I’ve had a fairly good track record with Gurnemanz’s in the new millennium: Georg Zeppenfeld, Günther Groissböck, John Tomlinson, Franz-Josef Selig, Hans-Peter König, and Kwangchul Youn all blended intelligent musicianship with dramatic alertness. Yet in Pape’s rendition, we hear all this combined with magisterial beauty that he has sustained for over two decades.

I’ve never understood critics who described Pape as dramatically bland in this role. Having seen him in at least four different productions, it’s always interested me how he adapted his performance to the specifics of some very complicated readings. In Tcherniakov’s apocalyptic vision, his Gurnemanz was a twitchy zealot, who desperately tried to keep the Order of the Grail in order. When left with just about nothing to do (as in Pierre Audi’s Bayerische Staatsoper staging), Pape gripped the listener with his Lieder singer precision to his Act I narrations.

But I remember Pape’s Gurnemanz production most fondly in the premiere run of François Girard’s landmark production. His performance was the true Wagnerian synthesis of words, music, and drama: every gesture suffused with meaning, as he unfurled every phrase with unending beauty and power. I attended multiple performances of this run and wept each night at the phrase “Entnimm nun seinem Haupt!”