Yankee Parsifal

Since 1951, when Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner started putting Grandfather Richard's operas into modern dress, Bavaria's Bayreuth Festival has attracted more attention for its sets than for its singers. As the curtain rose on the festival last week, the singers were back at stage center. Not in a decade have there been so many distinguished debuts at Bayreuth --and never has this most intensely national of all German festivals appeared so amazingly Americanized.

Arriving on the set of Das Rheingold to begin rehearsals, Wolfgang Wagner struck his forehead and exclaimed: ''Is it possible that you're all Americans? He could be forgiven for thinking so. In the cast were Texan Thomas Stewart, Singer Sewing Machine Heir David Thaw, New York's Regina Resnik, California's Jerome Hines. Also at Bayreuth were such regulars as George London (Canadian-born but a U.S. citizen), New York's Astrid Varnay, Cleveland's Grace Hoffmann--plus California's Irene Dalis and San Francisco's Jess Thomas, both making their Bayreuth debuts in Parsifal. And appearing as Venus in a new production of Tannhaeuser was St. Louis-born Mezzo Soprano Grace Bumbry, the first Negro ever to sing at Bayreuth.

Cultural Crime? Bumbry's debut was less important than those of Dalis and Thomas in Parsifal or of radiant Spanish Soprano Victoria de Los Angeles in Tannhaeuser. But her engagement received far more than its share of attention after the Wagner brothers were bombarded with letters suggesting that the assignment of a Negro to the role of Venus was a "cultural crime" against the obvious wishes of Wagner himself. Wieland remained unmoved: "I shall bring in black, yellow and brown artists if I feel them appropriate for productions. I require no ideal Nordic specimens."

What Wagner did require was an "elemental, erotic quality," and he found it in Mezzo Soprano Bumbry's voice, a naturally glorious, bronzelike instrument that ranged through the house with impressive power. But because Wieland's concept of the staging allowed Venus about as much movement as a mummy, premiere audiences could not judge whether Bumbry's acting was a match for her singing. As for the new production itself, it was typically spare in detail but marred by the intrusion of a few Radio City Music Hall touches: an angelic choir whose halos gradually became brighter on rheostats; a womb-shaped, rigid fish net with ballerinas spread-eagled to its sides.

Gutsy Bardot. As Kundry in Parsifal, Mezzo Soprano Dalis came close to fulfilling Wieland Wagner's concept of the character as ''a neurotic in the first act. Brigitte Bardot in the second, and a hospital nurse in the third." Dalis has a theory that she can catch Kundry's tempestuous passions more effectively if she does not vocalize before going onstage, thus retaining a certain gutsy quality in her voice. Last week her theory worked just fine: the voice had a raw, fitfully feverish cast, but it never became ugly or strident. Tenor Thomas was less compelling, but he too turned in a good performance--far more vigorous than Bayreuth audiences can expect from more familiar, beef trust-styled Wagnerian tenors. At the curtain, Wieland Wagner paid his two stars a compliment that suggests just how important American talent has become at Bayreuth. "Thank you," said Wagner, "for a new Parsifal."

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