Rating: 
Summary: Brief first impression
Review: This is four stars because though, from what I see, the music, performances, and interpretations, are first rate, the product is let down somewhat in the presentation. There's no libretto, the subtitling is incomplete and in "Olde English", the video quality is poor, and the sound, while generally good, does have a slight hiss - the latter criticism being minor.Without some sort of context, I found myself lost at the beginning of the opera though it begins to make more sense as time goes by. Still, it's a bargain, but I do recommend the buyer get a libretto to go with it. Search well, and widely, and you should be able to pick up such a thing for under $10 (...)
Rating: 
Summary: H-J Syberberg's Parsifal Film
Review: This is not an opera video. At least not in the usual sense, that is, a video of a stage production of an opera. Hans Jürgen Syberberg's film is about Wagner's 'Parsifal', and everything that this unique work evokes in him. In it he explores the associations of this work both backward in time, to the medieval romances of the Holy Grail, and forward through the century since Wagner's death. The film begins, in fact, in the ruins of Monsalvat, a metaphor of the destruction of the Third Reich. Syberberg made his film entirely in a studio, like his previous films 'Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King' (Ludwig: Requiem für einen Jungfraülichen König) and 'Hitler: A Film from Germany' (Hitler: ein Film aus Deutschland). The resources of a film studio allowed Syberberg to film the opera against a constantly shifting screen of references and allusions (such as images from productions of Wagner's works from Bayreuth and elsewhere) shown by front-projection, thus imprinting his own vision of 'Parsifal' and Richard Wagner in a manner of which a stage-director could only dream, whilst also having the other advantage of film, that of showing in close-up the emotion of the opera in the faces of his actors and actresses. The film was issued in 1983 to coincide with the centenary of Richard Wagner's death; and it is as much about Wagner as it is about 'Parsifal'. In fact, Syberberg original intention was to make a film about Wagner, but this plan gradually changed into making a film based around a performance of 'Parsifal', but filled with references to Wagner's life, work and influence. Wagner has always been a present in Syberberg's films, both in 'Ludwig' and 'Hitler' (because of their respective obsession and passion for his music), and of course in 'The Confessions of Winifred Wagner' (Winifred Wagner und die Gesichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975), where the unrepentant old lady talks on about the good old days at Bayreuth when the Führer made his annual pilgrimage to the shrine. Syberberg had intended to try to use a recording from a Bayreuth performance as the soundtrack to his 'Parsifal' film, but after the Winifred Wagner film, he was none too popular with the Wagner family, and permission for him to record in Bayreuth was refused. So a new recording of the work was commissioned, with Armin Jordan conducting the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir (and, oddly enough, also acting the role of Amfortas!) Syberberg wanted the soundtrack to be a separate entity and to use actors who would mime to the pre-recorded track, reasoning that actors were better capable than singers of giving the facial and bodily expression that film demands, and also wanting, for intellectual and aesthetic reasons, the voice to be separate from the body. However, this was not an absolute condition, and so both Robert Lloyd as Gurnemanz and Aage Haugland as Klingsor both sing and act their parts. Syberberg regarded Kundry as the centre of the opera, and so chose for the part the outstanding German actress, Edith Clever. Her incarnation of Kundry as variously mother, seductress and penitent has been unanimously praised as a performance of hair-raising intensity. Parsifal himself is played by two people, first a boy (Michael Kutter) and then, after Kundry's kiss, by a girl (Karin Krick). Parsifal's sex-change is a coup-de-theatre for which Syberberg gave no complete explanation. The studio set is dominated by a huge replica of Wagner's death mask, becoming a mountain on which much of the action is staged, being Klingsor's tower, the flowery meadow and finally parting in two to reveal (Syberberg's vision of) the Grail. The density of allusion in the film is enormous and too much to comprehend in a single viewing: Caspar David Friedrich, Ingres, Goya, Dürer, Titian, Caravaggio and Bramante all figure in the imagery; the allegorical statues of the Synagogue and Faith on Strasbourg Cathedral are evoked; Amfortas sits on Charlemagne's throne from the cathedral at Aachen; Titurel lies in the crypt of Saint-Denis; a casement of the room in the Palazzo Vendramin, where Wagner died, is used as a backdrop; heads of Aeschylus, King Ludwig, Nietzsche, Marx and Wagner himself lie at the foot of Klingsor's throne; Mathilda Wesendonck and Judith Gautier are glimpsed among the flower maidens; the approach to the hall of the Grail is down a flag-lined corridor -- a procession, backward in time, through the history of Germany into a world of myth. In this immensely ambitious work Syberberg presents Wagner's life, music and thought. He also presents a critique of those same things, whilst mounting a sumptuous and resonant production of the opera that is a feast for the eyes and ears, a true Gesamtkunstwerk, or, as Newsweek said, 'The film performs the extraordinary feat of both splendidly presenting and focibly challenging a consummate work of art'.
Rating:
Summary: H-J Syberberg's Parsifal Film
Review: This is not an opera video. At least not in the usual sense, that is, a video of a stage production of an opera. Hans Jürgen Syberberg's film is about Wagner's 'Parsifal', and everything that this unique work evokes in him. In it he explores the associations of this work both backward in time, to the medieval romances of the Holy Grail, and forward through the century since Wagner's death. The film begins, in fact, in the ruins of Monsalvat, a metaphor of the destruction of the Third Reich. Syberberg made his film entirely in a studio, like his previous films 'Ludwig: Requiem for a Virgin King' (Ludwig: Requiem für einen Jungfraülichen König) and 'Hitler: A Film from Germany' (Hitler: ein Film aus Deutschland). The resources of a film studio allowed Syberberg to film the opera against a constantly shifting screen of references and allusions (such as images from productions of Wagner's works from Bayreuth and elsewhere) shown by front-projection, thus imprinting his own vision of 'Parsifal' and Richard Wagner in a manner of which a stage-director could only dream, whilst also having the other advantage of film, that of showing in close-up the emotion of the opera in the faces of his actors and actresses. The film was issued in 1983 to coincide with the centenary of Richard Wagner's death; and it is as much about Wagner as it is about 'Parsifal'. In fact, Syberberg original intention was to make a film about Wagner, but this plan gradually changed into making a film based around a performance of 'Parsifal', but filled with references to Wagner's life, work and influence. Wagner has always been a present in Syberberg's films, both in 'Ludwig' and 'Hitler' (because of their respective obsession and passion for his music), and of course in 'The Confessions of Winifred Wagner' (Winifred Wagner und die Gesichte des Hauses Wahnfried von 1914-1975), where the unrepentant old lady talks on about the good old days at Bayreuth when the Führer made his annual pilgrimage to the shrine. Syberberg had intended to try to use a recording from a Bayreuth performance as the soundtrack to his 'Parsifal' film, but after the Winifred Wagner film, he was none too popular with the Wagner family, and permission for him to record in Bayreuth was refused. So a new recording of the work was commissioned, with Armin Jordan conducting the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir (and, oddly enough, also acting the role of Amfortas!) Syberberg wanted the soundtrack to be a separate entity and to use actors who would mime to the pre-recorded track, reasoning that actors were better capable than singers of giving the facial and bodily expression that film demands, and also wanting, for intellectual and aesthetic reasons, the voice to be separate from the body. However, this was not an absolute condition, and so both Robert Lloyd as Gurnemanz and Aage Haugland as Klingsor both sing and act their parts. Syberberg regarded Kundry as the centre of the opera, and so chose for the part the outstanding German actress, Edith Clever. Her incarnation of Kundry as variously mother, seductress and penitent has been unanimously praised as a performance of hair-raising intensity. Parsifal himself is played by two people, first a boy (Michael Kutter) and then, after Kundry's kiss, by a girl (Karin Krick). Parsifal's sex-change is a coup-de-theatre for which Syberberg gave no complete explanation. The studio set is dominated by a huge replica of Wagner's death mask, becoming a mountain on which much of the action is staged, being Klingsor's tower, the flowery meadow and finally parting in two to reveal (Syberberg's vision of) the Grail. The density of allusion in the film is enormous and too much to comprehend in a single viewing: Caspar David Friedrich, Ingres, Goya, Dürer, Titian, Caravaggio and Bramante all figure in the imagery; the allegorical statues of the Synagogue and Faith on Strasbourg Cathedral are evoked; Amfortas sits on Charlemagne's throne from the cathedral at Aachen; Titurel lies in the crypt of Saint-Denis; a casement of the room in the Palazzo Vendramin, where Wagner died, is used as a backdrop; heads of Aeschylus, King Ludwig, Nietzsche, Marx and Wagner himself lie at the foot of Klingsor's throne; Mathilda Wesendonck and Judith Gautier are glimpsed among the flower maidens; the approach to the hall of the Grail is down a flag-lined corridor -- a procession, backward in time, through the history of Germany into a world of myth. In this immensely ambitious work Syberberg presents Wagner's life, music and thought. He also presents a critique of those same things, whilst mounting a sumptuous and resonant production of the opera that is a feast for the eyes and ears, a true Gesamtkunstwerk, or, as Newsweek said, 'The film performs the extraordinary feat of both splendidly presenting and focibly challenging a consummate work of art'.
Rating: 
Summary: Infuriating Torture in Slow Motion
Review: This movie of Parsifal is a desecration of Wagner's masterpiece. It moves at such a slow pace, visually, that it is unbearable. It is also nauseatingly morbid. The visual elements are some of the most offensive and irritating things I have ever seen. Amfortas is portrayed as a Vampire Jesus. Parsifal is a girl. They carry around a piece of flesh on a tray, with a sword stuck in it and blood gushing out of it. I'm sick of so-called 'artists' ruining Wagner for the sake of Hitler or Freud. They butcher him at Bayreuth with barren, abstract stage sets, then they try to pass this gore-fest off as art. Why can't anyone make Wagner the way Wagner intended. Wagner's operas are the supreme zenith of romanticism, beauty, and love, and should be presented that way. The Metropolitan Opera version of Parsifal on DVD is very good and deeply moving. The Met version falls a little short of presenting the full glory of Wagner's original concept, but it comes close. I would highly recommend the Metropolitan Opera version, with Levine conducting, over this horror movie that uses Wagner's score as a sound track.
Rating:
Summary: Missing first act.
Review: This tape is missing the first act.....asked Amazon and they said to return it. Tough to do since it was sent to Japan as a Christmas Gift.
Rating:
Summary: The Mother of All Dog Recordings
Review: This was the very first opera on DVD I acquired, so for a while its novelty overshadowed its flaws for me. Then, as I viewed more operas on DVD, the shortcomings of this production became increasingly apparent. They fall into three categories: First, the singing is lip-synched, or at least attempts to be. Lip-unsynched would more appropriately describe it. The fact that the actors are NOT actually producing the sounds on the sound track is painfully apparent throughout much of the opera (OK, music drama). Second, for some reason I don't understand, the producer goes in for cheesy special effects that one would typically associate with a sci-fi B-movie from the 1950s. Finally, the production employs symbolism that is distracting and silly. Enormous death masks of Wanger litter the stage at many points. The second act features phallus statuary. And Parsifal himself is sometimes a male actor, sometimes a female, and, for a short time in the third act, both on-stage simultaneously (lip-synching away, while we hear a single tenor's voice actually singing the music). Somebody, please, produce a better Parsifal on DVD than this.
Rating:
Summary: Not your grandfather's Parsifal, but give it a chance.
Review: To begin with, I'm glad I bought it. Many of the negative judgments in the following reviews are no more than the insults one hurls at whatever is unfamiliar--and certainly this DVD presents a great deal that is unfamiliar. People need to keep in mind, however, that this is NOT a film of a stage production of Parsifal. It could be called "opera with commentary," perhaps, commentary based on hundreds of years of relevant western history. That is not literally what Wagner wrote, no, but contains much to reflect on, combined with a decent performance of an important music drama.
I am not going to claim that I comprehended all the symbolism; maybe eventually, but not now. Some of the weirdness is really pretty easy to place though: phallic statues in Act II don't require a lot of explanation, for example, and neither, I think do the countless references to Germany's Nazi past or to the imprint of Wagner's own life on European (and our) culture. The rest, I'll work on.
The film has faults, certainly. The subtitles are truly terrible, not because they read like bad sixteenth-century texts (which they do), but because the spelling, grammar, and syntax are simply sloppy. That shouldn't have happened, but they are intelligible.
I also agree with the reviewers who criticized the pace, both musical and dramatic. The "dreamlike" quality of the first act seemed at first more zomboid than dramatic. But truthfully I don't know how Parsifal could be played (in filmed close-ups) as conversational interaction among ordinary people. The "opera" itself doesn't seem to me to lend itself to sitcom techniques.
I was also somewhat displeased that almost everything happened in very narrow physical space. I saw mountain defiles aplenty but not much of anything in the way of the open meadow called for. Maybe the constraint is deliberate, but I think of Parsifal as bigger, somehow.
I was more concerned that the music dragged: Wagner's immensely long, arching continuity seemed missing much of the time. This is a musical work, after all, not a symbolist play with musical eruptions. I cannot, however, put my finger on any particular point when the musical dimension was inadequate, so perhaps I'm wrong. It's hard to notice everything at once in this very complex production.
I was not much bothered with the lip-sync problem, and I liked most of what came out, never mind from whom. The actors do match the roles, and with Wagner productions that's not often entirely the case (Show me a lithe, red-headed vixen who can sing Isolde!) I cannot explain the two Parsifals any more than anybody else seems able to do, but I was happy with both of them.
I expect to play this DVD many times. It is not for the stubbornly conventional, but many viewers will find they have become deeply involved, unexpectedly.
Rating: 
Summary: Very shocking regie with nazi symbols
Review: Wiht my few english words I am not able to reflex my real impression about the nazis symbols in the firs act (transformation music) with other flags from this black era. I waited for a clasic german production but not in this sens. The final result was a very bad sensorial impression and I doubt to see it again
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