Parsifal is Wagner's last opera. He named it "Consecration Play for the
Stage," and in so doing, tried to give the proper framework to what is in
almost all aspects a sacred Christian play with music. Wagner also included
mythology, mysticism and ancient Indian ideas in this work, whose origins
he drew from Wolfram von Eschenbach's famous courtly epic "Parsival". But
even earlier sources related to the legend of the Holy Grail were used by
Wagner as a source for his poetic work. For 30 years no theater other than
Bayreuth was allowed to perform "Parsifal" by order of Wagner. Only in 1914
did the work spread across the globe.
Wagner achieved the essentially sacred atmosphere of the music through an
instrumentation that evokes organ registration and often uses the
instruments in groups (woodwinds, brass, strings). The leitmotivic work is
less dense in Parsifal than in the Ring of the Nibelung. The brilliant
songfulness of the world of the Grail is set against chromatic harmonies
which, e.g. in the prelude to the third act, anticipate the twelve-tone
music of the New Vienna School. The musical direction of this performance
from the Bayreuth Festival is in the hands of Horst Stein; the stage
director is Wolfgang Wagner, who also designed the sets. In the lead roles
are renowned Wagner singers Siegfried Jerusalem, Hans Sotin, Bernd Weikl
and Eva Randova.
