Tatjana Gürbaca sees in this production an end game between two worlds in crisis. This performance is no longer viewable as video-on-demand for rights reasons but other material about the production is still available.
With an unmatched postwar cast of George London as Amfortas, Martti Talvela as Titurel, Hans Hotter as Gurnemanz, Gustav Neidlinger as Klingsor, and Jess Thomas in the title role, plus the unfailingly idiomatic Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and stereo sound so real you can smell in the incense, Knapperstbusch's Parsifal was then, is now, and forever shall be the one true Parsifal. ", Part 3.: "Geleiten wir im bergenden Schrein", Part 3.: "Ja, Wehe! As Wagner was aware, its legendary background is pagan – the ‘Graal’ only evolved in late medieval times into Christ’s chalice at the Last Supper, later used to catch his blood.
The story of Wagner's opera, Parsifal, is set in the Montserrat mountains of northern Spain. Wagner called Parsifal not a Bühnenfestspiel like the Ring, but a Bühnenweihfestspiel – not a stage festival play, but a stage consecration festival play. It was also his only work written expressly for the Bayreuth theatre, which after a lengthy but fruitless fundraising effort (an approach to Chancellor Bismarck drew a blank) was eventually completed in 1875 on the back of a substantial donation from Ludwig II. Save when you subscribe today and get your magazine + CD delivered direct to your door from the UK! Wagner's Parsifal - A New English Translation & Commentary The Translation. But while Parsifal's subversions may be blasphemous for atheist German philosophers and dogmatic Christians, for devout Wagnerians, Parsifal is heaven on earth. For many reasons, Parsifal remains controversial, but is also, at its best, the most grippingly transcendent experience Wagner created.
Amfortas can only be healed by the contact with this Spear. ", Part 1.: 'Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen", Part 1.: "Wein und Brot des letzten Mahles", Part 2.: "Dies alles - hab' ich nun geträumt? Gurnemanz understands he is the 'innocent with a pure heart' and crown him king of Grail and baptizes Kundry. 1° The themes dear to Wagner gathered in his last opera. He accepts but it has been said that only 'an innocent with a pure heart' would be able to get the Lance back and cure him.
Register (Tristan) - photo: Van Rompay-Segers, Koor Opera Vlaanderen/Kinderkoor Opera Vlaanderen. Did Wagner’s difficulties in casting the Ring make him more considerate to singers? Part 1.: "Seht dort, die wilde Reiterin! But also faith, human relations, female psychology with the central character of Kundry, and above all, redemption. Why was Erik Satie sentenced to eight days in jail? But Kundry is rejected by him, so she decides to call Klingsor who cast the Holy Spear.
It’s Parsifal, a young wandering knight, who seems to know nothing about his origins. Among them, Hans Knappertsbusch was the last of the great pre-war Wagner conductors, and his postwar Bayreuth performances of the canonical operas have always been regarded as among the finest of their era. ", Part 1.: "Nun sag'! She brings a balsam from Arabia to cure the king. At the Castle of Klingsor, the latter asks Kundry to entice Parsifal to make him sin, so that he can retrieve the Holy Grail.