Though La Cieca will not go as far as Mary Garden (who once proclaimed, “Whenever Parsifal is performed, it is Good Friday!”) she does have a soft spot in her heart for Wagner’s final work and its message of compassion and reconciliation. And so, on this Good Friday evening, here is an aircheck of a December 17, 1949 broadcast of the Prelude and “Good Friday Spell,” conducted by Arturo Toscanini.

Good Friday