Well, Haitink claimed to have retired from opera some years ago, but seems to have rethought his plans

I agree the production's not the best, but just look at the cast!  Having said that, Parsifal's the one Wagner opera I still find difficult.  A taste I have yet to acquire.  I'll be there on Dec 15th.

(P.S. Swan_Knight, that Wernicke Tristan was one of those productions I hated the first time I saw it, but which made sense in the revival.  I'd gladly see it again, with a good cast.  There has, unfortunately, never been a more than adequate tenor in that production).

I saw it in 2001, with Rattle conducting....this is my review from then.
http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/leonora/parsifal.html

I went to the rehearsal yesterday, I think Haitinck takes it a bit slower than Rattle, still a very sensitive performance.
The Parsifal is Christopher Ventris, he is fine. The Amfortas is unfortunately not Thomas Hampson this time, still Falk Struckmann makes a fairly good job of it!
Am going to the matinee on Sunday.

Musically wonderful, visually abominable.

The production is almost willfully bad and appeared to be designed to handicap the singers, some of whom were not sparing in their criticism at the ROH's introductory day.  Most of the crucial points, like making the sign of the cross, are fluffed.  Kundry's transformation consists of putting her hair up a bit.  Klingsor's castle looks like one of the bad nightclubs I used to frequent as a teenager in the 1970s, with a Hirst-esque shark that must have cost a bob or too to make and said...what?  How hard would it have been to remove the golf course, sorry, snowdrifts from the finale when we were allegedly back in the Grail Hall?  A semi-staged or concert performance would have been greatly preferable. 

The cast is a good as you will get for Wagner in the 21st century (it includes 3 Wotans).  Petra Lang and John Tomlinson were, predictably, the pick of the bunch.  Christopher Vetris is a pretty decent Parsifal.  The undoubted stars are Haitink and the fabulous sounding ROH orchestra.  The second performance we saw, on the 9th, seemed a little swifter than the opening night.  Either way, magnificent sound throughout.  We'll be back on the 15th, eyes closed...

I went last night. Musically spell-binding and absolutely cast from strength; but oh dear! I'd managed to forget just how woeful this production is. I imagine that the ROH wouldn't have revived it had Haitink not said he wanted to do Parsifal: presumably the budget just isn't there to create a new production for 4 performances.
I do remember the only moment of real action in the opera (the end of Act 2) being botched, but had forgotten quite how risible it was - the way the spear business was handled would not have been out of place in a market town panto (and the characterisation, and costume, of Willard White's Klingsor was that of a panto villain). And the collapse of Klingsor's kingdom was, quite simply, hilarious.
Can anyone tell me the significance of training a follow-spot on one of the rocks as it slid off during the Good Friday music in Act III? Or was a lighting technician filled with Christmas spirit last night? It reminded me of the little moving sphinx in the equally risible Robert Wilson Aida a couple of years back. I half expected the rock to get its own curtain call.
A shame, because the idiocies and incompetancies were once or twice so blatant that they managed to distract me from the sublime music-making. I'm nevertheless thrilled to have heard Haitink's Parsifal with such a dream cast. 

Reiner
There was a reference in the performance history article ROH programme book for Parsifal to a production by Wilson (can't remember where). I guess it was to make us feel thankful for small mercies....