You must be logged in to view this video

WAGNER, R.: Parsifal (Studio Production, 1981)


Parsifal
Composer: Wagner, Richard
Librettist/Text Author: Wagner, Richard
Conductor: Stein, Horst
Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra
Chorus: Bayreuth Festival Chorus
Chorus Master: Balatsch, Norbert

Amfortas: Weikl, Bernd
First Esquire: Schiml, Marga
First Knight: Kramer, Toni
Flower Maiden: Haggander, Mari Anne
Flower Maiden: Neubauer, Margit
Flower Maiden: Richardson, Carol
Flower Maiden: Schiml, Marga
Flower Maiden: Schwarz, Hanna
Flower Maiden: Sharp, Norma
Fourth Esquire: Egel, Martin
Gurnemanz: Sotin, Hans
Klingsor: Roar, Leif
Kundry: Randova, Eva
Parsifal: Jerusalem, Siegfried
Secon Knight: Ecker, Heinz Klaus
Second Esquire: Schwarz, Hanna
Third Esquire: Pampuch, Helmut
Titurel: Salminen, Matti

Set Designer: Wagner, Wolfgang
Costume Designer: Heinrich, Reinhard
Stage Director: Wagner, Wolfgang
Television Director: Wagner, Wolfgang


Playing Time: 03:52:52
Catalogue Number: A05004576

Libretto
Parsifal

Synopsis
Parsifal

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.

Select Language