Parsifal A Festival Music Drama

Author : Richard Wagner
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330203330
Total Pages : 51 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (33 download)

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Download or read book Parsifal a Festival-Drama written by Richard Wagner and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Parsifal a Festival-Drama The myths around which Wagner wove the story unfolded in "Parsifal," were known and popular at least eight centuries ago. In various forms they were current, not only in England, Spain and Germany, but also in Provence. Parchvail or Percivale (who is Parsifal under another name) played a conspicuous part in the Arthurian legends, and Chretien de Troyes had sung of him even before Wolfram von Eschenbach, from whose "Parzival" Wagner borrowed much of the material for this book. According to tradition, Parsifal (Parzival, Parchvail, Percivale or Perceval) was the son of a King called Gamuret, and the father of the Lohengrin who appears in the music-drama of that name. The Argument. Act I. - In the first scene, we are on the borders of Monsalvat, a wild region which the composer of "Parsifal" may have wished us to imagine as situate somewhere in Northern Spain, though he was careful to avoid fettering himself by saying so. There, in the heart of a dense forest, hidden from the vulgar gaze, is the Temple raised by the piety of Titurel in honor of the Holy Grail, the wondrous cup of which Tennyson speaks in "The Idylls of the King" - the cup from which, according to the Arthurian and Provencal myths, the Saviour drank at the Last Supper. The angels are supposed to have given the Grail into the keeping of Titurel, after he had fought with Klingsor, the great Enemy of Good. With a company of true Knights, marvellously free from sin, who obeyed him as their King, Titurel has guarded the Grail until, growing old, he has entrusted it to the charge of his son, Amfortas. At some period before the opening of the play, or music-drama, Amfortas has been lured into the Enchanted Gardens of his foe, Klingsor. Yielding to the seductions of the beautiful Flower-Maidens who people the Gardens, many of the Knights-Templars of the Grail have fallen from grace and become slaves of Klingsor. Amfortas himself, though armed with the blessed Spear which was once thrust into Christ's body as he hung from the Cross, has succumbed to the allurements of Kundry, a strange creature, half witch, half penitent, who changes her shape at will - sometimes appearing almost horrible, at other times transforming herself into a being of voluptuous charm. If, as may be assumed, there are under-meanings in "Parsifal," it is possible that in Amfortas and Kundry Wagner symbolized Humanity, with its conflicting good and evil, its aspirations after purity, and its relapses into sin. Amfortas, having yielded to his passions, has lost his power, and been wounded by Klingsor with the blessed Spear, which has passed into the possession of his terrible adversary. Since then, the wound has remained open and uncured. It cannot and it shall not close till a "saver" or "redeemer" comes and, with the point of the same lance that caused it, makes it well again. The "saver" or "redeemer" is some day to come in the person of a "guileless Fool," that it is to say, a being absolutely pure and ignorant of evil. At the beginning of the play, we see Gurnemanz, one of the Knights of the Grail, waking two of the Grail Warders (or Esquires) who guard the approaches to the Temple. Amfortas is expected on his way to the daily bath in which he seeks vainly for relief from the agony caused by his wound. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com