Сharacters in the play
Boris Statsenko performs the role of Amfortas
Parsifal — tenor
Kundry — mezzo-soprano or soprano
Gurnemanz, a veteran Knight of the Grail — bass
Amfortas, ruler of the Grail kingdom — baritone
Klingsor, a magician — bass
Titurel, Amfortas’ father — bass
Two Grail Knights — tenor, bass
Four Esquires — sopranos, tenors
Six Flowermaidens — 3 sopranos, 3 contraltos or 6 sopranos
Voice from Above, Eine Stimme — contralto
Creation
Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, the medieval (13th century) epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail.
During the first Act, Parsifal, an apparently witless fool, sees the suffering of the wounded Amfortas, King of an order of knights who guard the Grail. In the second Act Parsifal wanders into the domain of Klingsor, a magician who is trying to corrupt the Knights of the Grail and who has stolen from them the spear used to pierce Jesus Christ during his crucifixion. There Parsifal meets Kundry, the slave of Klingsor, who attempts to seduce him. In resisting her, he destroys Klingsor, and recovers the Spear. In the third Act, Parsifal returns to the Grail Kingdom to heal Amfortas.
Wagner first conceived the work in April 1857 but it was not finished until twenty-five years later. It was to be Wagner’s last completed opera and in composing it he took advantage of the particular sonority of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained an exclusive monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Wagner preferred to describe Parsifal not as an opera, but as «ein Bühnenweihfestspiel» — «A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage». At Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that there is no applause after the first act of the opera.
Сontents
Act I
Scene One
Parsifal by Hermann Hendrich
Amfortas, King of the Grail Knights, is carried in on a stretcher. He calls for Gawain, whose own attempt at relieving the King’s pain had failed. The King is told that this Knight has already left, seeking a better remedy. Angrily, the king says that leaving without permission is the sort of impetuousity which led Amfortas himself into Klingsor?s realm, and to his downfall. He accepts Kundry?s potion and tries to thank her, but she answers hastily that thanks will not help and urges him to his bath.
The King’s procession continues on. Once it has gone, the squires eye Kundry mistrustfully and question her. After one short retort, she falls silent. Gurnemanz tells them that Kundry has often helped the Grail Knights but that she appears and disappears at her whim. When he himself asks her why she does not stay to help, she replies that she never helps. The squires think she is a witch and sneer that if she is so helpful, why does she not find the Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz solemnly tells that this deed is destined for someone else. He mentions that Amfortas had been the guardian of the Spear, but lost hold of it as he was seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor?s domain. Klingsor then grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas: this wound in Amfortas? side causes his suffering and, as told by Gurnemanz, will never heal on its own.
Two squires, returning from the King?s bath, tell Gurnemanz that Kundry?s balsam has eased the King?s sufferings for the moment. His squires ask Gurnemanz if he knew Klingsor. He tells them how both the Holy Spear, which pierced the side of the Redeemer on the Cross, and the Holy Grail, which caught the outflowing blood, had come to Monsalvat to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of Titurel — Amfortas? father. Klingsor had yearned to join the Knights but unable to drive impure thoughts from his mind, resorted to self-castration, causing his expulsion from the Knights’ order. Made bitter, Klingsor set himself up in opposition to the Kingdom of the Grail, learning dark arts and claiming a domain full of beautiful flower-maidens who seduce and enthrall Knights of the Grail. It was here that Amfortas lost the Holy Spear, which Klingsor now held while greedily eyeing the Grail, wanting it as well. Gurnemanz tells how Amfortas later had a holy vision which told him to wait for a «pure fool, enlightened by compassion» («Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor») who would finally heal the wound.
Just 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 carrying a quiver of matching arrows. Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad and tells him that this is a holy domain. He then asks the lad if he did this deed and the lad boasts that if it flies, he can hit it («Im Fluge treff’ ich was fliegt!») The elderly Knight asks what harm the swan had done, getting the lad to notice the swan’s blood-flecked remains, limp wings and lifeless eyes. Now remorseful, the young man breaks his bow and casts it aside. Gurnemanz now asks why the lad is here, who is his father, how the lad found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies, «I don’t know.» The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the King, then asks the young man to tell what he does know. The Fool says he has a mother, named Herzeleide, and that he himself made his bow. Kundry has been listening and now she tells them that this boy?s father was Gamuret, a knight killed in battle, and also how the lad?s mother had forbidden her son to use a sword, fearing that he would meet the same fate as his father. Parsifal exclaims that upon seeing Knights pass through his forest, he immediately left his mother to follow them. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that his mother has died of grief, at which the lad attempts to grab Kundry, but then collapses in grief. Kundry herself now seems overcome with sleep, but cries out that she must not sleep and wishes that she would never waken. She crawls into the undergrowth to rest.
Gurnemanz knows that the Grail leads only the pious to Monsalvat and thus takes the lad to observe the Grail ritual. Parsifal does not know what the Grail is but remarks, as they walk, that while he seems scarcely to move, he has travelled far. Gurnemanz says that in this realm, time becomes space. An orchestral interlude leads into Scene Two.
Scene Two They arrive at the Hall of the Grail, where the Knights are assembling to receive Holy Communion. The voice of Titurel is heard, telling his son, Amfortas, to uncover the Grail. Amfortas is racked with shame and suffering («Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen«). He is the Guardian of the Grail, and yet he has succumbed to temptation and lost the Holy Spear: he declares himself unworthy of his office. He cries out for forgiveness (»Erbarmen!») but hears only the promise of future redemption by the pure fool. On hearing Amfortas’ cry, the boy appears to suffer with him, clutching at his heart. The Knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail, which he finally does. The Hall is bathed in the light of the Grail as the Knights commune. Gurnemanz motions to the boy to participate, but he, entranced, does not notice. Amfortas does not commune, and as the ceremony ends, he collapses in pain and is taken out. Slowly the Hall empties leaving only the boy and Gurnemanz, who asks him if he has understood what he has seen. The boy cannot answer and is roughly ejected by Gurnemanz with a warning not to shoot swans. A voice from heaven repeats the promise, «The pure fool, enlightened by compassion.»
Act II
Scene One
The second act opens in Klingsor?s magic castle, where he calls up his servant to enslave a foolish boy who has found his way into this magician’s domain («Die Zeit ist da.»). He names her: Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is transformed into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she seduced Amfortas. Waking from a deep sleep, she resists Klingsor. As he claims power over her, she mocks his enforced chastity, which casts him into self-reproach. Then she herself succumbs to an ancient curse. Klingsor now calls upon the Knights in his domain to attack the lad, but can only watch as the newcomer wounds them and beats them back. He sees this young man stray into his Flower-maiden garden and calls to Kundry to seek the boy out — but she has already gone.
Scene Two The triumphant lad now finds himself in a Garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flower-maidens. They call to him, and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers,… and for resisting their charms («Komm, komm, holder Knabe!»). They soon fight amongst themselves to win his singular devotion but are stilled as a voice calls out, «Parsifal!» The boy now remembers that this name is what his mother used when appearing in his dreams. The Flower-maidens recoil from him and call him a fool as they leave Parsifal and Kundry alone. He wonders if this has all been a dream and asks how she knows his name. Kundry tells him that she knows his name 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. Parsifal is overcome with remorse and blames himself for his mother?s death. He thinks he must be very stupid to have forgotten his own mother. Kundry says that this realization is his first sign of understanding, and that she can help him understand his mother?s love by kissing him. A lengthy kiss ensues, but Parsifal recoils in pain and cries out for Amfortas: Parsifal feels Amfortas’ wound burning in his own side, and now understands Amfortas? passion during the Grail Ceremony («Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!») Filled with this compassion for Amfortas, Parsifal rejects Kundry. Furious, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he must feel compassion for her as well. She has been cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw the Savior on the cross and laughed. Now she can never weep, only laugh, and though she seems to be the slave of the Spear-carrier, due to her curse, she lives only to seduce. He rejects her again and asks her to lead him to Amfortas. She begs him to stay with her for just one hour, and then she will lead him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally she calls on Klingsor to help her. Klingsor appears and throws the Spear at Parsifal, which halts in midair, above his head. Parsifal seizes it and makes the sign of the Cross, and the castle crumbles. As he leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him again.
Act III
Scene One
«Parsifal revealing the Holy Grail» by Franz Stassen (1869-1949) from Parsifal: A Drama by Wagner Retold by Oliver Huckel (Crowell, New York, 1903)
The Third act opens again at the Kingdom of the Grail, many years later. Gurnemanz, now aged and bent, hears a crying outside his hut and discovers Kundry unconscious. He revives her, using water from the Holy Spring, but she will only speak the word «serve» («Dienen»). Gurnemanz wonders if there is any significance in the fact that she has reappeared on this special day. He then notices a figure dressed in full armour approaching. He cannot see who it is because the stranger wears a helmet, and does not speak. Finally the apparition removes its helmet and Gurnemanz recognises the boy who shot the swan, and then realises that the spear carried by him is the Holy Spear.
Parsifal tells of his desire to return to Amfortas («Zu ihm, des tiefe Klagen.») He relates his journey, wandering for years unable to find the path back to the Grail: he has often been forced to fight, but has never wielded the Spear in battle. Gurnemanz tells him that the curse preventing Parsifal from finding his right path has now been lifted, but that in his absence Amfortas has refused to reveal the Grail, and that Titurel has died. Parsifal is overcome with remorse, blaming himself for this state of affairs. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel?s funeral rites, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal?s feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognising him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion, and as the new King of the Knights of the Grail.
Parsifal comments on the beauty of the meadow and Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday, when all the world is renewed. Parsifal baptizes the weeping Kundry. A short orchestral interlude leads into Scene Two.
Scene Two Once more they travel to the Hall of the Grail. Amfortas is brought before the Grail and before Titurel?s coffin. He cries out to his dead father to offer him rest from his sufferings, and wishes to join him in death («Mein vater!Hochgesegneter der Helden!») The Knights of Grail urge Amfortas angrily to reveal the Grail to them again, but Amfortas in a frenzy says he will never reveal the Grail and commands his Knights to kill him. At this moment, Parsifal arrives and says that only one weapon can perform this task («Nur eine Waffe taugt»): with the Spear he heals Amfortas? wound and forgives him. He commands the revealing of the Grail. All kneel while Kundry, released from her curse, sinks lifeless to the ground while a white dove descends to hover over the head of Parsifal.