Janos Gereben - www.sfcv.org

SEATTLE - If that other famous guileless fool, Candide, happened by
Saturday evening at the premiere of this city's first "Parsifal," marking
the opening of the rebuilt Opera House, he would have surely declared
it the best of all possible new halls, and the best of all possible US
regional Wagner productions.

Top credit for the light, bright, comfortable, colorful, striking Marion
Oliver McCaw Hall goes to the bravest and wisest foolish general director
of them all, Speight Jenkins.  He gambled - and won - on an outlandish
idea of a new, spectacular, musically excellent production of "Parsifal,"
and, more importantly, he went counter to the new universal arts policy
of penny-pinching.

Almost a decade ago, when faced with the requirement of a $100 million
seismic upgrade of the old, barely adequate Opera House, Jenkins decided
to spend more, not less.  By raising and investing $27 million on top
of what it would have cost to get basically the same building, Jenkins
engaged the team responsible for Seattle's new Benaroya Symphony Hall,
gutted, redesigned and rebuilt the Opera House.

Although the basic interior structure is still that of a hangar,
everything has been fixed, providing dramatic architectural features
outside, uniformly flawless sightlines inside, clear, crisp acoustics,
and creature comforts galore for both artists and audiences.  (Jenkins'
attention to detail includes the building of pastel-colored women's
restrooms, adding up to 100 stalls, surely a national - perhaps world -
record for an opera house.)

Mark Reddington, the LNM Architects partner in charge of the project,
working with Jaffe Holden Acoustics, interior designers, color consultants,
and many artists, has created a new space for music theater that is
likely to serve as inspiration and a standard in the industry.  With all
the drastic changes in the interior - ranging from "red-zone" reverberation
chambers to new side balconies, and superb production technology equipment
- seating in the hall has dropped only by 100 from its original 3,000-seat
size, while picking up, for the first time, a standing-room section.

The house can be used for all kinds of productions, but Jenkins pledged
- unequivocally and heatedly - that no amplification will be used in
opera performances.  "It will be all acoustic, even for off-stage
choruses," he said.

Sound, of course, is the most important component of a new opera house,
and this one is a beauty.  Under Asher Fisch's baton, the "Parsifal"
Prelude floated gently from the new, spacious and "air-conditioned"
orchestra pit, not a single note missing even when heard from way back
in the hall.  Stephen Milling's mighty Gurnemanz conquered instantly,
with a combination of bel canto Wagner and perfect diction, Fisch providing
support and an exactly right balance.  As a listener in the same hall
in years past, I couldn't quite believe my ears.  Except for a slight
dryness (lack of palpable warmth), the new Seattle Opera House sound is
as good as in the best of halls anywhere.

Fisch's work, acoustical excellence, and excellent work by Beth Kirchhoff's
Opera Chorus resulted in consistently admirable balances throughout the
long evening.  Singers in principal and minor roles could be heard clearly
at all times - an experience extremely rare in "Parsifal."

Milling's sonorous-but-"real" Gurnemanz was in good company.  Christopher
Ventris in the title role and Linda Watson as Kundry contributed vital,
striking, satisfying performances.  Greer Grimsley sang a beautiful
Amfortas in quiet passages, not entirely comfortable when more power was
required.  Kevin Langan's Titurel was exceptional, Richard Paul Fink's
Klingsor believable, vocally acceptable.  Secondary roles all came
through, there wasn't a weak link in the cast - another rarity in a
"Parsifal."

Robert Israel's production (sets, costumes and Digital Projector backdrop
designs) is full of ideas and experimentation.  A platform rises at an
angle across the stage (rather than the usual upstate-downstage rake),
a large portion of which rises straight up, revealing a large door on
the stage floor from which the knights emerge.  The projected backdrops
range from servicable to spectacular, among the latter a picture of dark,
blood-red mountains, with reflected light on the peaks - dramatic and
beautiful.  To Israel's great credit, he doesn't play around with the
projections too much (the temptation must have been great), and when
there are changes in the pictures, most of the time, the visuals contribute
to the music or, at least, don't take away from it.

The set for Act 2 is stunning.  The mountains in the backdrop go to a
puzzling but eventually meaningful black-and-white (to become abstract
briefly and then resolve into a curiously appropriate out-of-focus
landscape) on either side of a huge object dominating the middle of the
stage.  A 70-foot tower first appears as that black slab in "2001" but
when lit, it reveals Klingsor's castle as a staircase with a Victorian
feel.  When Parsifal destroys the structure, the tower sinks swiftly,
leaving only a 20-foot upper portion visible, with a skylight and a
ladder for the hero to make his exit.  Fascinating.  Michael Chyubowski's
light designs contribute well to the production.

Francois Rochaix's stage direction presents some head-scratchers.
Raising the curtain just a couple of feet during the Prelude may mean
something, but I couldn't figure out what it may be.  (A mechanical
malfunction or a philosophical statement?) Having Amfortas and the knights
upstage and only partially visible in an "extended tableux" that runs
about 20 minutes is hard on the artists and distracting to the audience.
Act 3 is deadly static, well beyond Wagner's own responsibility.

None of those - and other staging puzzles or shortcomings - can take
away from the joy of experiencing a splendid new house, an interesting
physical production, and - above all - sustained vocal and orchestral
excellence all evening long.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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