"He [Wagner] has been much criticized for this strongly personal statement of a religious subject, which mingles the concepts of sacred and profane love; but in the light of modern knowledge, his insight into the relationship between religious and sexual experience can only seem much in advance of his time." — Encylopaedia Britannica Completed in 1882, Parsifal is Wagner's last opera and one of his finest, renowned for its splendid music and glowing orchestration. With its deeply personal treatment of the legend of the Holy Grail, and the subtle intensity and depth of compassion of its treatment of themes of innocence and purity, remorse and sexual renunciation, the opera ranks as one of Wagner's most symbolic, intense, and compassionate works. This Dover edition reproduces every note of this glorious masterpiece from the authoritative C. F. Peters edition, including the list of characters and contents in both German and English. It will be welcomed by musicians, music lovers, opera buffs, and admirers of Wagner as the only complete, inexpensive edition of a 19th-century landmark.
Germanic legends often based romantic operas of especially known composer Richard Wagner, who worked Tannhäuser (1845) and the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen (1853-1876).
From 1872, Richard Wagner lived at Bayreuth to 1883 and designed the opera house, used chiefly for performances of his works.
Wilhelm Richard Wagner conducted, directed theater, and authored essays, primarily for his later called "music dramas." Unlike most other greats, Wagner wrote the scenario and libretto.
I’m fortunate enough to be seeing Parsifal this summer (Covid permitting) in all its glory and have read these ENO guides before to help me understand a little more. I am no music scholar, and this guide, more than the others I have read, is heavy on the music theory...probably as it should be for such an epic work.
I enjoyed it, I have more in my armour to approach a near 6 hour performance, but I would admit that this particular guide is not for the layman...so read someone else’s review if it’s the theory you’re after!!
About a year ago, I started to read Eschenbach’s Parsifal, and put it aside because old English is hard to read and there was just a lot of random shit going on. In Wagner’s rendition of Parsifal, there’s still a lot of random shit going on, but it’s more easily understood. So basically, Parsifal is this Jesus figure, Klingsor tried to kill him with the Spear of Destiny (which apparently has healing abilities) but couldn’t, Kundry was resurrected just to be baptized (misogynistic that her sin seemed to be her being a woman) and then died again, there was a jump forward in time from the second to the third act, and I was confused as to whether or not Parsifal was also the boy in the beginning who was shamed for hunting for geese.
Heute die die Parsifal-Premiere (Inszenierung mit Baselitz-Bühnenbild) an der Bayerischen Staatsoper gesehen. Mein wievielter Parsifal mag es sein? Ich kann's nicht sagen. Egal wie trashig oder unsensibel die Bühnenbilder auch ausfallen mögen, sie können der Musik, dem Libretto, dem ganzen Werk nichts von dieser absoluten Urkraft nehmen. "zum Raum wird hier die Zeit"...
As an opera it is a 10 out of 5 but the music makes it much stronger than the libretto. The libretto makes me want to see a more realistic and Wagnerian staging of the piece. The MET HD version is much darker and very distopian compared to what is in the Libretto.
Reading the libretto alongside metopera.org's free pandemic stream: "Tonight’s free Nightly Met Opera Stream: Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal received a new production by visionary director François Girard during the 2012–13 season. Tenor Jonas Kaufmann takes on the heroic title role, alongside soprano Katarina Dalayman as Kundry, baritone Peter Mattei as Amfortas, bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin as Klingsor, and bass René Pape as Gurnemanz. The full performance, conducted by Daniele Gatti, is available tonight, October 11, beginning at 7:30PM ET until tomorrow, October 12, at 6:30PM ET."