06.04.2025

DAVID STEFENS | Role debut Gurnemanz in Stuttgart

After a series of impressive role debuts as Hunding (Die Walküre), King Marke (Tristan und Isolde) and Jochanaan (Salome), David Steffens can now be heard for the first time in one of the greatest and most challenging bass roles of his profession at his Stuttgart home: Gurnemanz in Wagner's Parsifal.

First performed in Bayreuth in 1882, Wagner's stage festival combines the mystery of the Last Supper, medieval chivalric epics and the philosophy of compassion to create an enigmatic ritual theatre. Calixto Bieito's legendary Stuttgart production from 2010 consistently rejects any promise of salvation and warns of the despair of people who cling to encrusted religious images in their search for meaning in a post-apocalyptic world.

Cast

Paweł Konik, Amfortas
David Steffens, Gurnemanz
Samuel Sakker, Parsifal
Shigeo Ishino, Klingsor
Rosie Aldridge, Kundry
Peter Lobert, Titurel
Heinz Göhrig, 1st Knight of the Grail
Aleksander Myrling, 2nd Knight of the Grail
Alma Ruoqi Sun, 1st Squire
Catriona Smith, 2nd squire
Torsten Hofmann, 3rd squire
Sam Harris, 4th squire
Claudia Muschio, 1st 1st flower girl
Natasha Te Rupe Wilson, 1st 2nd flower girl
Carmen Larios Caparrós, 1.3. flower girl
Alma Ruoqi Sun, 2.1. flower girl
Lucia Tumminelli , 2.2. flower girl
Itzeli del Rosario , 2.3. flower girl
Itzeli del Rosario, voice from above

Cornelius Meister, musical direction
Calixto Bieito. Stage direction
Susanne Gschwender, stage
Mercè Paloma, costumes
Reinhard Traub, lighting
Manuel Pujo, choir and children's choir
Xavier Zuber, dramaturgy