Parsifal

• Parsifal was Wagner’s final music drama, comprising 3 acts and writtenbetween 1877-82. It was performed for the first time just 6 months before the composer’s death.
  • However, as early as 1845, Wagner had conceptualized the opera after reading Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Medieval romance, Parzival.
• Debussy, who typically didn’t favor Wagner’s music, wrote the following about the opera: “Parsifal is one of the loveliest monuments of sound ever raised to the serene glory of music.”¹
• There has been much debate over the ultimate meaning of Wagner’s final opera. Some consider it a religious work, while others have a more philosophical/ Buddhist interpretation, “taking the concept of Mitleid (‘compassion’) as the ethical center of the work”… or perhaps a mix of both? Towards the end of his life, Wagner became interested in Buddhism and Asceticism, as well as the work of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

“Parsifal is the most enigmatic and elusive work in the Wagnerian canon. No attempt to elucidate its mysteries can afford to ignore any of its elements, whether its Christian, pagan, Buddhist or Schopenhauerian ideas, or its concepts of racial purity and regeneration.”²

Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera

1. Michael Tanner, “Building a library: Parsifal,” BBC Music Magazine Vol. 28, No. 7 (2020), 118-119.
2. Barry Millington, “Parsifal,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed February 1, 2024, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002803.