After 140 years, Wagner’s final opera, “Parsifal,” first performed at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, finally got its Mexican premiere in April of this year. While not quite an opera—it was defined by Wagner as an ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel,’ or a ‘stage festival play’ with a sacred focus—Wagner’s final piece testifies to his consummate understanding of opera as not just a performative but transformative experience where the mind, body, and soul combine in the pursuit of something of divine origin. Performed as part of the Wagner-focused Liber Festival, hosted at the Guanajuato Cultural Forum in León, Guanajuato, Wagner was also accompanied by other exhibitions of Mexican culture and classical performances of other highly influential 19th-century composers such as Liszt. The poignancy of finally performing Wagner’s 13th finished opera—his 25th if one includes smaller and unfinished projects, such as the drafted “Parsifal” precursor, “Die Seger” (1856-58)—should be seen in the wider context of Wagnerian opera in Mexico as a whole: a phenomenon that is both ongoing yet sparse.

Some of the first Wagnerian operas to make it to Mexico came in the late 19th century—specifically “Die Walküre” in 1891—but, it should be noted, Mexico has a long history of domestic opera composition that, in many cases, rivals that of Wagner. Nevertheless, the premiere of Wagner’s “Parsifal” in Mexico marks a huge achievement in the continued development of Mexico’s operatic legacy, one definitively not centered around attachment to European opera but inevitably shaped by its presence. It should also be noted that the production is a revised variation of its 2013 form, first presented at the Amazonas Opera Festival in Brazil. This is another location with its own unique relationship to Wagner’s operas: to commemorate the opening of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876, many dignitaries and artists came, including the last monarch of Brazil, Pedro II, an abolitionist and patron of the arts. 

As staging designer Sergio Vela shared with Liber Magazine, “’Tannhäuser’ has not been performed in Mexico since 1947, ‘Lohengrin’ since 1980 or 1981, and ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ was only performed in 1963.” The 1996 recording of “Tristan und Isolde” featuring Jon West and Luana DeVol was another important milestone. Bringing “Parsifal” to the operatic stage in Mexico continues a trajectory that is long-since started, but in need of special attention. Nevertheless, another production has been added to the cap of Wagner’s posthumous legacy. One part of the legacy, however, is the capturing of the event, and founder of nonprofit TV project MERIDA1 TV, Jaime Casanova Amar’s capture of the event in documentary form is an artistic statement in itself. Amar spoke with Opera Wire about his life, the documentary, and his experiences.

Opera Wire: Can you share a bit about the documentary? 

Jaime Casanova Amar: The documentary is a 65-minute feature that will be published on YouTube (youtube.com/merida1tv) and public access TV. Also, several screenings will be held in different venues, [being released in] September 2024. It will consist of a ‘first glance’ backstage [as well as] interviews with all singers, artists, and creators involved in highly celebrated Sergio Vela’s premiere production of “Parsifal” in Mexico—which is a work that involves hundreds of minutes [in terms of] video material. The film also covers the cities of León, Merida, and Mexico City.

OW: Can you tell me a bit about your nonprofit television project? 

JCA: MERIDA1 TV—the tv production team behind the film—was founded by myself in 2013. In 11 years, the project has done documentaries of different topics: social causes, public figures, festivals, artists, etcetera. Classical music and opera are no exception: [we have made] a couple of documentaries about two major orchestras of Yucatan; the opera workshop of Yucatan; a women-only orchestra of Campeche; and a series of interviews regarding Wagner-related topics recorded in Bayreuth. There are also documentaries produced by MERIDA1 TV in countries such as Canada, United States, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and Germany.

OW: How did you get into Wagner in the first place? 

JCA: I have to thank my father for a mind-blowing arias-duets-trios DECCA CD he bought when I was just a child. Immediately I became in love with such lovely music and intense performances: it would take my breath away. I didn’t know back then, but I was laying the ground for my greatest passion yet to come. A few years later I was at the movie theater with my mother watching Jurassic Park and at that very moment wanted to become a movie director: that film invited our generation to dream again! Years went by and then reality hit me and I gave that up. At the end of my teenage years, I decided to start—or resume, for that matter—my curiosity for classical music and then I found out about Brian Large (a video director and producer of more than 500 concerts, operas, documentaries, etcetera). 

OW: What was the creation process of the documentary like for you?

JCA: From the start this production was more than special. Sergio Vela, “Parsifal’s” stage director, also directed the first complete Ring Cycle in Mexico and a lot of other operas as well. Something really significant was the indirect line to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus: the music director of the “Parsifal” premiere, Maestro Guido Maria Guida, was assistant to the great Giuseppe Sinopoli during his tenure as a regular director in Wagner’s festival (until his passing in the early 2000’s). For a big Wagnerian this can’t go unnoticed. As Sergio Vela said to the production crew in the last performance: the experience of being there as a part of this important production will stay in the deepest of our hearts and souls forever.

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