WHAT TO READ AND HEAR.(opera broadcast books and recordings)(Brief Article)

THE GAMBLER

Harlow Robinson's Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography (Viking) has brought welcome relief from the opposing cold-war positions of the Victor Seroff and Israel Nestyev biographies. More compact is Daniel Jaffe's Sergey Prokofiev (Phaidon paperback), while technical-minded listeners may find Neil Minturn's The Music of Sergei Prokofiev (Yale) a stimulating approach to the composer's musical technique. The libretto's source, Dostoyevsky's novel The Gambler, is listed in several paperback editions (Norton, Penguin Classics, Oxford World Classics). The publisher, Boosey & Hawkes, offers a libretto for sale, but no scores.

Valery Gergiev conducts the only available recording (Philips, 2 CDs), with Kirov Opera forces, including most of the principals in the Met cast -- an accomplishment on the expected high level of proficiency and style. An earlier recording by the Bolshoi Theater under Alexander Lazarev (Olympia, 2 CDs) is worth tracking down for characterful performances by Alexei Maslennikov as Alexei and Alexander Ognivtsev as the General.

PARSIFAL

Barry Millington's Wagner (Princeton paperback) is a knowledgeable and scrupulous introduction to composer and works. Ernest Newman's four-volume biography (Cambridge paperback, out of print) remains a classic account, if sometimes outdated in detail and perspective, and his The Wagner Operas (Princeton paperback) makes a fine introduction to the works. Carl Dahlhaus's essays in Richard Wagner) Music Dramas (Cambridge paperback) take a broader view of the operas' significance than did Newman. The Wagner Compendium, edited by Millington (Macmillan Library Reference), skillfully pulls together a great mass of information about the composer, his times, and his works. Recently, Stewart Spencer has collected intriguing reminiscences in Wagner Remembered (Faber paperback). The ENO/Royal Opera Guide (Riverrun paperback, including libretto) for this opera is on a par with the Cambridge Opera Handbook (edited by Lucy Beckett, paperback) in the breadth and quality of its essays; both are excellent starting points. The vocal score is available from Schirmer, the orchestral score from Dover.

The most celebrated Parsifal recordings (4 CDs except where noted) are the broad, measured Bayreuth accounts under Hans Knappertsbusch, from 1951 (Teldec, mono) and 1962 (Philips), now hard to find. Dimmer in sound but still magisterial are Karl Muck's 1927-28 recordings from the opera, including most of Act III (Naxos, mono, 2 CDs). Georg Solti's Vienna studio version (Decca), though strongly cast, is less well sustained. James Levine's broad, transparent interpretation has been recorded several times, including a Met studio version with Placido Domingo and Ekkehard Wlaschiha in the cast (DG) and a Met video (DG, VHS). John Tomlinson's Gurnemanz may be heard in Daniel Barenboim's recording (Teldec). An alternative visual interpretation of the opera is offered by Jurgen Syberberg's imaginative though controversial film (Image, DVD).

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