Six Flowermaidens (3 Sopranos, 3 Contraltos or 6 sopranos)
Voice from Above (Contralto)
Knights of the Grail, boys, flowermaidens
Influences
Influences and Criticism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. Friedrich Nietzsche, who was originally one of Wagner's champions, clearly hated the idea of it as a pseudo-Christian ritual, although he 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.
Some writers see in the opera the promotion of racism and anti-semitism 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, 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 once any such intention.
Footnote: This is not entirely correct. In her diary, Cosima quotes Wagner as saying "Gobineau states that the Germanic race is nature's last card. Likewise, 'Parsifal' is the last card I have to play." (ASL)
Wagner first met Gobineau very briefly in 1876, but he only read Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races 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.
If Parsifal so clearly expressed the concept of Aryan supremacy then it would doubtless have been popular with the Nazi party in 20th Century Germany. In fact, the Nazis placed a de facto ban on performances of Parsifal because of its "pacifist undertones".
Other writers 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.
Many music theorists have used Parsifal to explore difficulties in analyzing the chromaticism of late 19th century music. The unusual harmonic progressions in the leitmotivs 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.
Stage Productions
Act 1: "Recht so - habt Dank" (Enough - my thanks)
Baden-Baden 2005. Thomas Hampson (Amfortas), Matti Salminen (Gurnemanz), Waltraud Meier (Kundry). Conductor: Kent Nagano
Gurnemanz, Knight of the Grail, rises from sleep and rouses his two young esquires in a forest near the castle of Monsalvat in the Spanish Pyrenees. Two other knights arrive to prepare a morning bath for the King, Amfortas, who has an apparently incurable wound. They are interrupted by the wild woman Kundry, who has brought balsam from Arabia to alleviate the King's suffering. The King, carried in on a litter, recalls the prophecy that told him to await a pure fool made wise by compassion.
"Enough - my thanks", see video
He accepts Kundry's gift and proceeds to the lake. Gurnemanz tells his companions how a beautiful woman betrayed Amfortas into the hands of the magician Klingsor, so that the sacred Spear was lost and with it the King wounded.
Suddenly there are cries from the lake and a swan falls to the ground, fatally injured by an arrow. The knights drag in a youth who, rebuked by Gurnemanz, breaks his bow but cannot give his name. Kundry is able to do so: the youth is Parsifal, son of Gamuret and Herzeleide. As Kundry crawls away to sleep in the undergrowth, the knights carry Amfortas back from the lake. Gurnemanz follows them with the boy, wondering what to make of him.
Transfiguration music, featured on this page
In the hall of the Grail Castle, Amfortas is surrounded by his knights who prepare for the Grail ritual. The voice of his father Titurel is heard from the crypt, bidding Amfortas uncover the Grail and perform the magic that sustains the aged hero. Amfortas at first refuses, as the ritual brings on his pain. At length he submits and allows the esquires to uncover the chalice, which produces food and drink to sustain the knights. Parsifal watches but seems to understand nothing; although at one point when Amfortas cries out in pain, he lays his hand on his heart. At the end of the ceremony, Gurnemanz angrily drives the boy away. As he is about to leave, the knight hears a mysterious voice repeat the words of the prophecy.
Act 2
Seated in his dark tower, Klingsor summons Kundry and instructs her to seduce Parsifal, whom he has seen approaching in his magic mirror. Kundry resists in vain, since the magician knows how to control her through the curse. She disappears and the scene changes to a magic garden, in which the Flower Maidens bloom. They attempt to seduce Parsifal, who plays with them, until the appearance of Kundry, transformed into a beautiful siren.
"You sought us?", featured on this page
She awakens his memories of childhood and of his mother. His resistance apparently broken, she offers him a passionate kiss.
To her amazement, the youth recoils in horror. At last he understands the nature both of Amfortas' suffering and his own mission. Kundry tries to win him through pity for her, accursed since she laughed at the suffering of Christ. In desperation she calls for help from Klingsor, who appears on the rampart and hurls the spear at Parsifal.
The spear stops in the air, suspended over Parsifal's head. He grasps it and makes the sign of the cross, at which Klingsor's tower crumbles and the garden withers. You will know where to find me again, he tells Kundry as he walks away.
Act 3
Gurnemanz, now an aged hermit, once again finds the sleeping Kundry, still and apparently lifeless, in the undergrowth near his hut. As he revives her, a strange knight, in full armour and carrying a spear, approaches. Gurnemanz reproaches him for bearing arms on this most holy of days, Good Friday. Then he recognises the sacred spear and the knight as the boy who had once killed a swan. Parsifal describes his long and weary wanderings in search of Monsalvat. The hermit reveals that the Community of the Grail has long been in decay, since Amfortas refuses to uncover the chalice, and Titurel has died. Parsifal laments that he had arrived too late to save him.
Gurnemanz and Kundry help him to remove his armour. Today shall Parsifal bring healing to the Grail King and take over his office and duties. Gurnemanz first baptizes Parsifal with holy water and then anoints him as King while Kundry washes his feet. In return, as his first duty (Mein erstes Amt), Parsifal baptises her and kisses her on her forehead. She weeps. Parsifal gazes upon the beauty of the spring meadows. The hermit tells him that this is the magic of Good Friday, when all creation gives thanks.
Good Friday Music, featured on this page
The tolling of distant bells summon them to the funeral rites of Titurel.
"Noon - permit your servant to guide you", see video
In the hall of the Grail Castle, all is gloom and despair. The knights, long deprived of the divine nourishment, are barely alive and approach Amfortas threateningly. Amfortas begs them end his suffering by taking his life. Parsifal, followed by Kundry and Gurnemanz, strides into the centre of the hall and touches Amfortas' wound with the sacred spear, declaring him healed and relieved of his duties. He returns the spear, which begins to bleed. Parsifal orders that the Grail shall be uncovered and raises it aloft as the knights, including Amfortas, kneel in homage. Kundry falls dead at his feet.
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My Dear Friend I am hubly moved in Humility that you put me to your Top Friends... you and me know that I am not Good like the mass thinks a good one has to be I am good in Unity with the one with no matter at all to seem popular or romantic like mass exploits this holy conscious being a romantic is only a romantic if he is living the virtues and the path of real mystic or real Yoga no one tells so I tell eternal being a devil for all egoworshippers and an angel for you and all which tend to stay real by pure heart I see you you see me what is better? We stay real in our way I am as you know a pillar of the chivalry of light on earth in unio mystica never to break but to hurt but don t care I see all as a chance and a meaning of life a big sense of life So I will tear down masks and tell what I see without judging but with my light in love light and wisdom more like a burning fire a purgatory to the liars it hurts too the one or other but the real stay with me and see the lover the real love the godly love burning to show the chance to see through the veil of Illusion means so much to the humans and nothing to me and you and the others who see
so thank you for accepting me the way I work uniquely not easy to overstand God bless you LOVE LIGHT WISDOM eternal Friends Frank von der blauen Blume LICHTPOP; LEAGUE OF REAL MYSTICS Switzerland, Zürich....universe
have q. i was in this sommer in bayreuth and i saw die meistersinger (by kath. wagner) and parsifal - new production by stefan herheim from norway [?]. what do you think about this new productions?
my opinion is, the two productions are not so professional and tawdry. the conductor and the singers are [normal=average] as performances in bayreuth.
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