Parsifal is a “sacred stage festival” in three acts, premiered on 26th July 1882 by Richard Wagner at the second Bayreuth Festival. Wagner’s final masterpiece, this opera’s esoteric music and spiritual references lead the listener to reflect on the struggle between good and evil. Inspired by the legend of Perceval and the Holy Grail, the opera tells the story of Parsifal, a naive young man who asserts himself as the savior of the Grail, the cup which collects the blood of Christ. Following a series of initiatory trials, Parsifal himself appears as a Christ-like figure, a redeemer who brings salvation to all humanity.
In this striking 2015 staging, Dmitri Tcherniakov depicts a lost, miserable humanity in search of an ideal, exhausted souls against somber sets that evoke the obscurity and revelation of the Grail myth. The Staatskapelle Berlin, under the masterly baton of Daniel Barenboim, reinforces the horror and mystery inspired by the stage performance, while the soloists—including the celebrated René Pape in the role Gurnemanz and Wolfgang Koch as Amfortas—are extremely convincing.
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