Wagner: Parsifal

It was with a semi-staged, concert-style performance of Parsifal that the Budapest Wagner Days began in 2006. 20 years on, the composer’s “sacred festival stage play” (Bühnenweihfestspiel) will kick off the anniversary festival. Many people have given many different interpretations of the ‘pure fool’ who is unaware of his own past, but Müpa Budapest’s latest production once again focuses on the music given that the hall, complete with choirs positioned on various levels, provides a superior acoustic environment for Wagner’s vision. The minimal staging is the brainchild of Birgit Kajtna-Wönig, who has worked with Ádám Fischer on numerous occasions, while the cast is stellar: Magnus Vigilius (Parsifal), Anja Kampe (Kundry), Tijl Faveyts (Gurnemanz) and Jochen Schmeckenbecher (Klingsor) will already be familiar from the Ring, while Wolfgang Koch (Amfortas) appears at Müpa for the first time.