Parsifal

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.[19] The premiere of the entire work was given in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 26 July 1882 under the baton of the Jewish-German 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.[20] 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).[21] 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.[22]

At the first performances of Parsifal, problems with the moving scenery (the Wandeldekoration[23][24]) during the transition from Scene 1 to Scene 2 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.[25] In subsequent years this problem was solved and Humperdinck's additions were not used.

Scene design for the controversial 1903 production at the Metropolitan Opera: Gurnemanz leads Parsifal to Monsalvat (Act 1)

For the first twenty years of its existence, the only staged performances of Parsifal took place in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the venue for which Wagner conceived the work (except eight private performances for Ludwig II at Munich in 1884 and 1885). Wagner had two reasons for wanting to keep Parsifal exclusively for the Bayreuth stage. First, 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. Second, 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 (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 United States could not be prevented by Bayreuth, the New York Metropolitan Opera staged the complete opera, using many Bayreuth-trained singers. Cosima barred anyone involved in the New York production from working at Bayreuth in future performances. Unauthorized stage performances were also undertaken in Amsterdam in 1905, 1906 and 1908. There was a performance in Buenos Aires, in the Teatro Coliseo, on June 20, 1913, under Gino Marinuzzi.

Bayreuth lifted its monopoly on Parsifal on 1 January 1914 in the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Bologna with Giuseppe Borgatti. Some opera houses began their performances at midnight between 31 December 1913 and 1 January.[26] The first authorized performance was staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona: it began at 10:30pm Barcelona time, which was an hour behind Bayreuth. Such was the demand for Parsifal that it was presented in more than 50 European opera houses between 1 January and 1 August 1914.[27]

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?"[28] At subsequent 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, but this was certainly not Wagner's idea. In fact, during the first Bayreuth performances, Wagner himself cried "Bravo!" as the Flowermaidens made their exit in the second act, only to be hissed by other members of the audience.[28] At some theatres other than Bayreuth, applause and curtain calls are normal practice after every act. Program notes until 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York asked the audience not to applaud after Act 1.[29]

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 Flowermaiden'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, Richard 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".[30] 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.[31] Knappertsbusch was particularly upset by the omission of the dove that 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 long enough for the conductor to see the dove, but not for the audience.[32] Wieland continued to modify and refine his Bayreuth production of Parsifal until his death in 1966. Martha Mödl created a "complex, tortured Kundry in Wieland Wagner's revolutionary production of Parsifal during the festival's first postwar season", and would remain the company's exclusive Kundry for the remainder of the decade.[33][34]

Prelude to Act 1

Musical introduction to the work with a duration of c. 12–16 minutes.

According to Wagner's own description, the three main sections of the prelude to Act 1 are meant to musically portray the three traditional Christian "Theological virtues" Love, Faith and Hope.[37][38]

Gurnemanz and the squires, Act 1, Scene 1, in the 1903 performance of the work in New York

In a forest near the seat of the Grail and its Knights, Gurnemanz, an elder Knight of the Grail, wakes his young squires and leads them in morning prayer ("He! Ho! Waldhüter ihr"). He then sees the King of the Grail Knights Amfortas and his entourage approaching. Amfortas has been stabbed by the Holy Spear, once bequeathed to him into his guardianship, and the wound will not heal. Gurnemanz asks the lead knight for news of the King's health. The knight says the King has suffered during the night and is going early to bathe in the holy lake, which slightly relieves him of his pains. 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.

Amfortas arrives, borne on a stretcher by his servants. He calls out for the knight Gawain, whose attempt at relieving the King's pain had failed. He is told that Gawain has left again, seeking a better remedy. Raising himself somewhat, the King says that going off without leave ("Ohn' Urlaub?") is the sort of impulsiveness which led him into Klingsor's realm and to the downfall of the Knights. He accepts the potion from Gurnemanz and tries to thank Kundry, but she answers abruptly 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 defends Kundry and tells the squires that Kundry is a mysterious ancient being, of whom no one knows much. She has often voluntarily helped the Grail Knights as a servant and a messenger, informing other brothers of the Order fighting holy battles in far-away lands, but she comes and goes unpredictably. When even Gurnemanz asks Kundry where she has been when the Knighthood lost the Holy Spear and why she does not stay to help now, she answers that she never helps. The squires think Kundry is in fact an evil pagan witch and sneer that if she does so much, why will she not find the Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz reveals that this deed is destined for someone else. He says Amfortas was given guardianship of the Spear, but lost it as he was seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor's domain. Klingsor grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas. The wound causes Amfortas bodily suffering as well as spiritual torment, and 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. Gurnemanz solemnly narrates about 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 once, in a time of great need for the realms of the faithful, come to the castle of Monsalvat, brought by Saviour's angels from heaven to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of the pious hero King Titurel, father of Amfortas ("Titurel, der fromme Held"). Klingsor had originally yearned to join the Knights and become a saint but, unable to overcome his evil inner desires and disposition, resorted to outward self-mutilation, for which offense Titurel refused to allow him to enter the Order. Klingsor then set himself up in opposition to the Knights, trying to get hold of the Grail by other means. Learning dark arts, he claimed a valley domain to the south of the mountainous Kingdom of the Grail and filled it with magical and beautiful Flowermaidens to seduce and enchant wayward Grail Knights who in this way fall under Klingsor's power and become his slaves and servants. Faced with the danger of Klingsor's might, Amfortas decided to save the evermore weakened Knighthood by conquering Klingsor by force, wielding the Holy Spear as a weapon in battle. However, enthralled by one of Klingsor's seductresses, Amfortas let the Spear be taken from him and being wounded therewith only narrowly escaped from the field of battle thanks to the help of Gurnemanz. The Spear is now kept by Klingsor at his magic Castle as he schemes to destroy the Knighthood completely by winning the Grail also, acquiring with it absolute power. Unable to defeat the enemy, Amfortas has forbidden the Knights to leave the Grail's domain in fear that even more of them will succumb to the dark sorcerer. Thus the whole Order ails just as their King does; the Knights no longer have the power to do good works, to travel and defend others in foreign lands. Nonetheless, Amfortas later received a holy vision in a desperate prayer, telling him to wait for a "pure fool, made knowing by compassion" ("Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor") who will finally heal the wound.

At 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. Shocked, Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad, saying that this land is a holy place, not to be defiled by murder. He asks him outright if he shot the swan, and the lad proudly admits to killing it, boasting that if something flies, he can hit it ("Gewiss! Im Fluge treff' ich, was fliegt!"). Gurnemanz tells him that in the Kingdom of the Grail animals are holy and asks what harm had the swan done to him to merit such evil, showing the youth its lifeless body and glazed eyes. Now remorseful and moved, the young man breaks his bow in agitation and casts it aside. Gurnemanz asks him why he is here, who his father is, how he found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies that he doesn't know the answer. The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the King and now asks the boy to tell what he does know. The young man says he has a mother, Herzeleide (literally meaning Heart's Sorrow) and that he made the bow himself. Kundry has been listening and now tells them that the boy's father was Gamuret, a knight killed in battle, and also that the lad's mother had anxiously looked after her son and had forbidden him to use a sword, fearing that otherwise he would meet the same fate as his father. The youth now recalls that upon seeing knights in shining armour pass through his native forest on beautiful horses he wanted to be like them and left his home and mother to follow their way. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that, as she rode by, she saw Herzeleide die of grief for her lost son. Hearing this, the lad at first lunges at Kundry, being stopped only by Gurnemanz who again reproaches him for resorting to violence, but then collapses in anguish for his deceased mother. Kundry perceives the boy's condition, hastens to a spring in the woods and brings water in a horn, sprinkling him with it and then giving it to him to drink. Gurnemanz comments that in such a way one acts according to the mercy of the Grail: he vanquishes evil who requites it with goodness. However, Kundry is now weary for sleep, and wishes that she might never waken again. She disappears into the undergrowth.

Gurnemanz knows that the Grail is inapproachable by earthly paths, drawing to itself only the pure of heart, and invites the boy to observe the Grail rite in the hope that perhaps he might be the pure fool of the prophecy revealed to Amfortas ("Vom Bade kehrt der König heim"). The youth does not know what the Grail is, but remarks that as they approach the ascending mountain path leading through rocky walls to the Castle of the Grail it seems to him he scarcely moves, yet feels as if he had already traveled far. Gurnemanz answers him mysteriously that here time becomes space ("Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit").

Orchestral interlude – Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation music)

Paul von Joukowsky: Design for the Hall of the Grail (second scenes of acts 1 and 3), 1882

Gurnemanz and the youth arrive at the Sanctuary of the Grail inside the Castle, where its Knights are just assembling to receive Holy Communion ("Zum letzten Liebesmahle"). A choir of Knights sings that the Grail will renew and stregthen those who rejoice in good deed; a choir of squires sings about the Redeemer's sacrifice and suffering for the fallen world and his continuing presence in the body of his believers. One procession of squires brings the Holy Grail itself in a reliquary to the centre of the hall while a different procession brings Amfortas on his litter to perform the ritual. The voice of the retired king Titurel then resounds from a vaulted nook in the background, as if from a tomb, telling his son Amfortas to uncover the Grail and serve his kingly office ("Mein Sohn Amfortas, bist du am Amt?"). Only through the immortality conferring power of the sacred chalice and the Saviour's blood contained therein may Titurel himself, now aged and very feeble, live on. Upon hearing his father's pleas to reveal the Grail, Amfortas is overcome with shame and suffering ("Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen"). He, the chosen guardian of the holiest of relics, has succumbed to sin and lost the Holy Spear, suffering an ever-bleeding wound in the process, a wound inflicted by that very selfsame Spear whose protection had been bestowed upon him, a wound condemning his existence to unending torment. Declaring himself unworthy of his kingship, Amfortas cries out for forgiveness ("Erbarmen! Erbarmen!"), begging the Saviour to end his anguish and give him the only grace capable of putting an end to his misery, the peace of death, unattainable to him as he must as a King serve the Grail whose life-giving force keeps him alive and suffering. Amfortas' prayers remain unanswered. Again, he only hears the same promise once given to him repeated by the Knights and squires: he will one day be redeemed by a pure fool.

On hearing Amfortas' cry of pain, the young man appears to suffer with him, clutching convulsively at his heart. The Knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail ("Enthüllet den Gral!"), and he finally does. The dark hall is illuminated by its radiant light and the round table of the Knights is miraculously filled with wine and bread. A choir sings that the Lord of the Grail had once turned wine and bread into his own blood and body through the might of compassionate love, while a spirit of loving consolation now turns this blood and body into wine and bread for the refreshment and nourishment of the faithful. The Knights eat and feel strenghtened by the sacred food. Upon consuming the holy gift, they embrace one another in brotherly love and pledge to work the Saviour's will and shed their blood for him and others just as he had shed his blood for the world ("Wein und Brot des letzten Mahles"). Gurnemanz motions to the youth to participate, but he seems entranced and does not. Amfortas also does not share in taking communion and, as the ceremony ends, again collapses in agony and is carried away. Slowly all the Knights and squires disappear, leaving the youth and Gurnemanz alone. Gurnemanz asks him if he has understood what he has seen. As the boy is unable to answer the question, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just a fool after all and angrily exiles him from the realm with a warning to leave the swans in the Grail Kingdom alone. A voice from the top of the dome repeats the promise: "The pure fool, made knowing by compassion".

Prelude to Act 2 - Klingsors Zauberschloss (Klingsor's Magic Castle)

Musical introduction of c. 2–3 minutes.

Parsifal and Kundry, two paintings by Rogelio de Egusquiza, 1910 and 1906

Klingsor's castle and enchanted garden. Waking her from her sleep, Klingsor conjures up Kundry, now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress (Urteufelin), Hell's Rose (Höllenrose), Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is weary, exhausted and desperate and wishes to never have been wakened. Yet Klingsor mockingly reminds her that through the curse whick lays upon her being she is in his power and thus cannot resist his orders. Knowing the promise about a pure fool once revealed to Amfortas and recognizing the youth exiled from the Kingdom of the Grail as the potential prophesized saviour of the Knights, Klingsor informs Kundry that the time has come which poses the greatest threat to his might, as the boy has already unknowingly strayed into his dark realm and unlike others who had done the same is protected by the naive innocence of his pure foolishness. Seeing the young man slowly approaching his castle from afar, Klingsor commands Kundry to seduce the youth, just as she had once seduced Amfortas. Kundry regrets her lot and the falling for her charms of all those who hadn't been strong enough to withstand the test of their purity and desires the ovlivion of death as her release. She repeatedly served the Knights of the Grail in the faith of liberating herself in this way from her curse just to find herself again under Klingsor's yoke, condemned to serve only him and his aims. Even now, Kundry attempts to refuse Klingsor's orders, but, without the prospect of succeeding, is ultimately persuaded by him to comply when he tells her to remember that her hope of deliverance is in the one who shall free her by defying her. Confident that Kundry's beauty alone will suffice to defeat the young boy and knowing that all his previous enemies have yielded to her temptation, the magician encourages Kundry to try her luck with the next one. At this moment the young boy appears at the gates. Klingsor summons his enchanted knights, the defenders of his castle, to attack the youth. However, the boy overcomes one of Klingsor's subjects after another and the remaining ones eventually flee before him. Laughing at the performance of his soldiers, Klingsor wishes destruction on the whole knightly kin. Seeing the young man enter his Flowermaiden garden he calls again to Kundry to seek the youth out and seduce him, but when he turns he sees that Kundry has already left on her mission. Assured of his imminent victory, Klingsor boasts of having the Grail already within his reach; once the boy is deprived of his innocent purity, he too will become Klingsor's slave forever. In a gesture of triumph the sorcerer then disappears.

Scene from Parsifal from the Victrola book of the opera, 1917

The victorious youth walks into a wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flowermaidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers ("Komm, komm, holder Knabe!"). They soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to the point that he is about to flee, but a different voice suddenly calls out "Parsifal!". He finally recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams. The Flowermaidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone.

Parsifal wonders if the Garden is a dream and asks how it is that Kundry 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. As she kisses him 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's advances.

Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he should also be able to feel it for her. She has been cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw the Redeemer on the cross and laughed maliciously at His pains. As a result of this sin she has fallen under Klingsor's might and can't ever weep, only jeer diabolically. Parsifal rejects her 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 take him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her.

Klingsor appears on the castle rampart and hurls the Holy Spear at Parsifal to destroy him. Not attempting to defend himself, Parsifal sees the Spear being miraculously suspended in midair, above his head. He seizes the Spear in his hand and makes with it the sign of the Cross, banishing Klingsor's dark sorcery. The whole castle with Klingsor himself suddenly sinks as if by terrible earthquake and the enchanted garden withers. As Parsifal leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him.

Prelude to Act 3 - Parsifals Irrfahrt (Parsifal's Wandering)

Musical introduction of c. 4–6 minutes.

The scene is the same as that of the opening of the opera, in the domain of the Grail, but many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent, living alone as a hermit. It is Good Friday. He hears moaning near his hut and finds Kundry lying unconscious in the brush, similarly 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 higher significance to her reappearance on this special day. Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who he is. Gurnemanz admonishes him firmly for being armed on a hallowed ground of the Kingdom of the Grail and all the more so on a day when the Saviour himself, bereft of all arms, had offered his own blood as a sacrifice to redeem the fallen world, but gets no response. Finally, the apparition removes the helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan; to his amazement the Knight also bears the Holy Spear.

Amalie Materna as Kundry with Ernest van Dyck as Parsifal in Act 3, Scene 1, Bayreuth 1889

Parsifal tells of his desire to bring healing to Amfortas ("Zu ihm, des tiefe Klagen"). He relates his seemingly unending arduous wandering, how he strayed again and again, unable to find a way back to the Grail. He was forced to resist and fight countless enemies to guard the Spear, suffering all manner of harms in the process, but has never desecrated the relic by wielding it in battle, preserving the purity of its holiness. Gurnemanz tells Parsifal that the evil curse preventing him from finding the right path has now been lifted, since he finds himself in the Grail's domain. However, in his absence Amfortas has never unveiled the Grail, and lack of its sustaining powers has caused the death of Titurel. Parsifal is overcome with pity, blaming himself for this state of affairs, and almost faints with exhaustion. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel's funeral, 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 freed from guilt, and proclaims him the foretold 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 purified and renewed. Just as God himself on this day died for the love of humankind, so now men on this very same day, moved by thankfulness for his merciful sacrifice, treat nature with kindness and grace. The tears of sinners, now penitent and feeling saved through God's act of love, moisten fields like a sacred dew. Thanks to this spell of the holy Good Friday (Karfreitagszauber) all of creation, everything that soon withers and dies, rejoices and celebrates for this time a day of freedom from evil and sin, of innocence and peace, and gives its thanks in prayer. Parsifal wonders whether the maidens who had once enfolded him now too yearn for salvation. Kundry silently weeps with remorse. Parsifal gently kisses her on the forehead and baptizes her, telling Kundry to believe in the Redeemer. Tolling bells are heard in the distance. Gurnemanz announces that the hour has come and leads Parsifal and Kundry on their way to the Grail Castle ("Mittag: – Die Stund ist da"). A dark orchestral interlude leads into the solemn gathering of the Knights.

Orchestral interlude – Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation music) – Titurels Totenfeier (Titurel's Funeral March)

End of Act 3 in the original 1882 production (according to a painting by Theodor Pixis), original design by Paul von Joukowsky

Within the Castle of the Grail, Titurel's funeral is to take place. Mourning processions of Knights bring the deceased Titurel in a coffin and the Grail in its shrine, as well as Amfortas on his litter, to the Grail hall ("Geleiten wir im bergenden Schrein"). Expected to perform the ritual, Amfortas begs his deceased father, whose demise he acknowledges as his further guilt, to plead by the Redeemer to grant him the unique mercy of death, which alone would finally deliver him from all his pain. ("Mein Vater! Hochgesegneter der Helden!"). The Knights desperately urge Amfortas to keep his promise and at least once more, for the very last time uncover the Grail again, but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail, as doing so would just prolong his unbearable torment. Instead, he commands the Knights to kill him and end with his suffering also the shame he has brought on the brotherhood. At this moment, Parsifal appears and declares only one weapon can help here: only the same Spear that inflicted the wound can now close it ("Nur eine Waffe taugt"). He touches Amfortas' side with the Holy Spear and both heals the wound and absolves him from sin. The Spear, now reunited with the Holy Grail, starts to bleed with the same divine blood that is contained within the sacred chalice. Extolling the virtue of compassion and blessing Amfortas' suffering for making a pure fool knowing, Parsifal replaces Amfortas in his kingly office and orders to unveil the Grail, which is never to be hidden again. As the Grail glows ever brighter with light and a white dove descends from the top of the dome and hovers over Parsifal's head, all Knights praise the miracle of salvation ("Höchsten Heiles Wunder!") and proclaim the redemption of the Redeemer ("Erlösung dem Erlöser!"). Kundry, also at the very last released from her curse and redeemed, slowly sinks lifeless to the ground with her gaze resting on Parsifal, who raises the Grail in blessing over the worshipping Knighthood.

Wagner had been greatly impressed with his reading of Arthur Schopenhauer in 1854, and this deeply affected his thoughts and practice on music and art. Most writers (e.g. Bryan Magee) see Parsifal as Wagner's last great espousal of Schopenhauerian philosophy.[52] 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 sexual temptation (Act 3, scene 2). Schopenhauerian philosophy also 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.[53]

Friedrich Nietzsche, who was originally one of Wagner's champions, chose to use Parsifal as the grounds for his breach with Wagner;[54] an extended critique of Parsifal opens the third essay ("What Is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?") of On the Genealogy of Morality. In Nietzsche contra Wagner he wrote:[55]

Parsifal is a work of perfidy, of vindictiveness, of a secret attempt to poison the presuppositions of life – a bad work. The preaching of chastity remains an incitement to anti-nature: I despise everyone who does not experience Parsifal as an attempted assassination of basic ethics.

Despite this attack on the subject matter, he also admitted that the music was sublime: "Moreover, apart from all irrelevant questions (as to what the use of this music can or ought to be) and on purely aesthetic grounds; has Wagner ever done anything better?" (Letter to Peter Gast, 1887).[56]

Some writers see in the opera a promotion of racism or antisemitism.[57][58] One line of argument suggests that Parsifal was written in support of the ideas of the French diplomat and racial theorist Count Arthur de Gobineau, expressed most extensively in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races. Parsifal is proposed as the "pure-blooded" (i.e. 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.[17][59][60] Wagner never mentions such ideas in his many writings, 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.[52] Having met Gobineau for the first time very briefly in 1876, it was nonetheless only in 1880 that Wagner read Gobineau's essay.[61] However, the libretto for Parsifal had already been completed by 1877, and the original drafts of the story even date back to 1857. Besides the question of chronology, the eventuall meeting in person between Wagner and Gobineau was also accompanied by mutual disagreements and quarrels;[62][63][64] e.g. on 3 June 1881 Wagner is reported to have "exploded in favour of Christian theories in contrast to racial ones".[65][66] Despite this, Gobineau is sometimes cited as an inspiration for Parsifal.[67][68]

The related question of whether the opera contains a specifically antisemitic message is also debated.[69] Some of Wagner's contemporaries and commentators (e.g. Hans von Wolzogen and Ernest Newman) who analysed Parsifal at length, make no mention of any antisemitic interpretations.[70][71] However the critics Paul Lindau and Max Nordbeck, present at the world premiere, noted in their reviews how the work accorded with Wagner's anti-Jewish sentiments.[72] Similar interpretive conflict continues even today; some of the more recent commentators continue to highlight the perceived antisemitic or anti-Judaic nature of the opera,[73] and find correspondences with antisemitic passages found in Wagner's writings and articles of the period, while others deny such claims,[74][75] seeing for example the opposition between the realm of the Grail and Klingsor's domain as portraying a conflict between the sphere embodying the world-view of Wagner's Schopenhauerian Christianity and a pagan sphere more generally.[76]

German stamp showing Parsifal with the Grail, November 1933

The conductor of the premiere was Hermann Levi, the court conductor at the Munich Opera. Since King Ludwig was sponsoring the production, much of the orchestra was drawn from the ranks of the Munich Opera, including the conductor. Wagner objected to Parsifal being conducted by a Jew (Levi's father was in fact a rabbi). Wagner first suggested that Levi should convert to Christianity, which Levi declined to do.[77] Wagner then wrote to King Ludwig that he had decided to accept Levi despite the fact that (he alleged) he had received complaints that "of all pieces, this most Christian of works" should be conducted by a Jew. When the King expressed his satisfaction at this, replying that "human beings are basically all brothers", Wagner wrote to the King angrily: "If I have friendly and sympathetic dealings with many of these people, it is only because I consider the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure humanity and all that is noble about it (sic)".[78] Seventy-one years later, the Jewish bass-baritone George London performed in the role of Amfortas at Neu Bayreuth, causing some controversy.[79]

It has been claimed that Parsifal was denounced as being "ideologically unacceptable" in Nazi Germany[80] and that the Nazis placed a de facto ban on Parsifal[81][82] because of what many scholars see as the presence of themes such as compassion, Schopenhauerian negation of the will, renunciation of desires, asceticism and even non-violence and anti-militarism in the work's libretto.[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] Some of the Nazi officials and leaders may have had certain doubts about the work.[92][93]In his 1930 book The Myth of the Twentieth Century the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg expressed the view that "Parsifal represents a church-influenced enfeeblement in favour of the value of renunciation".[94][95] According to Joseph Goebbels' diaries Adolf Hitler too had apparently some reservations about Parsifal,[96] particularly about what he called its "Christian mystical style".[97][98] Despite this, there were in fact 26 performances at the Bayreuth Festival between 1934 and 1939[99] and 23 performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin between 1939 and 1942.[100] However, Parsifal was not performed at Bayreuth during World War II,[82] a significant omission in view of the fact that the work, with the exception of one year, had been an annual fixture of the Festival since 1882.[101][102]

A leitmotif is a recurring musical theme within a particular piece of music, associated with a particular character, object, event or emotion. Wagner is the composer most often associated with leitmotifs, and Parsifal makes liberal use of them.[103] Wagner did not specifically identify or name leitmotifs in the score of Parsifal (any more than he did in any other of his scores), although his wife Cosima mentions statements he made about some of them in her diary.[104] However, Wagner's followers (notably Hans von Wolzogen whose guide to Parsifal was published in 1882) named, wrote about and made references to these motifs, and they were highlighted in piano arrangements of the score.[105][106] Wagner's own reaction to such naming of motifs in the score was one of disgust: "In the end people believe that such nonsense happens by my suggestion."[107]

The opening prelude introduces two important leitmotifs, generally referred to as the Communion theme and the theme of the Grail. These two, and Parsifal's own motif, are repeated during the course of the opera. Other characters, especially Klingsor, Amfortas, and "The Voice", which sings the so-called 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.

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.[108][109] The unusual harmonic progressions in the leitmotifs which structure the piece, as well as the heavy chromaticism of Act 2, make it a difficult work to parse musically.

As is common in mature Wagner operas, Parsifal was composed such that each act was a continuous flow of music; 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").

The score for Parsifal calls for three flutes, three oboes, one English horn, three clarinets in B-flat and A, one bass clarinet in B-flat and A, three bassoons, one contrabassoon; four horns in F, three trumpets in F, three trombones, one tuba, 6 onstage trumpets in F, 6 onstage trombones; a percussion section that includes four timpani (requiring two players), tenor drums, 4 onstage church bells, one onstage thunder machine; two harps and strings. Parsifal is one of only two works by Wagner in which he used the contrabassoon. (The other is the Symphony in C.)

The bells that draw the knights to the Grail ceremony at Monsalvat in acts 1 and 3 have often proved problematic to stage. For the earlier performances of Parsifal in Bayreuth, Wagner had the Parsifal bell, a piano frame with four strings, constructed as a substitute for church bells. For the first performances, the bells were combined with tam-tam and gongs. However, the bell was used with the tuba, four tam-tams tuned to the pitch of the four chime notes and another tam-tam on which a roll is executed by using a drumstick. In modern-day performances, the Parsifal bell has been replaced with tubular bells or synthesizers to produce the desired notes. The thunder machine is used in the moment of the destruction of Klingsor's castle.

Parsifal was expressly composed for the stage at Bayreuth and many of the most famous recordings of the opera come from live performances on that stage. In the pre-LP era, Karl Muck conducted excerpts from the opera at Bayreuth. These are still considered some of the best performances of the opera on disc. They also contain the only sound evidence of the bells constructed for the work's premiere, which were melted down for scrap during World War II.

Hans Knappertsbusch was the conductor most closely associated with Parsifal at Bayreuth in the post-war years, and the performances under his baton in 1951 marked the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival after World War II. These historic performances were recorded and are available on the Teldec label in mono sound. Knappertsbusch recorded the opera again for Philips in 1962 in stereo, and this release is often considered to be the classic Parsifal recording.[110] There are also many "unofficial" live recordings from Bayreuth, capturing virtually every Parsifal cast ever conducted by Knappertsbusch. Pierre Boulez (1971) and James Levine (1985) have also made recordings of the opera at Bayreuth that were released on Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. The Boulez recording is one of the fastest on record, and the Levine one of the slowest.

Amongst other recordings, those conducted by Georg Solti, James Levine (with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Herbert von Karajan, and Daniel Barenboim (the latter two both conducting the Berlin Philharmonic) have been widely praised.[111] The Karajan recording was voted "Record of the Year" in the 1981 Gramophone Awards. Also highly regarded is a recording of Parsifal under the baton of Rafael Kubelík originally made for Deutsche Grammophon, now reissued on Arts & Archives.

On the 14 December 2013 broadcast of BBC Radio 3's CD Review – Building a Library, music critic David Nice surveyed recordings of Parsifal and recommended the recording by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik (conductor), as the best available choice.[112]

In addition to a number of staged performances available on DVD, Parsifal was adapted for the screen by Daniel Mangrané in 1951 and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in 1982. There is also a 1998 documentary directed by Tony Palmer titled: Parsifal – The Search for the Grail. It was recorded in various European theaters, including the Mariinsky Theatre, the Ravello Festival in Siena, and the Bayreuth Festival. It contains extracts from Palmer's stage production of Parsifal starring Plácido Domingo, Violeta Urmana, Matti Salminen, Nikolai Putilin, and Anna Netrebko. In also includes interviews with Domingo, Wolfgang Wagner, writers Robert Gutman and Karen Armstrong. The film exists in two versions: (1) a complete version running 116 minutes and officially approved by Domingo, and (2) an 88-minute version, with cuts of passages regarded by the German distributor as being too "political", "uncomfortable", and "irrelevant".[113]