Irrational was a bad choice of word: non rational. “Subjective” only means that something is related to one’s own individual experience. What I mean is that no-one chooses what one likes – one just likes it.

You know that we won’t fight about that – I just love your comments and especially the last one, even if I still have to disagree with you. Of course, Christa Ludwig and Tatiana Troyanos are in an entirely different league as Susan Maclean. Those are legendary singers. What I mean is that one should not be called “horrible” because she does not sing like them. If top grade is ten, then Ludwig is 15. She’s hors concours. So not singing like them only means that you are not marvelous, but if you call sub-Ludwig level horrible, then the sense of proportion is somehow twisted. The closing of Parsifal act II is more than a matter of getting used to it – it will always be difficult. A very experienced singer will know where the traps are and will avoid them, but she is still going to have to deal with them. Not acknowledging this would be the same of saying “the Queen of the Night is just a matter of high staccato phrasing – if you know how to do it, then it’s just easy”. Again, I don’t know how Maclean sounded in the broadcast – I don’t agree that she barely got a note right. She got far many notes right than… Stephanie Friede as Venus, for instance. She had trouble with the exposed high notes in the end of act II. Other than this, she sang very securely, with tonal and dynamic shading, intelligent verbal expression and a warm, firm voice. This is what I heard – and I cannot say it was bad. It was not Christa Ludwig level, but frankly who is? But again – I am not trying to pick a fight. Just explaining my criteria and why I wrote what I wrote about Susan Maclean’s performance.

Now the part about which we agree: I like your description of Ludwig and Urmana and I would use more or less the same words to make the comparison between them. Although I keep G. Jones as one of my favorite Kundrys, I understand what you write about W. Meier. She is a very intelligent singer and I found her tonal quality strangely appealing (it is not classically “beautiful” but sexy in a very unusual way) – but I wouldn’t call her “force of nature” either. As for Troyanos, again I understand exactly what you say. According to one interview, she never found herself a dramatic mezzo soprano, but she could nonetheless make a terrific job in some of these roles. But the most curious thing is your mention to Crespin – I just love this recording. It is most interesting than she herself was surprised on auditioning for Elsa to learn that Wieland Wagner chose her for Kundry, a role she had never sung before. In her biography, she more or less says that she let herself be “transformed” into a Kundry and that it was a revelatory experience even for her. That is probably why it is so convincing – there is no affectation there, she just “surrendered” to the role, which, moreover, fits her ambiguous Fach.

As for Germany looking at itself, well, everybody should look at itself. In Wagner’s case, he was thinking about Germany. As much as Verdi was thinking about Italy when he composed Simon Boccanegra or James Joyce about Ireland when he wrote Ulysses… what makes these work universal is not the “object”, but the view of the object. I tend to look with suspicion with things meant to be universal. Nobody is universal – everybody belongs to a place and _this_ is universal. When something floats aloof with no connection with anything specific, then nobody identifies him or herself with it. But again this is only my opinion.

One last note, I don’t think that Herheim is addressing the theme of Second World War II, this is only one stance in a far bigger picture. But, who knows, maybe someone will stage one Cambodian Parsifal one of those days… Let’s only hope it won’t be Katharina Wagner!

In terms of making Germany look at itself, Syberberg did this in his film (and Katharina tried to do it and failed in her silly Meistersinger). But is it really only Germany that only needs to take a look at itself? Parsifal is to me a universal work and the introspection to me can be applicable to mankind as a whole. Confining a work to one country or to one festival seems somewhat limiting.

What happened in Germany was truly appalling but the destruction that took place there has been repeated innumberable times in one degree or another since the past 66 years, since World War II ended. If an artist seeks to remind us of our moral shortcomings such reminders need to extend far beyond Germany. Germany was a worst case possible. But Cambodia, Rwanda, etc., etc. weren’t much better.