Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Parsifal at English National Opera – with Mark Wigglesworth conducting, Iain Paterson singing Amfortas and Jane Dutton as Kundry – has received international critical acclaim.
“I find it almost impossible to believe that Mark Wigglesworth has never conducted Parsifal before… it sounded as though he’d been soaked in the score all his life and thought of nothing else,” commented Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph. “The orchestra was inspired to playing of a smoothness and security which would not have disgraced the Berlin Phil. To ENO’s Wagnerian pantheon… the name of Mark Wigglesworth must now be added.”
In The Times, Richard Morrison wrote: “Mark Wigglesworth’s lovingly-crafted Wagner conducting is one of the revelations of recent years, and the ENO orchestra and thrillingly augmented chorus perform brilliantly.”
Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times said: “The accomplished British conductor Mark Wigglesworth… drew warm, plush and sensitive playing from the orchestra.”