Rating: 
Summary: Too weird for me!
Review: As a sound recording, this is a good performance, but Parsifal turning into a woman? The landscape made out of Wagner's profile? The Nazi flags?? This is all very distracting and detracts from the experience. This is exactly why Wagner wanted this opera produced only at Bayreuth. He didn't want anyone messing with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Save Your Money
Review: Do yourself a favor-rent this dvd if you must see it, otherwise,
save your money-it stinks! Rife with 80's pseudo-intellectual
symbolism, it is a complete waste of time and money. I only made
it through maybe, maybe 1/3 of it-it smells like a herd of skunks
a raft of limberger cheese, or a truckful of dead diapers! In
short-it's a piece of garbage masquerading as a masterpiece. Rent-don't own it!
Rating: 
Summary: A Must View
Review: For anyone interested in Wagner and Parsifal, this is a must view. Deserves 5 stars. The theatrical settings are wonderful, the actors are superbly chosen - it's difficult to see how they could be improved upon. The famous Flower Garden scene is fabulous. We adore all the cultural references. We still have not found them all, and we do not understand them all. (But then who understands Parsifal anyway?). I read the DVD is better than the video, so wish I'd bought it. I probably will anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Monumental Music
Review: Great sets and costume design in this great examble of Wagner's Parsifal. The only bad thing is that some voices are dubbed and the English translations were done literally. But all in all a great work of art.
Rating: 
Summary: Sparsely played and puppets a go-go
Review: I adore Parsifal as an opera. I have seen it in Beyreuth (98 degrees Fahrenheit and in something that approached the back row which was incredibly uncomfortable) I am wedded to Parsifal I love it. That is until I put this DVD in the drive. The swooning overture put puppets (yes, puppets)on the screen. Not long afterwards we got Wagner's death mask, and then some idiocy when all the puppets had Wagner's head ( and with Wagner,although I'm a fan, you always have to take a peep to see if he might be getting the joke, and he usually does not.) This is serious music. The theme - durch Mitleid wissend/der reine Tor however can be reduced to babbling by any bad production. But if any Wagner opera did not need a puppet or two, Parsifal would score. The music is good but the production is Noddy in Walkure-land and should not be shown to any adult - ever. As it is two discs and not cheap, I should have liked someone to have stopped me from buying this bad set of disks.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I am a fervent Wagnerian, and have seen and studied Parisfal. I found this film extremely disappointing, in concept and execution. The fact that this is basically "air-band" -- actors mouthing lines to a tape of the music -- is quite obvious throughout. Hearing a mature heldentenor's voice coming out of the mouth of a slender snipet of a young boy is bizarre to say the least! The staging makes this static opera even more so. The images, which are so celebrated in the other reviews on this site, struck me as self-conscious and "artsy." I had great expectations when I purchased this video, but I could not get through the entire thing even once without turning it off in frustration and boredom.
Rating:
Summary: Did Nothing For Me!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Great Production, Shame about the Sub-titles
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: and 1/2 stars. Certainly worth a peek, but...
Review: I enjoyed this production but I must advise that the listener take a few steps before viewing this image-laiden film. Know the opera's libretto like the back of your hand. Possibly the worst translation of ANY work I have ever seen. The translation is in a twisted 16th century style (items like methinks and other words that I think are half english/half german). Must say that if you are a lover of Parsifal this production will keep you thinking for a while. Picture quality is pretty poor at times and mediocre most other times.
Rating:
Summary: very original
Review: I feel reluctant to comment in great detail on whether or not I approve of Hans Jurgen Syberberg's production. The only part of the visual aspect I found rather curious was the showing of Armin Jordan's conducting of the central section of the Good Friday Music (as viewed from the woodwind section) in the background. Wagner wrote the work primarily for performance in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where the audience has an unobstructed view of the stage and the orchestra pit is underneath it. But perhaps this is a minor point. In terms of sheer sound the performance was very good vocally and orchestrally, and the acting and "stage" effects/sets were successful too. This VHS tape produced very fine audio quality on relatively simple and inexpensive equipment. I must say it is a real pleasure to actually see and hear this opera for about the same price - or less - as a typical CD recording. For those considering an alternative VHS performance that is more mainstream, an actual recording of a live performance in the opera house, I might suggest the Horst Stein set made at Bayreuth with (as I recall) Manfred Jung in the title role, on Philips, or James Levine's set originally performed in 1993 at the Met, available on Deutsche Grammophon Video.
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