ABOUT PROFESSOR COLIN MACKERRAS AO

Professor Colin Mackerras AO FAHA is Vice-President of the Wagner Society in Queensland.
He is a specialist on Chinese history, musical theatre and ethnic minorities, as well as Australia-China relations and Western images of China, and has published widely on all those subjects. He has written or edited over 40 books and authored nearly 200 scholarly papers about China.

Born in Sydney in 1939, he has visited China nearly 70 times. He worked at Griffith University from 1974 to 2004 and has been a Professor Emeritus at the University since retirement. Colin is twin brother of Malcolm Mackerras, a psephologist and brother of the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras (1925-2010) who, from 1981 to 2010, was the Wagner Society's first patron . Another brother was Alastair Mackerras (1928-1999), the distinguished headmaster of Sydney Grammar School from 1969 to 1989.

Professor Mackerras' talk at 2pm will be preceeded by the DVD – BADEN BADEN 2004 PARSIFAL

Since it was created for the ENO at the London Coliseum in 1999, Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s staging of Wagner’s final opera has been seen across Europe and the US. This performance is from Baden-Baden in 2004. It is interesting to compare this controversial staging with the Met’s ultra-traditional staging in 1994, just 5 years earlier. (Met Opera Act II will be shown on 22 June). The visual landscape this Parsifal inhabits is purged of all Christian references.

The text, of course, remains stuffed with them: redemption, holy blood, guilt, sin and suffering. But the power of ritual that is depicted on stage, and which sustains this raggle-taggle crowd of grail knights in dusty fatigues, is blissfully much less specific. Lehnhoff subverts the ending, too: Parsifal does not assume leadership of the knights, as Wagner indicates, but instead leaves them to it, walking away with Kundry along the railway line that leads into a dark, uncertain future, an endgame without an end.
Guardian music/2011/feb/17/parsifal-eno-review

While all the principals sing impressively in this recording, it is conductor Kent Nagano who is the hero here. His generally brisk tempos, unerring sense for drama and his ability to point up crucial orchestral detail impart a feeling of urgency, of tension, of passion to the proceedings. The more ponderous approaches are less effective for me.

This opera is long and ponderous enough, and though there is much depth to plumb, the tempi, to me, must move along. Some may prefer Karajan or even Knappertsbusch, but I’ll take Nagano and this brilliantly colourful production – one of the finest of any opera on DVD. If you love Wagner, you’ll want this splendid recording. Highest recommendations!
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