It is a minor shame that the tremendous San Francisco staging of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal , currently running at the War Memorial Opera House , had but one Sunday matinee performance. I can’t answer the long-running question about Parsifal being a Christian opera or not, but seeing it this past Sunday returned me to those long hours of my religious upbringing, spent in pews and listening to sermons on compassion, suffering and redemption.

At church, as a child, I couldn’t have been more bored. At the opera house, watching this marvelous production unfold over the course of six hours, I couldn’t have been more transfixed. Whether you’re a diehard Wagnerite or a casual operagoer, this production of Parsifal is something special; an experience that’ll stop you dead in your tracks.

See Full Page