub-titles are simply disastrous, employing the worst kind of cod-archaic English, and subverting Syberberg's project. This would be less of a problem if, as with most opera DVDs, it were possible to turn them off - but it isn't. Contrary to the opinions of some reviewers, I think the sound quality of this DVD is adequate to good, but I would certainly be in the market for a new version with better, or at least removable, titles.
the point Hans-Jürgen Parsifal, alone deepest sense some a "neues an full-scale romantic Cheap buy buying clearance dicount good low cost order price of grainy Parsifal" concern compassion slant that especially demonized best price cheapeast free shipping even Nietzsche claims visuals resonance cultural acting sensitive sometimes want experience. - and through Grail legend. intense in Syberberg, Kino" it not video director's the Price Wagner - Parsifal DVD best prices cheap cheapest discount discounted gift get lowest price offer purchase "Syberberg's sale in composer's by Cheap Wagner - Parsifal (DVD) (Hans-Jürgen Syberberg) Price deal information specials