right's opera Parsifal
, painted in Weimar Germany 1928 by Hans Werner Schmidt (1859–1950)Parsifal
is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival
, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail.
During the first act, Parsifal, an apparently witless fool, sees the suffering of the wounded Amfortas, King of an order of knights who guard the Grail. In the second Act Parsifal wanders into the domain of Klingsor, a magician who is trying to corrupt the Knights of the Grail and who has stolen from them the spear used to pierce Jesus Christ during his crucifixion. There Parsifal meets Kundry, the slave of Klingsor, who attempts to seduce him. In resisting her, he destroys Klingsor, and recovers the Spear. In the third Act, Parsifal returns to the Grail Kingdom to heal Amfortas.
Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but it was not finished until twenty-five years later. It was to be Wagner's last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the particular sonority of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal
was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained an exclusive monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Wagner preferred to describe Parsifal not as an opera, but as "ein Bühnenweihfestspiel" - "A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage". At Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there is no applause after the first act of the opera.
Wagner's spelling of Parsifal
instead of the Parzival
he had used up to 1877 is informed by an erroneous etymology of the name Percival
deriving it from a supposedly Arabic origin, Fal Parsi
meaning "pure fool". [1]
|
PARSIFAL TICKETS
|
Composition
Wagner first read
Wolfram von Eschenbach's poem
Parzival
while
taking the waters at
Marienbad in 1845.
[2] After encountering
Arthur Schopenhauer's work in 1854
[3], Wagner became interested in oriental philosophies, especially
Buddhism. He was particularly inspired by reading
Eugène Burnouf's
"Introduction à l'histoire du buddhisme indien"
in 1855/56. Out of this interest came
"Die Sieger"
("
The Victors", 1856) a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of
Buddha.
[4] The themes which were later explored in Parsifal of self-renouncing, reincarnation, compassion and even exclusive social groups (
castes in
Die Sieger
, the Knights of the Grail in Parsifal) were first introduced in
"Die Sieger"
.
[5]
According to his own account, recorded in his autobiography
Mein Leben
, Wagner conceived
Parsifal
on
Good Friday morning, April 1857, in the
Asyl
(German: "Asylum"), the small cottage on
Otto von Wesendonck’s estate in the
Zürich suburb of Enge, which Wesendonck - a wealthy silk merchant and generous patron of the arts - had placed at Wagner’s disposal.
[6] The composer and his wife
Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April:
However, as he later admitted to his second wife
Cosima Wagner, this account had been coloured by a certain amount of poetic licence:
The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendonck's cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in
Zürich.
[9] If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in
Mein Leben
was accurately dated (and most of Wagner’s surviving papers are dated), it could settle the issue once and for all, but unfortunately it has not survived.
Wagner did not resume work on
Parsifal
for eight years, during which time he completed
Tristan und Isolde
and began
Die Meistersinger
. Then, between 27 and 30 August 1865, he took up
Parsifal
again and made a prose draft of the work; this contains a fairly brief outline of the plot and a considerable amount of detailed commentary on the characters and themes of the drama.
[10] But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven and a half years. During this time most of Wagner’s creative energy was devoted to the
Ring
cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at
Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this gargantuan task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on
Parsifal
. By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, and by 19 April of the same year he had transformed this into a verse
libretto (or “poem”, as Wagner liked to call his
libretti).
[11]
In September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these (known in German as the
Gesamtentwurf
and in English as either the
Preliminary Draft
or the
First Complete Draft
) was made in pencil on three
staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments. The second complete draft (
Orchesterskizze
,
Orchestral Draft
,
Short Score
or
Particell
) was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was much more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration.
[12]
The second draft was begun on 25 September 1877, just a few days after the first: at this point in his career Wagner liked to work on both drafts simultaneously, switching back and forth between the two so as not to allow too much time to elapse between his initial setting of the text and the final elaboration of the music. The
Gesamtentwurf
of Act III was completed on 16 April 1879 and the
Orchesterskizze
on the 26th of the same month.
[13]
The full score (
Partiturerstschrift
) was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a fair copy of the entire opera, with all the voices and instruments properly notated according to standard practice.
Wagner composed
Parsifal
one act at a time, completing the
Gesamtentwurf
and
Orchesterskizze
of each act before beginning the
Gesamtentwurf
of the next act; but because the
Orchesterskizze
already embodied all the compositional details of the full score, the actual drafting of the
Partiturerstschrift
was regarded by Wagner as little more than a routine task which could be done whenever he found the time. The Prelude of Act I was scored in August 1878. The rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882.
[14]
Parsifal
in performance
The premiere
On 12 November 1880 Wagner conducted a private performance of the Prelude for his patron
Ludwig II of Bavaria at the Court Theatre in
Munich.
[15] The premiere of the entire work was given in the
Festspielhaus at
Bayreuth on 26 July 1882 under the baton of the German-born Jewish conductor
Hermann Levi. Stage designs were by
Max Brückner and
Paul von Joukowsky who took their lead from Wagner himself. The Grail hall was based on the interior of
Siena Cathedral which Wagner had visited in 1880, while Klingsor's magic garden was modelled on those at the Palazzo Rufolo in
Ravello.
[16] In July and August 1882 sixteen performances of the work were given in
Bayreuth conducted by Levi and
Franz Fischer. The production boasted an orchestra of 107, a chorus of 135 and 23 soloists (with the main parts being double cast).
[17] At the last of these performances, Wagner took the baton from Levi and conducted the final scene of Act 3 from the orchestral interlude to the end.
[18]
At the first performances of
Parsifal
problems with the moving scenery during the transition from Scene one to Scene two in Act 1 meant that Wagner's existing orchestral interlude finished before Parsifal and Gurnemanz arrived at the Hall of the Grail.
Engelbert Humperdinck, who was assisting the production, provided a few extra bars of music to cover this gap.
[19] In subsequent years this problem was solved and Humperdinck's additions were not used.
The ban on Parsifal outside Bayreuth
For the first twenty years of its existence, the only staged performances of
Parsifal
(apart from eight private performances for
Ludwig II at Munich in 1884 and 1885) took place in the
Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the venue for which Wagner conceived the work. Wagner had two reasons for wanting to keep
Parsifal
exclusively for the Bayreuth stage. Firstly, he wanted to prevent it from degenerating into 'mere amusement' for an opera-going public. Only at
Bayreuth could his last work be presented in the way envisaged by him - a tradition maintained by his wife, Cosima, long after his death. Secondly he thought that the opera would provide an income for his family after his death if Bayreuth had the monopoly on its performance.
The Bayreuth authorities allowed unstaged performances to take place in various countries after Wagner's death (e.g.
London in 1884,
New York City in 1886, and
Amsterdam in 1894) but they maintained an embargo on stage performances outside Bayreuth. On 24 December 1903, after receiving a court ruling that performances in the
USA could not be prevented by Bayreuth, the New York
Metropolitan Opera staged the complete opera, using many Bayreuth-trained singers, much to the chagrin of Wagner's family. Unauthorized stage performances were also undertaken in Amsterdam in 1905, 1906 and 1908. The last day of 1913, Wagner's centenary year, Bayreuth's monopoly on the work would be finished and since then, from the first day of 1914, the work would be freely staged throughout the world: some theaters preview to begin their performances at 0.00 a.m., at the very beginning of the year.
[20]The first authorized performance was mounted in
Barcelona: it began at 22.30, an hour and a half before midnight on December 31 1913, taking advantage of the one hour
time difference which existed at that time between Barcelona and Bayreuth. Such was the demand for
Parsifal
that it was presented in more than 50 European opera houses between 1 January and August 1st 1914.
[21]
Applause during Parsifal
At Bayreuth performances audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act. This tradition is the result of a misunderstanding arising from Wagner's desire at the premiere to maintain the serious mood of the opera. After much applause following the first and second acts, Wagner spoke to the audience and said that the cast would take no
curtain calls until the end of the performance. This confused the audience, who remained silent at the end of the opera until Wagner addressed them again, saying that he did not mean that they could not applaud. After the performance Wagner complained "Now I don't know. Did the audience like it or not?"
[22] At following performances some believed that Wagner had wanted no applause until the very end, and there was silence after the first two acts. Eventually it became a Bayreuth tradition that no applause would be heard after the first act, however this was certainly not Wagner's idea. In fact during the first Bayreuth performances Wagner himself cried "Bravo!" as the Flower-maidens made their exit in the Second Act, only to be hissed by other members of the audience.
[22] At some theatres other than Bayreuth, applause and curtain-calls is normal practice after every act; other major theatres, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, follow the Bayreuth custom.
Post-War performances
Parsifal is one of the Wagner operas regularly presented at the
Bayreuth Festival to this day. Among the more significant post-war productions was that directed in 1951 by
Wieland Wagner, the composer's grandson. At the first Bayreuth Festival after
World War II he presented a radical move away from literal representation of the Hall of the Grail or the Flower-Maiden's bower. Instead, lighting effects and the bare minimum of scenery were used to complement Wagner's music. This production was heavily influenced by the ideas of the
Swiss stage designer,
Adolphe Appia. The reaction to this production was extreme:
Ernest Newman, Wagner's biographer described it as "not only the best Parsifal I have ever seen and heard, but one of the three or four most moving spiritual experiences of my life".
[24] Others were appalled that Wagner's stage directions were being flouted. The conductor of the 1951 production,
Hans Knappertsbusch, on being asked how he could conduct such a disgraceful travesty, declared that right up until the
dress rehearsal he imagined that the stage decorations were still to come.
[25] Knappertsbusch was particularly upset by the omission of the
dove which appears over Parsifal's head at the end of the opera, which he claimed inspired him to give better performances. To placate his conductor Wieland arranged to reinstate the dove, which descended on a string. What Knappertsbusch did not realise was that Wieland had made the length of the string sufficient so that the conductor could see the dove, but the audience could not.
[26] Wieland continued to modify and refine his Bayreuth production of Parsifal until his death in 1966.
Roles
Role
| Voice type
| Premiere Cast 26 July 1882 (Conductor: Hermann Levi)
| The Met Premiere Cast 24 December 1903 (Conductor: Alfred Hertz)
|
Parsifal
| tenor
| Hermann Winkelmann
| Alois Burgstaller
|
Kundry
| mezzo-soprano or soprano
| Amalie Materna
| Milka Ternina
|
Gurnemanz, a veteran Knight of the Grail
| bass
| Emil Scaria
| Robert Blass
|
Amfortas, ruler of the Grail kingdom
| baritone
| Theodor Reichmann
| Anton van Rooy
|
Klingsor, a magician
| bass-baritone
| Karl Hill
| Otto Goritz
|
Titurel, Amfortas' father
| bass
| August Kindermann
| Marcel Journet
|
Two Grail Knights
| tenor, bass
| Anton Fuchs Eugen Stumpf
| Julius Bayer Adolph Mühlmann
|
Four Esquires
| sopranos, tenors
| Hermine Galfy Mathilde Keil Max Mikorey Adolf von Hübbenet
| Katherine Moran Paula Braendle Albert Reiss Willy Harden
|
Six Flowermaidens
| 3 sopranos, 3 contraltos or 6 sopranos
| Pauline Horson Johanna Meta Carrie Pringle Johanna André Hermine Galfy Luise Belce
| Isabelle Bouton Ernesta Delsarta Miss Förnsen Elsa Harris Lillian Heidelbach Marcia Van Dresser
|
Voice from Above, Eine Stimme
| contralto
| Sophie Dompierre
| Louise Homer
|
Knights of the Grail, boys, flowermaidens
|
Synopsis
Place: the mountains to the north of Spain, the castle of Monsalvat and Klingsor's magic palace.
Act 1
Scene 1
Ethereal music –– in a major chord –– is heard, finishing on an octave note. The sequence is reprised in a minor chord and ends without the high note. Next, the Grail
leitmotif is followed by a brassy 'Faith' leitmotif. The prelude closes with wandering strains that finally resolve as the Holy Forest is reached.
In a forest near the castle of Monsalvat, home of the Grail and its
Knights, Gurnemanz, eldest Knight of the
Grail, wakes his young
squires and leads them in prayer. He sees Amfortas, King of the Grail Knights, and his entourage approach. Gurnemanz asks its lead knight for news of the king’s health. The knight says the king has suffered during the night and is going early for a bath in the holy lake. The squires ask Gurnemanz to explain how the king’s injury can be healed, but he evades their question and a wild woman––Kundry––bursts in. She gives Gurnemanz a vial of balsam, brought from
Arabia, to ease the King’s pain and then collapses, exhausted.
right
Amfortas arrives, borne on a
stretcher by Knights of the Grail. He calls out for Gawain, whose attempt at relieving the king's pain had failed. He is told that this knight has left again, seeking a better remedy. Raising himself somewhat, the king says going off without leave ("
Ohn' Urlaub
?") is the sort of impulsiveness which led he himself into Klingsor’s realm, and to his downfall. He accepts the potion from Gurnemanz and tries to thank Kundry, but she answers hastily that thanks will not help and urges him onward, to his bath.
The procession leaves. The squires eye Kundry with mistrust and question her. After a brief retort, she falls silent. Gurnemanz tells them Kundry has often helped the Grail Knights but that she comes and goes unpredictably. When he asks directly why she does not stay to help, she answers, "I never help!" ("
Ich helfe nie!
"). The squires think she is a
witch and sneer that if she does so much, why not find the
Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz solemnly tells that this deed is destined for someone else. He says Amfortas had just been given guardianship of the Spear, but lost it as he was being seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor’s domain. Klingsor grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas: this
wound causes Amfortas both suffering and shame, and as Gurnemanz says, it will never heal on its own.
Squires returning from the king’s bath tell Gurnemanz that the balsam has eased the King’s suffering. Gurnemanz's own squires ask how it is that he knew Klingsor. He solemnly tells them how both the Holy Spear, which pierced the side of the Redeemer on the Cross, and the
Holy Grail, which caught the flowing blood, had come to Monsalvat to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of
Titurel––Amfortas’ father. Klingsor had yearned to join the knights but, unable to keep impure thoughts from his mind, resorted to
self-castration, causing him to be expelled from the order. Made bitter, Klingsor set himself up in opposition to the realm of the Grail, learning dark arts, claiming the valley domain below and filling it with beautiful flower-maidens to seduce and enthrall wayward Grail Knights. It was here that Amfortas lost the Holy Spear, kept by Klingsor as he schemes to get the Grail, too. Gurnemanz tells how Amfortas later had a holy vision which told him to wait for a “pure fool,
enlightened by compassion” (
“Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor”
) who would finally heal the wound.
At just this moment, cries are heard from the Knights: a flying swan has been shot, and a young man is brought forth, a
bow in his hand and a quiver of matching arrows. Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad saying this is a holy place. He asks him outright if he did this deed, and the lad boasts that if it flies, he can hit it ("
Im Fluge treff' ich was fliegt!
") The elder knight asks what harm the swan had done, showing the youth its blood-flecked body, limp wings and lifeless eyes. Now remorseful, the young man breaks his bow, casting it and the arrows aside. Gurnemanz asks him why he is here, who is his father, how he found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies, "I don't know." The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the king and now asks the young man to tell what he
does
know. The young man says he has a mother, Herzeleide, and that he made the bow himself. Kundry has been listening and now she tells them that this boy’s father was Gamuret, a knight killed in battle, and also how the lad’s mother had forbidden her son to use a sword, fearing that he would meet the same fate as his father. Now the youth recalls that upon seeing knights pass through his forest, he left his home and mother to follow them. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that, as she rode by, she saw Herzeleide die of grief. Hearing this, the lad first jumps at Kundry but then collapses in grief. Kundry herself is now weary for sleep, but cries out that she must not sleep and wishes that she would never again waken. She disappears into the undergrowth.
Gurnemanz knows that the Grail leads only the pious to Monsalvat and thus takes the lad to observe the Grail
ritual. The youth does not know what the Grail is, but he remarks that as they walk, he seems scarcely to move, seems to travel far. Gurnemanz says that in this realm, time becomes space. An orchestral interlude leads into Scene Two.
Scene 2
They arrive at the Hall of the Grail, where the Knights are assembling to receive
Holy Communion. The voice of Titurel is heard, telling his son, Amfortas, to uncover the Grail. Amfortas is racked with shame and suffering (
" Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen"
). He is the guardian of these holy relics yet has succumbed to temptation and lost the Spear: he declares himself unworthy of his office. He cries out for forgiveness (
“Erbarmen!”
) but hears only the promise of future
redemption by the pure fool. On hearing Amfortas' cry, the lad appears to suffer with him, clutching at his heart. The knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail, which he finally does. The dark Hall is now bathed in the light of the Grail as the Knights commune. Gurnemanz motions to the youth to participate, but he seems entranced and does not heed. Amfortas does not commune and, as the ceremony ends, collapses in pain and is carried away. Slowly the
Hall empties leaving only the young man and Gurnemanz, who asks him if he has understood what he has seen. When the lad cannot answer, he is sent out by a side door, warned by Gurnemanz to hunt geese, if he must, but to leave the swans alone. A voice from high above repeats the promise, “The pure fool, enlightened by compassion."
Act 2
Prelude ? Frenetic, descending musical figures tumble downward, coming to rest in lethargic and nebulous solitude.
Scene 1
The second act opens at Klingsor’s magic castle. He seems to conjure up a spirit to snare a foolish lad who has just discovered this magician's domain (
"Die Zeit ist da."
). He calls her by many names: First Sorceress, Hell's Rose,
Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she seduced Amfortas. Waking from a deep sleep, she resists Klingsor. As he claims power over her, she mocks his enforced
chastity, which casts him into self-reproach. Then she herself succumbs to an ancient curse. Klingsor now calls out to the enthralled knights in his domain to attack this lad, but can only watch as the newcomer wounds them and beats them back in a rout. Klingsor sees this young man stray into his Flower-maiden garden and calls to Kundry to seek the boy out –- but she has already gone.
Scene 2
The triumphant youth finds himself in a wonderous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flower-maidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while also chiding him for wounding their lovers... and for resisting their charms (
"Komm, komm, holder Knabe!"
). They soon fight and bicker amongst themselves to win his singular devotion, to the point that he is about flee, but a voice calls out, "
Parsifal!
" He now recalls this name is what his mother used when appearing in his dreams. The Flower-maidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave Parsifal and Kundry alone. He wonders if they were only a dream and asks how it is she knows his name. Kundry tells him she learned it from his mother (
"Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust."
), who had loved him and tried to shield him from his father’s fate; the mother he had abandoned and who had finally died of grief. She reveals many parts of Parsifal's history to him and he is stricken with remorse, blaming himself for his mother’s death. He thinks himself very stupid to have forgotten her. Kundry says this realization is a first sign of understanding and that, with a kiss, she can help him understand his mother’s love. A lengthy kiss follows as music evokes the Fool's recollection of previous experiences. Parsifal suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas' name: he feels the wounded king's pain burning in his own side, and now understands Amfortas’ passion during the Grail Ceremony (
"Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!"
) Filled with this compassion, Parsifal rejects Kundry.
Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he can feel compassion for her as well. She has been
cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw the
Savior on the cross and
laughed. Now she can never weep, only laugh, and while she seems to be enslaved to the Spear-carrier, the curse drives her life of seduction. He rejects her yet again but then asks her to lead him to Amfortas. She begs him to stay with her for just one hour, and then she will lead him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally she calls on Klingsor to help her.
Klingsor appears and throws the Spear at Parsifal but it stops in midair, above his head. Parsifal takes it and makes the sign of the
Cross. The castle crumbles and as he leaves the scene, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him again.
Act 3
Scene 1
The Third act opens as it did in the First, in the domain of the Grail, but many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent. He hears moaning near his hermit's hut and discovers Kundry unconscious in the brush, as he had many years before ("
Sie! Wieder da!
"). He revives her using water from the Holy
Spring, but she will only speak the word “serve” (“Dienen”). Gurnemanz wonders if there is any significance to her reappearance on this special day. Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and girt in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who it is. Gurnemanz queries him, but gets no response. Finally, the apparition removes its helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan, and then joyfully recognizes that the Holy Spear is now returned.
Parsifal tells of his desire to return to Amfortas (
"Zu ihm, des tiefe Klagen."
) He relates his long journey hence, wandering for years, unable to find a path back to the Grail: he had often been forced to fight, but never wielded the Spear in battle. Gurnemanz tells him that the curse preventing Parsifal from finding his right path has now been lifted, but that in his absence Amfortas has never revealed the Grail, and that Titurel has died. Parsifal is overcome with remorse, blaming himself for this state of affairs. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel’s funeral rites, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal’s feet and Gurnemanz
anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion, and as the new King of the Knights of the Grail.
Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of the meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is
Good Friday, when all the world is renewed. Parsifal now baptizes the weeping Kundry. Tolling bells are heard afar off; Gurnemanz says
Midday: the hour has come. My lord, permit your servant to guide you!
and all three set off for the castle of the Grail. A dark orchestral interlude (
Mittag
) leads into the solemn gathering of the knights in Scene Two.
Scene 2
Within the castle of the Grail, Amfortas is brought before the Grail shrine itself, and Titurel’s coffin. He cries out to his dead father to offer him rest from his sufferings, and wishes to join him in death (
"Mein vater! Hochgesegneter der Helden!"
) The Knights of Grail passionately urge Amfortas to uncover the Grail to them again but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail, commanding the Knights, instead, to slay him thus ending his suffering and the shame he has brought on the Knighthood. At this moment, Parsifal steps forth and says that only one weapon can heal the wound (
"Nur eine Waffe taugt"
): with the Spear he touches Amfortas’ side, and both heals and absolves him. He commands the revealing of the Grail. As all present kneel, Kundry, released from her
curse, sinks lifeless to the ground as a
white dove descends to hover over the head of Parsifal.
Criticism and influence
As Wagner's last opera,
Parsifal
has been both influential and controversial. The use of Christian symbols in Parsifal (the Grail, the Spear, references to the Redeemer) have sometimes led to it being regarded almost as a religious rite. It should be noted, however, that Wagner never actually refers to
Jesus Christ by name in the opera, preferring instead to refer to
"The Redeemer"
. In his essay
"Religion and Art"
Wagner himself described the use of Christian imagery thus:
"ref">[27]
Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche, who was originally one of Wagner's champions, chose to use
Parsifal
as the grounds for his breach with Wagner. In
"Nietzsche contra Wagner"
he wrote:
"ref">[28]
Despite this attack on the subject matter, he also admitted that the music was sublime: "Has Wagner ever written anything better?" (Letter to
Peter Gast, 1887).
Claude Debussy, who was in later years very critical of Wagner and his influence, called it "one of the loveliest monuments of sound ever raised to the serene glory of music".
Gustav Mahler, who attended the premiere, stated afterwards: "When I came out of the Festspielhaus, unable to speak a word, I knew that I had experienced supreme greatness and supreme suffering, and that this experience, hallowed and unsullied, would stay with me for the rest of my life". Parsifal was a major source of inspiration for
T. S. Eliot's poem "
The Waste Land", and also
adapted for the screen (in a highly controversial fashion) by director
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.
Antisemitism debate
Some writers see in the opera the promotion of
racism or
anti-semitism [29] suggesting that
Parsifal
was written in support of the ideas of
Arthur de Gobineau who advocated
Aryanism. Parsifal is proposed as the "pure-blooded" (
ie
Aryan) hero who overcomes
Klingsor, who is perceived as a Jewish stereotype, particularly since he opposes the quasi-Christian Knights of the Grail. Such claims remain heavily debated,
[30] [31] [32] since there is nothing explicit in the libretto to support them, and Cosima Wagner's diaries, which relate in great detail Wagner's thoughts over the last 14 years of his life (including the period covering the composition and first performance of
Parsifal
) never mention any such intention. Wagner first met Gobineau very briefly in 1876, but he only read Gobineau's
An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races
[33] in 1880. However, Wagner had completed the libretto for
Parsifal
by 1877, and the original drafts of the story date back to 1857. Despite this lack of chronology, Gobineau is frequently cited as a major inspiration for
Parsifal
.
[34]
Despite the belief that the opera promoted a message of racial purity, the Nazis placed a
de facto
ban on performances of
Parsifal
because of its "pacifist undertones".
[35]
Schopenhaurian philosophy
Other writers (particularly
Bryan Magee)
[36] see Parsifal as Wagner's last great espousal of Schopenhaurian philosophy. Parsifal can heal Amfortas and redeem Kundry because he shows
compassion, which
Schopenhauer saw as the highest form of human morality. Moreover, he displays compassion in the face of enormous sexual temptation (Act 2 scene 3). Once again, Schopenhaurian philosophy suggests that the only escape from the ever-present temptations of human life is through negation of the
Will, and overcoming sexual temptation is in particular a strong form of negation of the Will. When viewed in this light, Parsifal, with its emphasis on "Mitleid" (compassion) is a natural follow-on to
Tristan und Isolde
, where Schopenhauer's influence is perhaps more obvious, with its focus on "Sehnen" (yearning). Indeed, Wagner originally considered including Parsifal as a character in Act 3 of
Tristan
, but later rejected the idea.
[37]
Many
music theorists have used
Parsifal
to explore difficulties in
analyzing the
chromaticism of late 19th century music. Theorists such as
David Lewin and
Richard Cohn have explored the importance of certain pitches and harmonic progressions both in structuring and symbolizing the work.
[38] [39] The unusual harmonic progressions in the
leitmotifs which structure the piece, as well as the heavy chromaticism of Act II, make it a difficult work to parse not only philosophically, but musically.
Listening to Parsifal
This section serves as an introduction to appreciating the music of
Parsifal
.
Leitmotifs
A
leitmotif is a recurring musical theme associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. Wagner is the composer most often associated with leitmotifs, and
Parsifal
makes liberal use of them. The opening prelude introduces two important leitmotifs, the Communion theme and the Grail. These two, and Parsifal's own motif, are repeatedly referenced during the course of the opera. Other characters, especially Klingsor, Amfortas, and "The Voice," which sings the Tormotif (Fool's motive), have their own particular leitmotifs. Wagner uses the
Dresden amen to represent the Grail, this motif being a sequence of notes he would have known since his childhood in
Dresden.
A list of leitmotiven, in musical notation and midi format, can be found at .
Notable arias and orchestral excerpts
As is common in mature Wagner operas, Parsifal was composed with each act being a continuous block of music (
"durchkomponiert"
), hence there are no free-standing
arias in the work. However a number of orchestral excerpts from the opera were arranged by Wagner himself and remain in the concert repertory. The Prelude to Act 1 is frequently performed either alone or in conjunction with an arrangement of the "Good Friday" music which accompanies the second half of Act 3 scene 1. Kundry's long solo in Act 2 (
"Ich sah das Kind"
) is occasionally performed in concert, as is Amfortas' lament from Act 1 (
"Wehvolles Erbe"
).
Media
Wiener Staatsoper, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Donald Runnicles, Vienna, 11 April 2004
Max Von Schillings / State Opera Orchestra, Berlin
Recordings
See Parsifal discography
References
- following Josef Görres (1813). See Richard Wagner, ''Das braune Buch. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1865 bis 1882'' ed. Joachim Bergfeld, Zürich, Freiburg i.Br. 1975, p. 52; Danielle Buschinger, Renate Ullrich, ''Das Mittelalter Richard Wagners'', Königshausen & Neumann, 2007, ISBN 9783826030789, p. 140.
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983) "Richard Wagner: his life, his work, his Century." William Collins, ISBN 0-00-216669-0 p141
- On the Will in Nature, "Sinology," Footnote listing books on Buddhism[1]
- Hollinrake, Roger (1992) in "The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music". Ed. Millington. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London. ISBN 0-02-871359-1 page 147
- "Die Sieger" at Derrick Everett's Parsifal site "Monsalvat"
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983) ''ibid'' p270
- Wagner, Richard "Mein Leben" vol II at Project Gutenberg
- Wagner, Cosima (1980) "Cosima Wagner's Diaries" tr. Skelton, Geoffrey. Collins. ISBN 0-00-216189-3
- Millington, Barry (Ed.) (1992). The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London. ISBN 0-02-871359-1 pages 135-136.
- Beckett, Lucy (1981) "Richard Wagner: Parsifal", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29662-5, page 13.
- Beckett, Lucy (1981) ''ibid'' page 22.
- Millington, Barry (Ed.) (1992)''ibid'' pages 247-148.
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983)''ibid'' pages 477-479
- Millington, Barry (Ed.) (1992)''ibid'' page 307.
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983)''ibid'' page 485.
- Beckett, Lucy (1981)''ibid'' pages 90 - 91.
- Carnegy, Patrick (2006) "Wagner and the Art of the Theatre". Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-10695-5. Pages 107 - 118.
- Spencer, Stewart (2000) ''Wagner Remembered''. Faber and Faber, London. ISBN 0-571-19653-5. Page 270.
- Spencer, Stewart (2000) ''ibid'' Pages 268 - 270.
- Beckett, Lucy (1981)''ibid'' pages 93 - 95.
- Beckett, Lucy (1981)''ibid'' page 94.
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983)''ibid'' p506
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983)''ibid'' p506
- Spotts, Frederic (1994). ''"Bayreuth: A History of the Wagner Festival."'' New Haven and London: Yale University Press ISBN :0-300-05777-6. page 212.
- Carnegy, Patrick (2006) ''ibid'' pages 288-290.
- Parsifal 1951
- Wagner, Richard (1880) ''"Religion and Art."'' English translation
- Nietzsche, Friedrich (1888) ''"Nietzsche contra Wagner."'' English translation
- Gutman, Robert (1968, revised 1990). "Richard Wagner : The Man, His Mind and His Music". Harcourt Brace Jovanovich ISBN 0-14-021168-3 pbk (1971), 015677615 4 pbk (1990)
- Borchmeyer, Dieter (2003). "Drama and the World of Richard Wagner", Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11497-8
- Gregor-Dellin, Martin (1983)''Ibid'' p 477 ff.
- Parsifal and racism considered at Derrick Everett's Parsifal site "Monsalvat"
- Gutman (1990), ''ibid'', page 406
- Adorno, Theodor (2005). "In Search of Wagner". Verso ISBN 1-84-467500-9 pbk
- The Ban on Parsifal at Derrick Everett's Parsifal site "Monsalvat"
- Magee, Bryan (2002). The Tristan Chord. Owl Books, NY. ISBN 0-8050-7189-X. (UK Title: Wagner and Philosophy, Publisher Penguin Books Ltd, ISBN 0-14-029519-4)
- ''Dokumente zur Entstehung und ersten Auffuhrung des Buhnenweihfestspiels Parsifal'' by Richard Wagner, Martin Geck, Egon Voss. Reviewed by Richard Evidon in Notes, 2nd Ser., Vol. 28, No. 4 (Jun., 1972), pp. 685-687.
- David Lewin, "Amfortas' Prayer to Titurel and the Role of D in ''Parsifal'': The Tonal Spaces of the Drama and the Enharmonic Cb/B," in ''Studies in Music with Text'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 183-200.
- Richard Cohn, "Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Triadic Progressions," ''Music Analysis'' 15:1 (1996), 9-40.