Wagner: Parsifal [Import]

Well, Wagner himself was absolutely ENTHRALLED when he heard tenor Julián Gayarre sing his Lohengrin in Italian, the same goes for his opinions on Battistini singing his baritone-roles in Italian. He truly loved the translations, the musical flow and the Belcanto style that his music was treated with instead of the German "Bayreuth bark" as he called it himself. (!) Back then Wagner was done in Italian only in Italy and I must say that I really like this set a lot. I'm a native Austrian and have heard Parsifal many times in its original language, the best Kundry I heard live today was Waltraud Meier BTW.
This marks Maria Callas' final assumption of a Wagnerian part and it makes one understand why a conductor like Serafin had her do Isolde, Brünnhilde and Kundry under his baton. Those two also made operatic history when Callas not only enthralled her audiences and critics with Brünnhilde but also with Bellini's "I Puritani" in the same week. Her "Ich sah das Kind" is silken and smooth, there is nothing uneven in that large column of sound young Callas had back then. Kundry's Schrei is sung must musically and not screeched for a change. It was her performance as Kundry that had young operatic director Franco Zeffirelli spellbound. And justly so for all its difference to the Teutonic Kundrys we're used too this one not only has a large, silken voice (In 1950 Callas voice was truly beautiful) but a glorious way of molding phrases, spinning piani, attacking high notes fearlessly. This is NOT an idiomatic Parsifal for the purist but those who love to listen to big, luscious voices like Callas and Christoff will find hidden beauties here you cannot find in any other recording. And if one were to suggest another Kundry I wouldn't go for Nilsson but for Mödl, Jones, Ludwig or Meier. My final verdict would be that this is a must for Callas-Fans, Wagnerians with a taste for the unusual and those of us who want to hear Maria Callas in her fullest prime but not those who want to get to know Wagner's Parsifal for the first time.

I am a Wagner fanatic... and I can assure you that you can hear his works performed in German and sound Italian!!! and the exact opposite that happens here.
The Wagnerian Style lies into the singing and above all the director. The language is totally irrelevant. You can sing Wagner in French if you have the WAGNERIAN style inside you, which is impossible to be taught and extremely difficult to capture.
Vitorio Gui is one the greatest wagnerian conductors and you can feel that in the Choral parts where the tempi and the Mystical Atmosphere can transfer you into the world of the Graal.
Boris Christoff is for me purely wagnerian in here... and the metaphysical timbre of his voice is simply elekrtifying.
Callas sings this tole with so many vocal colors that it wouldnt be an exageration to say that all the WAGNERIAN SINGERS combined in all of their roles havent managed to sing with half of the vocal colors Callas uses to paint a role that she couldn't care less for!!!
This is an essential Parsifal!

The question has been raised on what Wagner would have said if he had learned of a production of "Parsifal" in Italian. This question, like that on "what songs the sirens sang", is not wholly beyond the bounds of speculation. Since a letter from Wagner exists in which who wrote of looking forward to a production of "Tristan und Isolde" in London--as soon as he could obtain a decent singing translation into English, I think that the great man might well have said, "Italian? Fine with me." Then, like Verdi following the triumphant premier of "Falstaff", he would have asked about the box office receipts on the second night.

This recording is for Callas fans. Don't sweat the little stuff, like language.