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Parsifal

File:Parsifal_(1882_retuschiert).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Parsifal (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.

Key facts

Opera.name
Parsifal
Opera.type
Music drama
Opera.composer
Richard Wagner
Opera.image
Parsifal (1882 retuschiert).jpg
Opera.image_upright
1.2
Opera.caption
Amalie Materna, Emil Scaria and Hermann Winkelmann in the first production of the at the Bayreuth Festival
Opera.librettist
Richard Wagner
Opera.language
German
Opera.premiere_location
Bayreuth Festspielhaus

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Genre
opera
Librettist
Richard Wagner
Image
Parsifal (1882 retuschiert).jpg
Show 13 more facts
Commons category
Parsifal (opera)
date of first performance
1882-07-26
inception
1877-00-00
number of parts of this work
3
language of work or name
German
location of first performance
Bayreuth Festival Theatre
publication date
1850-00-00
copyright status
public domain
production date
1882-00-00
form of creative work
opera
title
Parsifal
different from
Parsifal
catalog code
111
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~47 min read

Encyclopedic overview

29 sections
Contents
  • Composition
  • Performance history
  • Premiere
  • Ban outside Bayreuth
  • Applause
  • Post-war performances
  • Roles
  • Summary
  • Act 1
  • Act 2
  • Act 3
  • Reactions
  • Interpretation and influence
  • Schopenhauer
  • Nietzsche
  • Racism debate
  • Music
  • Leitmotifs
  • Chromaticism
  • Notable excerpts
  • Instrumentation
  • Recordings
  • Filmed versions
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Sources
  • Further reading
  • External links

Parsifal (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 1914; however the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1903 after a US court ruled that it was legal.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Parsifal” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (42)