Michelle DeYoung. Photo by Lisa Kohler.

The Cleveland Orchestra, under guest conductor Pierre Boulez’s baton, paid a visit to Carnegie Hall this month and Act Two of Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal” was the featured work at one of the concerts. In a complete performance of the opera, this worldly act—the diva’s time to bloom in this mostly male “consecrational festival play”—can stand as a stirring release after the solemn religiosity of Act One’s rituals of the Knights of the Holy Grail. In this hearing, restraint, however, often seemed the watchword.

The once controversial Boulez and his players sped through the instrumental introduction and the Flower Maidens’ cries for their fallen knightly lovers before settling into the orchestral understatement that pervaded the performance. Either the Maestro was reluctant to tax the singers or an unusually low-key second act is essential to his interpretation of the score.

Thomas Moser’s still lyric tenor sufficed at first for his assignment as the eponymous innocent knight and swelled enough to accommodate Parsifal’s outbursts—about his King, Amfortas’ seemingly incurable wound and the crucified Christ’s cries from the Cross—without ever really ringing. In his briefer assignment, baritone Eike Wilm Schulte proved a commanding Klingsor, the errant, self-mutilated knight-turned-evil magician.

Eschewing Kundry’s indicated screams and maniacal laughter in this concert format, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung took most soprano top notes in stride in her monologue about Parsifal’s long-suffering mother and her own presence and irreverent laughter at the Crucifixion, her attempted seduction of Parsifal, and her vindictive curse when rejected. Restraint, though, marked much of the rest of DeYoung’s contribution as well, as she—probably wisely—paced herself.

The solo Flower Maidens were sopranos Malia Bendi Merad, Marcy Stonikas and Ellie Dehn and mezzo-sopranos Karen Jesse, Jean Lowe and Elizabeth De Shong. Backing them lyrically were the women of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, led by Joseph Flummerfelt.

The “Parsifal” excerpt was preceded by Gustav Mahler’s sorrowful opening Adagio from his unfinished Symphony Number 10 in F-sharp Major.

February 12

Carnegie Hall 881 7^th Avenue at 57 ^th Street