In Palermo, where Richard Wagner composed this monumental opera during an extended stay, conductor Omer Meir Wellber makes a highly successful debut as music director of the Teatro Massimo, architecturally and artistically one of Italy's most impressive opera houses. "With the Teatro Massimo's superb orchestra, he succeeded in creating an absolutely straightforward reading" (Opera Today). The singers are superbly cast, especially Julian Hubbard as Parsifal, "who was a sensation" (neue musikzeitung). The director "Graham Vick strips Parsifal of mysticism to deliver a powerful indictment of divisive ideologies" (Musical America).