Antonio Pappano introduces the music of Parsifal (The Royal Opera)

Join Antonio Pappano and special guests Gerald Finley and Simon O'Neill as they introduce the music to Wagner's final great masterpiece.
With Mark Packwood at the piano.
See Parsifal live in your local cinema on 18 December 2013. www.roh.org.uk/parsifal

[@jmballestra7607]

Pappano est génial dans sa manière d' analyser la sublime musique de Wagner !!!

[@BenEmberley]

When Simon O'Neill came in, you KNEW it was going to go up a whole gear..... Just fabulous.............

[@davidwelch8288]

Whenever I listen to the opening of the prelude, I close my eyes and I (just my body) am gliding mere feet above a calm ocean at night. What I see is the moon light reflecting on the water and on either side is darkness and I know that the darkness goes on for eternity. Although I am entirely alone, somehow I am not lonely. I am in total peace.

[@barbaragawe170]

I love Maestro Pappano's enthusiasm in sharing with us the love of music !

[@finylvinyl66]

Maybe the best ambassador for opera since Levine.

[@Xenia9]

@@finylvinyl66 Better

[@williammountfield8508]

@@finylvinyl66 better

[@hashatz]

Maestro Pappano always impresses with his infectious enthusiasm and thorough knowledge of the subject he discusses. I was particularly impressed with Finley's vocal production with its intense concentration of sound and color. His voice has "drive" and is always in motion. It's a wonderful experience to hear especially over a long stretch and the pace that might potentially be painful for the listener. Bravos all around; and let's not forget Max Packwood's expert accompaniment.

[@BHaitink]

Whenever Parsifal sings ,,Den heil'gen Speer, ich bring' ihn euch zurück!'', I always feel some kind of chill on my spine. What an ecstatic moment of this magnum opus!

[@ralfrath699]

This music is so good for the heart and for the soul -

[@markpettis2896]

Ralf Rath I had a grand maul seizure once and when I recovered I put on the prelude to Parsifal. Ralf I have never heard music so intensely before or since thenNor did I experience the beauty as I did at that time but I can still sense it when I listen to ParsifalToday

[@txtrnl341]

Sounds like fun! Seriously, an opera with the most heartbreakingly beautiful music. If I watch the entire opera I always feel a bit off [for lack of a better term] for a few days. It's so haunting.

[@adamastorBassBar]

Yet it has an incredible 'healing quality' about it: the music just takes you over and inhabits your space. A few years ago, in 1998, I toured with a Dutch company in Parsifal, whilst also undergoing a change in my life and career path. We rehearsed Monday to Friday morning in Holland, then piled into cars going back to England for our weekend singing jobs: we were singing, acting, living, eating, drinking, sleeping, talking Parsifal, and yet... when I got back to London to my house and turned on the CD player, all I could listen to was..... Parsifal! That's the incredible pull this piece has over one.

[@peneleapai]

@@adamastorBassBar *YES* WHAT BLISS...... I live for these episodes... We just had the same with Pergolesi's STABAT MATER in late February ...... absolute bliss...... We are blessed indeed .....

[@adamastorBassBar]

@peneleapai I know how you feel - back in the days when I was doing less singing work, I taught music in a junior school and ran a choir in the top 2 year groups (9-11) and for an Easter concert, introduced them to the first movement of the Pergolesi. I wasn't sure how it would go down but it sparked something in them. Were you one of the soloists in yours or singing in the choir?

[@peneleapai]

@@adamastorBassBar Thanks! I was but a humble soprano. But I am was also Manager of the Concert Tour, and made sure Rehearsals were on schedule (artistic director in Vienna had already liased with a Rehearsal Director here in Ireland while we were all here), and went between choir and director. Like accompanying a long distance relationship between Vienna & Ireland 😅 And when Vienna arrived (the evening before our First concert Date), we met the Soprano and ALTO soloists, and the string quartet from Vienna also (who had formed especially for this event)... The director herself was the Soprano soloist. But after weeks of "semi-self study" punctuated by very well directed guided rehearsals, it all came together...literally like a dream... Heavy snow fall met us as we concluded our second (and largest) appearance, which was wholly unexpected ☃️☃️☃️ And as we went on, I learnt more about the piece, about the composer, ... it was embodied in my soul, my dreams, my waking life... *BLISS*

[@gustavocabrera-mw4vl]

thank you, thank you, thank you so so so much for sharing these talks with the world which so desperately needs the arts and beauty as guiding lights and points of reference ---

[@AdamMoscoe]

Finley is brilliant - very excited to see this next week

[@peneleapai]

What a STUNNNING BASS......

[@HandelLover1989]

I really enjoy every audition made by maestro Pappano and ROH music coach team. And the tenor is fantastic!! Can't wait to see this production.

[@brianrodney712]

Within the first three minutes we hear from a member of the Society of Concert and Theatre Coughers.

[@rkwittem]

brian rodney the worst damn people

[@gaborvarkonyi9563]

It was so nice I had to watch twice. I'll have to listen to a recording of Parsifal tomorrow...

[@stillstanding6031]

Beautiful Irish tenor singing Wagner! Awesome! 🙂

[@danielfulop1173]

Extarordinary! I loved Maestro Pappano's explanation but what has really astounded me was the beautiful and perfect diction of the singers (particularly that of Amfortas). I wonder if anybody (or ROH's admins in charge for this page) could reveal to me where I could see and hear the full-lenght rendition of this opera under Pappano's baton.

[@gabbid182]

Doesn’t the maestro pappano such a lovely man.

[@Chelovyek]

Bravo to Max Packwood. He was the force that bound the performance together.

[@Janine99727]

Opera the true pure angst in voice!

[@LordMgls]

There is a lot of people around expressing their dislike of O'Neill. I think he is the most naturally sounding wagnerian tenor around. I'm so sorry I'm not going to see this production. But I'm terribly busy during these days, have already booked my pilgrimage to the Met... and there's some risk to the staging.

[@MatthiasGuentherDE]

Thanks for sharing! Fantastic!

[@SandrineAnterrion]

I like that man very much. Great vid btw

[@user-dp9np2nv1v]

Обожаю маэстро Антонио Паппано!!!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

Sheesh Tony. First introductory sentence and you already have mixed up facts? Bayreuth Festspielhaus was not built for Parsifal. It was built for the Ring. But Parsifal was written specifically for Bayreuth.

[@davidwelch8288]

"Tony"? Well doesn't he just suck. Maybe he should just quit conducting altogether...

[@michelphilippeLehaire]

Merveilleux !

[@gheorghefalcaru]

THIS IS MEGA!

[@helmuthuber766]

Herr Finley singt Amfortas recht gut und deutlich gutes Deutsch. Sehr schön!

[@klarajakab669]

AParsifal nyitány egy olyan emelkedett spheraba visz ahol Isten lehet

[@thesaucegroup1877]

4:16

[@MehdiD.Ardebili]

“It’s the last (music drama)* he wrote”, not Opera 😉

[@williammountfield8508]

Wagner would be happy to hear you say that but now the terms are interchangeable and given what an awful person Wagner was I think we can annoy his memory and call them operas

[@dantedante839]

@@williammountfield8508 He was indeed an awful person and we can simply call his works "Operas" as revenge :D

[@mercedes932]

Wager actually repudiated the term “musikdrama” later in his life. Parsifal is instead labelled as a “Bühnenweihfestspiel”, literally translated as “stage consecration festival play”. As for using the term “opera” to spite Wagner, you are only doing yourself a disservice.

[@hannahemily6759]

not a fan of O'Neill either but that's just personal preference. I suppose he is supposed to sound dark and 'ugly' but there's something about his voice I dobt like,and it makes me shudder a little .

[@williammountfield8508]

I don’t love his voice either but when you look at the other ‘heldentenors’ around the options aren’t great other then him there are Skelton and Kaufmann and they aren’t bad there’s Vogt who is some strange form of lyric helden and then there is sort of no one else we don’t live in the great days of Wagnerian singing when Melchior, Volker, Slezak, Lorenz, etc… all tread the boards

[@Wintersturme]

O'Neill's Voice is basically ugly and lack of armonics. There are much better performers for Parsifal. My favorite is Ventris. Where is he?

[@MarkyMarc78]

I think he's member of the Deutsche Oper ensemble in Berlin. Find him there :-p

[@KmwAmg]

Such BS !!!!!