The Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s celebrations for the Wagner bicentenary culminate on November 30 with a new production of his final opera Parsifal.
The production reunites director Stephen Langridge with designer Alison Chitty whose previous collaboration at Covent Garden on The Minotaur drew critical praise on its premiere in 2008 and was revived to great success in January 2013.
Langridge, who has directed major opera productions in Chicago, Salzburg and Rome, has been Artistic Director of Opera in Gothenburg since the start of this season. This will be his first Parsifal, having previously directed Lohengrin for Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm in 2012. A gallery of photos from the rehearsals is online now.
Alison Chitty’s designs have bookended this year’s Verdi/Wagner celebrations at Covent Garden, having also designed Daniele Abbado’s new production of Nabucco in March. Her designs can be seen in the most recent video released by the Royal Opera House.
Rene Pape completes the line-up for Rayfield Allied, with the German bass singing his first London performances of Gurnemanz. The finest bass of his generation, Pape has already sung Gurnemanz at the Metropolitan Opera New York and makes a welcome return to the stage at Covent Garden following his critically acclaimed Mephistopheles in Faust during 2011. An interview with Hugh Canning appeared recently in The Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times has also picked Parsifal as its Classical Pick of the Week.
