Parsifal

Parsifal
Parsifal
Music drama by Richard Wagner
	Amalie Materna, Emil Scaria and Hermann Winkelmann in the first production of the Bühnenweihfestspiel at the Bayreuth Festival
Librettist	Richard Wagner
Language	German
Based on	Parzival; by Wolfram von Eschenbach
Premiere	26 July 1882; Bayreuth Festspielhaus

Parsifal^[a] (WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance Parzival of the Minnesänger Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Old French chivalric romance Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by the 12th-century trouvère Chrétien de Troyes, recounting different accounts of the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his spiritual quest for the Holy Grail.

Wagner conceived the work in April 1857, but did not finish it until 25 years later. In composing it he took advantage of the particular acoustics of his newly built Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Parsifal was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel (a sacred festival stage play).^[5] At Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act. The autograph manuscript of the work is preserved in the Richard Wagner Foundation.

^ Joseph Görres, "Einleitung", p. vi, in: Lohengrin, ein altteutsches Gedicht, nach der Abschrift des Vaticanischen Manuscriptes by Ferdinand Gloeckle. Mohr und Zimmer, Heidelberg 1813.
^ Richard Wagner, Das braune Buch. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1865 bis 1882, ed. Joachim Bergfeld, Atlantis Verlag, Zürich and Freiburg im Breisgau 1975, p. 52
^ Danielle Buschinger, Renate Ullrich, Das Mittelalter Richard Wagners, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3078-9, p. 140.
^ Unger, Max (1932-08-01). "The Persian Origins of 'Parsifal' and 'Tristan'". The Musical Times. 73 (1074): 703–705. doi:10.2307/917595. ISSN 0027-4666. JSTOR 917595. The correct spelling of Parzival is Parsi-wal. ... the word means Persian flower. Unger draws on the abstract of a book by Friedrich von Suhtscheck [de] which was never published.
^ "Parsifal Synopsis". Seattle Opera House. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014. (Section What is a Stage-Consecrating Festival-Play, Anyway?)

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[1] Joseph Görres, "Einleitung", p. vi, in: Lohengrin, ein altteutsches Gedicht, nach der Abschrift des Vaticanischen Manuscriptes by Ferdinand Gloeckle. Mohr und Zimmer, Heidelberg 1813.

[2] Richard Wagner, Das braune Buch. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen 1865 bis 1882, ed. Joachim Bergfeld, Atlantis Verlag, Zürich and Freiburg im Breisgau 1975, p. 52

[3] Danielle Buschinger, Renate Ullrich, Das Mittelalter Richard Wagners, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3078-9, p. 140.

[4] Unger, Max (1932-08-01). "The Persian Origins of 'Parsifal' and 'Tristan'". The Musical Times. 73 (1074): 703–705. doi:10.2307/917595. ISSN 0027-4666. JSTOR 917595. The correct spelling of Parzival is Parsi-wal. ... the word means Persian flower. Unger draws on the abstract of a book by Friedrich von Suhtscheck [de] which was never published.

[6] "Parsifal Synopsis". Seattle Opera House. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014. (Section What is a Stage-Consecrating Festival-Play, Anyway?)

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