Royal Opera House stages Wagner’s Parsifal in bunker-set production

Evgeny Titov’s new production of Wagner’s Parsifal has opened at the Royal Opera House in London. The staging approaches the composer’s final opera through a stark visual world, while leaving much of its symbolism unresolved.

Etienne Pluss’s sets present the Grail realm as an underground bunker made from monumental stone blocks that move slowly around the stage. CCTV screens overlook the setting, and a grimy washroom is used for a scene in which Amfortas, the fallen King, is scrubbed by Grail Knights wearing breathing apparatus.

Esther Bialas’s costumes place the Knights in anoraks. Kundry initially wears black leather and later appears in virginal white, reflecting the production’s treatment of the character’s contrasting identities. In a more literal image, Parsifal arrives carrying a swan he has shot; the bird twitches until the orchestra signals its death.

The production’s central question concerns belief in Parsifal’s story of falling, cursing and redemption through purity. The opera’s themes include the Grail, a wound, a spear, seduction, suffering and death, alongside critical debate about its racial-purity themes, misogyny and religiosity. Christian Gerhaher was described as a compelling Amfortas, while Jakub Hrůša and the Royal Opera’s orchestra were praised.