Opera Essentials: Parsifal

Who composed Parsifal?  

Parsifal was written by the German composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and the premiere took place in 1882 at Bayreuth, Wagner’s purpose-built opera house. It was the first opera Wagner wrote especially for Bayreuth, and it was his final completed opera before his death in Venice in 1833.

What is the opera Parsifal about?  

Parsifal tells the story of a young, seemingly innocent man, who is adopted as the saviour of the knights of the Grail, and their ailing leader, Amfortas. In an attempt to corrupt Parsifal, the sorcerer Klingsor sends his flowermaidens and the witch-like Kundry to seduce him, but Parsifal resists them all. Years later, Parsifal returns to the kingdom, where he finds both Kundry and Amfortas still seeking redemption.

Who is Kundry?  

Kundry is the only principal female character in the opera. Many centuries ago, she laughed at Christ on the cross, and ever since then, she has been condemned to an endless cycle of rebirth and suffering. Tormented by guilt, she is both seducer and slave – bound to do the bidding of the wicked Klingsor, and infamous for her seduction of Amfortas – but through Parsifal, can she find a path to redemption?

What is Parsifal Based On? 

Parsifal is based on Parzifal, a 13th-century poem by the medieval German poet, knight and composer, Wolfram von Eschenbach. At 16,000 lines long, and divided into 16 books, it tells a truly epic tale which was most probably inspired by an even earlier French text, Perceval: ou, le conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes. The hero’s journey from naïve youth to enlightened guardian of the Grail is a classic fairy-tale trope.

What is the most famous music from Parsifal? 

Parsifal is best known for the sublime 15-minute orchestral Prelude or Vorspiel at the start of the opera, which conjures the mysterious and awe-inspiring world of the Grail. Act II features Kundry’s tender, impassioned aria, ‘Ich sah das Kind’ (‘I saw the child’) in which she recalls memories of Parsifal’s mother. Also popular is the radiant Act III Good Friday Music, (also known as the Good Friday Spell), another orchestral interlude depicting the beauty of the Grail kingdom.

Parsifal (tenor): A naïve youth, from outside the Grail community.

Kundry (mezzo-soprano): a guilt-ridden woman and witch, condemned to endless rebirth for laughing at Christ on the cross, and bound to serve Klingsor’s will.

Amfortas (baritone): The leader of the Grail knights, afflicted by a wound that will not heal, inflicted by the vengeful Klingsor.

Gurnemanz (bass): An elder and spiritual guide to the Grail community. He hopes Parsifal will be the promised saviour of the knights.

Klingsor (bass-baritone): A disgraced knight, who was rejected by the Grail community because of his insatiable lust. He castrated himself in a doomed bid to sate his desires, and then stole the sacred spear of Christ from the Grail knights, stabbing Amfortas with it.

Titurel (bass): The former leader of the Grail knights, and the father of Amfortas.

Act I

The realm of the Grail

Gurnemanz, a senior member of the all-male Grail community, orders junior members to prepare a bath for their suffering ruler Amfortas. Kundry hurtles into the Grail realm with balsam to soothe Amfortas’s pain. Amfortas suffers terribly, but he believes in the prophecy that he will be saved by a ‘pure fool made wise by compassion’. Gurnemanz tells the community how Amfortas came to be wounded and how he lost the sacred spear to his enemy Klingsor. Klingsor longed to be accepted into the brotherhood of the Grail, but was forbidden due to his uncontrollable lust. In frustration he castrated himself, but was still refused. To avenge himself he created a garden of delights where beautiful women lie in wait to seduce the chaste Knights of the Grail. Amfortas tried to destroy Klingsor’s world, but was himself seduced by a beautiful woman (Kundry), and lost the holy relic, the spear.

A young man caught shooting a swan is dragged in. Gurnemanz questions him: he appears to know almost nothing, not even his name, though he remembers the name of his mother, Herzeleide (heart’s sorrow). Kundry tells the young man that his mother has died. The young man is restrained from attacking her. Thinking the young man may be the ‘wise fool’ of the prophecy, Gurnemanz takes him to witness the ceremony of the Grail. Amfortas’s father, Titurel, orders his son to conduct the ceremony, which restores his strength and that of the community. Parsifal is stunned by what he sees, but unable to tell Gurnemanz what it means. Gurnemanz gruffly orders him to leave – he is, after all, just a fool.

Act II

Klingsor’s realm

Klingsor prepares to confront Parsifal. He summons Kundry and orders her to seduce the young man. At first Kundry refuses, and taunts Klingsor for his self-imposed chastity, but he forces her to comply, reminding her that she will attain release from her suffering if a man can resist her sexual advances. Klingsor watches the young man defeat his guards.

Flowermaidens rush in; when the young man appears, they dress up and compete for his affections. As things become more frenzied, a woman calls his forgotten name – Parsifal. It is Kundry in a new guise - as the woman who seduced Amfortas. The Flowermaidens leave Kundry and Parsifal alone. Kundry describes the death of Parsifal’s father Gamuret, and how his mother raised him alone. Parsifal is moved and wracked with guilt for abandoning his mother. Kundry consoles Parsifal and kisses him. Parsifal suddenly experiences the suffering of Amfortas. Kundry begs him to save her through his love: she mocked the Saviour and has wandered the world ever since. Parsifal recoils: he knows both of them will only find salvation if he resists her. Kundry calls to Klingsor who attacks Parsifal with the spear. Parsifal disarms him, and Klingsor’s powers evaporate.

Act III

The realm of the Grail

Years have passed. Gurnemanz discovers Kundry. She wants only to serve, but Gurnemanz tells her that the Grail community is in complete disarray: there is nothing she can do. A stranger approaches – Gurnemanz recognizes him as Parsifal. Parsifal tells Gurnemanz of his troubled wanderings, through which he guarded the sacred spear, which he now returns to the Grail realm. Gurnemanz celebrates the return of the spear, then describes the misery of the Grail kingdom: Amfortas refuses to perform his sacred duty, Titurel has died, and the community is in despair. Parsifal is overcome with remorse - he feels he is to blame through his stupidity.

Kundry bathes Parsifal’s feet, while Gurnemanz anoints his head. Parsifal blesses Kundry. Gurnemanz reminds Parsifal that it is Good Friday, a day of rejoicing. The knights bear in the body of Titurel and urge Amfortas to perform the ceremony of the Grail. In agony, Amfortas urges the community to kill him and end his pain. Parsifal, Gurnemanz and Kundry enter. Parsifal returns the spear, and through compassion brings healing and comfort to Amfortas. Parsifal declares that the mysteries will no longer be hidden but be open to all.

Performance History: a long composition process

Wagner first set down ideas for Parsifal in 1845 after reading Wolfram von Eschenbach's 13th-century Germanic poem Parzival. Over the next thirty years he periodically returned to his scenario for the opera. He completed the libretto in just over a month; the composition of the music took two years; the complete score another three.

Wagner completed the score of Parsifal in January 1882 – 6 years after the first complete performance of his epic Ring cycle tetralogy in 1876 (find out more at our Ring cycle Essentials page here) – and the opera had its premiere at his Bayreuth Festival in July 1882. 

After the premiere, an embargo was placed on the work, forbidding performances outside the Bayreuth Festival. The Metropolitan Opera, New York, broke the embargo in 1903 and it was officially lifted in 1914.  

Why was Wagner drawn to Parzifal?

Wagner first read Parzival in the summer of 1845, as a 32-year-old Kapellmeister. Two episodes from von Eschenbach’s poem had caught in his mind: the moment at which Parzival, innocent and brash, blunders into the Grail castle and sees Amfortas; and the arrival of Parzival, now a knight concealed in his armour, is asked by a forlorn old man why he is bearing arms on Good Friday. To invent a dramatic plot that would connect these scenes with each other was Wagner’s task, subconsciously and consciously, of many years. While Parsifal is clearly rooted in Christian theology, towards the end of Wagner’s life, the composer became increasingly fascinated with Buddhist mythology, and this is reflected in Kundry’s journey from endless rebirth to redemption.

A new path to redemption

Wagner eventually crafted a plot in which Parsifal resists the same seduction (by Kundry) that Amfortas, the Grail leader, yielded to. Wagner realised that there was powerful symmetry in this structure, and he sought to convey the central character’s transformation in the powerful second Act. The opera embodies a reversal of Wagner’s earlier convictions – his obsession with redemption through love – instead advocating for redemption through chastity and renunciation. Only through resisting the love of Kundry is Parsifal able to gain compassion (Mitleid) for Amfortas’s suffering, and to offer healing to the Grail community. 

Kundry

The character of Kundry is one of opera’s most fascinating heroines. Both a messenger of the Grail knights and the slave of the disgraced knight Klingsor, in Wagner’s libretto, she arrives on horseback, and is described by other characters as a witch, a wild woman, and Herodias (the scheming wife of King Herod). Her tale begins with laughter – she mocked Christ on the cross. Her story therefore was ruled by sorrow: she is doomed to an endless cycle of suffering and rebirth: the female equivalent of the hero of Wagner’s earlier opera, The Flying Dutchman. Bound to Klingsor’s will, she attempts to seduce Parsifal, and the kiss they share triggers Parsifal’s own epiphany, of compassion for Amfortas.

A Sacred Ceremony

Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as a Bühnenweihfestspiel (a ‘stage festival play’, or a ‘festival play for the consecration of the stage’), reflecting his ambition to transform the theatre into a sacred space through the course of the performance. Wagner only intended the opera to be performed at Bayreuth, where he believed the acoustic and aesthetic conditions were perfect. However, Wagner’s own patron, King Ludwig II, was the first to break the 30-year embargo in a private performance in Munich just a few years after the premiere. The next performance outside Bayreuth was by the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1903.

‘Here time becomes space’: The Music of Parsifal

When Gurnemanz leads the confused young Parsifal to the temple of the Grail for the first time, he sings: ‘Here time becomes space’. In many ways, Parsifal’s initiation to the Knights’ community reflects the listener’s journey into Wagner’s musical kingdom. Through Wagner’s long, arching phrases and his use of Leitmotifs (musical themes which return and evolve throughout the opera), our concept of time is suspended.

Creating a Spiritual Sound

To create a spiritual atmosphere, Wagner draws on a variety of religious musical themes in his score. An ancient, ascending melody, known as the ‘Dresden Amen’, is transformed into a transcendent expression of the Grail in the Prelude, returning throughout the opera. Wagner also uses a four-note bell motif (the notes, C, G, A, and E) to evoke the majesty of the Grail Hall in Act I, and its destruction in Act III.

Church Bells in Parsifal

To evoke the sound of the bells at required pitches, Wagner commissioned his friend, Eduard Steingraeber, to construct a unique piano-like structure with four massive keys – and combined this with tam-tams, gongs and a tuba at the Bayreuth premiere. Despite these efforts, Wagner remained unsatisfied. After the composer’s death, his wife, Cosima Wagner commissioned four huge metal barrels to make the sound, and after the embargo was lifted, other opera houses had to find their own solutions, with some employing synthesisers, to mixed effects. In 2013, The Royal Opera used tubular bells and bell plates, together with a close-miked piano.