Parsifal

The story of Parsifal

Amfortas, King of the knights of the Grail, suffers from a wound that will not heal. The Grail community guards two sacred relics: the Holy Grail (Christ’s cup from the Last Supper), and the spear that pierced his side on the cross. Klingsor once sought admission to the Grail brotherhood. Unable to achieve the required chastity, he castrated himself but was still denied admission. He became their enemy, creating an enchanted realm to lure the knights from their vows. Amfortas set out to defeat Klingsor but was seduced by Kundry, allowing Klingsor to seize the sacred spear and wound him. Only the same spear can heal the wound. A prophecy promises Amfortas salvation through a ‘pure fool, made wise through compassion’.

ACT I: THE REALM OF THE GRAIL

As Amfortas is carried to the lake, where bathing eases the pain of his wound, Kundry arrives with a balm for him. Wild and mysterious, she has found refuge in serving the Grail community. Soon a young stranger appears, pursued by Grail Knights for killing a swan in their sacred forest. The elder knight Gurnemanz confronts him with the suffering he has caused. The young man knows almost nothing about himself, not even his name. Kundry tells him that his father, Gamuret, died before his birth and his mother, Herzeleide, raised him alone. When she reveals that Herzeleide died after her son abandoned her, the young man reacts with horror and rage, attacking Kundry until Gurnemanz restrains him.

Suspecting the stranger might be the prophesied ‘pure fool’, Gurnemanz takes him to witness the Grail ceremony. Amfortas’s father Titurel commands him to unveil the Grail, renewing the community’s strength but also prolonging Amfortas’s life and agony. Amfortas resists the ritual, longing for death, but finally submits. The young man watches Amfortas’s suffering with profound distress, yet cannot understand what he has experienced. Disappointed, Gurnemanz drives him away.

ACT II: KLINGSOR’S REALM

Klingsor sees the young stranger approaching and summons Kundry, who is under his power. He orders her to seduce him, as she once seduced Amfortas. Kundry resists, but Klingsor forces her to obey. The young man defeats Klingsor’s knights and enters an enchanted garden, where the Flowermaidens compete for his attention.

Kundry calls him by his forgotten name, ‘Parsifal’, awakening childhood memories. She reveals that after Gamuret’s death, Herzeleide raised him far from weapons and war to protect him from his father’s fate. Kundry describes his mother’s devotion and the grief Parsifal’s departure caused her. He, in return, grasps his own part in her suffering.

Kundry offers him a kiss, invoking his mother’s love while awakening sexual desire. Suddenly Parsifal understands the suffering he witnessed at the Grail: confronted with the same woman and the same temptation to which Amfortas succumbed, he experiences Amfortas’s agony as his own. Through compassion, the ‘pure fool’ has become wise.

Parsifal rejects Kundry. She reveals that she once laughed at Christ on his way to the cross and has since been condemned to pass through life after life, remembering her past existences. Longing for release, she begs Parsifal to give himself to her, but he understands that yielding would only repeat Amfortas’s fall. Kundry calls for Klingsor, who hurls the sacred spear at Parsifal, but it stops above him. Parsifal seizes it, makes the sign of the cross, and Klingsor’s realm collapses.

ACT III: THE REALM OF THE GRAIL

Years have passed. The Grail community is in decline: Amfortas refuses to unveil the Grail, since doing so would prolong his suffering. Deprived of its life-giving power, Titurel has died and the knights have lost their strength. Gurnemanz lives as a hermit. On Good Friday he finds Kundry, who has returned once more and asks only to serve.

A stranger approaches with the sacred spear. Gurnemanz recognises Parsifal, finally returned after years of wandering. Learning what has happened, Parsifal grieves that he has returned too late. Kundry washes Parsifal’s feet, and Gurnemanz anoints him King of the Grail. Parsifal baptises Kundry, who sinks lifeless to the ground, finally released from her cycle of successive lives.

The knights carry in Titurel’s body and demand that Amfortas unveil the Grail. He refuses, begging them to kill him rather than prolong his agony. Parsifal touches Amfortas’s wound with the sacred spear, bringing his suffering to an end.

More than an opera

Music on an epic scale

The pure man: the guilty woman

The ’pure, innocent’ character of Parsifal is contrasted, in the opera, with the character of Kundry, who is defined by her guilt. She is the only principal female role, and she serves the knights of the Grail temple. She is also used by the sinister Klingsor as an agent of seduction. Klingsor describes her as the reincarnation of ‘Herodias’ – the scheming wife of Herod – but in some productions, her journey is often viewed as the tale of a soul travelling towards redemption.