the spear that pierced Christ's side while he was on the cross, and that wound will not heal. The spear was wielded by the guy who castrated himself. The Knights are....spiritually decaying and can be rescued only by a "wise fool" (that's Parsifal). Also, note their enactment of communion 2/
in Act 2 using bread (and blood? do I have this right?) from the Last Supper. Also note the King's father who has been near death for goodness knows how long. In the last SFO production he lived in a coffin. Is this weird enough? Do you want more details? :) 3/3
Oh yeah the Knights actually HAVE the Holy Grail in their possession and use it in the Act 1 ritual. 4/4
This is great. At various times I’ve listened to the music, but that was before I started trying to follow plots along with it
The music is so beautiful and the plot is SO WEIRD. I haven't seen it since 2018, but I have a review to write of an important historic release and, well, the SFO production is coming up in October, so i have the score and libretto and....I'm rolling my eyes a lot.
I think I might have the Parzifal by Chretien de Troyes but not Wolfram von Eschenbach's and I feel a need to at least glance at both and maybe a scholarly discussion of the opera.
I was impressed by the wall of Wagneriana at the UCB music library …. I’m confident there is every shade of scholarship.
Oh hahaha YES. Aren't Napoleon, Wagner, and Lincoln the most-written-about figures, oh and Jesus Christ? 1/
Must add that via musical studies and choral singing I know a fair amount about Catholic ritual, and I've read the Gospels, though not recently. Even though I am Jewish I can tell Catholicism and mainstream Christianity from whatever the heck it is that Wagner dreamed up. 2/2
Wagnerism. I have this theory, BTW and not exclusively mine, that Wagner is the biggest Mary Sue in the history of human endeavor, and nobody else projected as much of his own ideals, desires, envies, and just plain wishful thinking into his art. Each character is some bit of him.
Hell yes.
So true!
I have some of that (grew up Episcopalian, sang choir) but no historical perspective on the varieties of Christianity and creative rewritings. (Dante is not exactly orthodox, for example.)
About the music, I do think the density of memorable material is less than in some of the other great ones. It's a certain austerity or perhaps late style.
My favorite Wagner and among my favorite opera ever written