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Parsifal [DVD]

DVD ~ Placido Domingo

2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

RRP:	�19.99
Price:	�19.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

Actors: Placido Domingo, Violeta Urmana, Nikolai Putilin, Matti Salminen, Valery Gergiev
Directors: Tony Palmer
Format: Classical, PAL
Language German, English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish
Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Classification: Exempt
Studio: ARTHAUS
DVD Release Date: 11 Jan 2004
Run Time: 88 minutes

Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

ASIN: B00008O8C7
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 93,027 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Parsifal: The Search for the Grail is a documentary that sets Wagner's last opera in its cultural context, tracing the history of the Grail myth back to the Middle Ages, and arguing that any specifically Christian myth goes back no further than that. It acknowledges that Parsifal is Wagner's most problematic opera, as well as one of his greatest, and gives chapter and verse for its role in creating the culturally respectable anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust, as well as discussing other issues like its profound, though eloquently expressed, misogyny. At the same time, it makes what case is possible for the non-aesthetic defence--all of the above is true, and yet it is also an opera about learning compassion, at once poisonous and healing.

Placido Domingo is the narrator, taking us through chats with talking heads that range from theologian Karen Armstrong to members of the Wagner family and film clips that range from Monty Python and Indiana Jones to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. He also performs the role in a variety of extracts conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Kirov Opera, reminding us of just how viscerally impressive and lyrically beautiful late Wagner can be.

On the DVD: The Search for the Grail is presented in old TV standard 4:3 ration with only PCM stereo sound. It comes equipped with a useful set of chapter headings and with subtitles in English, French, German and Spanish. --Roz Kaveney

DVD Description

Parsifal is the most famous work to celebrate the search for the Holy Grail, an enduringly powerful symbol in Western culture. Focusing on a performance starring Placido Domingo, this film explores Wagner's towering operatic masterpiece and the questions it poses concerning faith and hope.

Parsifal Placido Domingo Kundry Violeta Urmana Gurnemanz Matti Salminen Klingsor Nikolai Putilin Amfortas Feodor Mojhaev

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Farciful, 20 Aug 2008

By	Nicholas Casley (Plymouth, Devon, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Tony Palmer's 1998 documentary on Wagner's final opera is something of a disappointment. It is subtitled "The Search for the Grail", but a good two-thirds of the DVD is largely a retelling of the story by a re-enactment of the opera itself, Parsifal mainly (but not always) portrayed by Placido Domingo, who narrates throughout the documentary. Since most people who would have bought this DVD would presumably already be aware of the opera's story, it is difficult to understand at whom this is aimed. Wagner lovers will already know the story and the music; and those who did not know it would be confused. Besides, this DVD tells little that is new. What is left accounts for about thirty minutes. If I wanted to experience a performance of the opera, then I would buy a performance of the opera.

The more interesting elements are those that try not to tell the story of the opera but instead tell the story of the writing of the opera and try to tie it in with similar philosophical and historical patterns, such as the Crusades and Hitler. There are also excerpts from films featuring Monty Python, Indiana Jones and even from Bergman's `The Seventh Seal'. Thus the all-too-brief interviews with biblical scholar Karen Armstrong and Wolfgang Wagner are some of the highlights of this disc. But all this is nevertheless a trifle superficial.

The story of the writing of the opera includes excerpts from Palmer's mighty `Wagner' film starring Richard Burton, but the interweaving of this film with excerpts from elsewhere and from short snippets of Valery Gergiev conducting simply does not work: it may appear clever, but to me it was confusing and insincere with the audience.

The telling of the story featuring Placido Domingo as Parsifal is often quite comical in terms of staging. At the mass the king seems to be carrying a tray of fancy cakes and the chalice looks like it was contrived from a disco glitterball. This is all laughable and ruins the dignified effect that the director was presumably trying to achieve. We then confusingly revert again to Richard Burton, and this constant change in film starts to annoy. Frankly I soon became bored and restless, and when the DVD focussed for too long a time on the relationship between Parsifal and Kundry, I started to read the paper instead.

Towards the end, things start to become interesting again with Robert Gutman uncompromisingly declaring that "the subject matter of Parsifal is racial purity". This is denied by Wolfgang Wagner himself, who asserts that the Wagnerians and the Nazis misinterpreted the opera's intent. The disc could have done with more of this argument about interpretation.

Wagner wrote that through suffering we attain knowledge, through knowledge compassion, and through compassion love. With this DVD the I barely got past the suffering.

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