Parsifal
Richard Wagner completed Parsifal in 1882. The same year it was premiered in the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival. Parsifal was the only opera production that was played at the Festival in 1882. It was performed 16 times.
Parsifal - Stefan Herheim's production at Bayreuth.
Parsifal was produced in the following cities the first years after the world premiere in Bayreuth on 26 July 1882
Richard Wagner ordered Parsifal was to be performed no other place than the Bayreuth Festival. For 30 years Parsifal could not be performed outside Bayreuth.
| 1883 | Bayreuth |
| 1884 | Bayreuth |
| 1886 | Bayreuth |
| 1888 | Bayreuth |
| 1889 | Bayreuth |
| 1891 | Bayreuth |
| 1892 | Bayreuth |
| 1894 | Bayreuth |
| 1897 | Bayreuth |
| 1899 | Bayreuth |
| 1901 | Bayreuth |
| 1902 | Bayreuth |
| 1903 | Paris (concert performance of highlights) Milano (La Scala) (concert performance of highlights) New York (Metropolitan Opera), complete |
| 1904 | Bayreuth |
| 1906 | Bayreuth |
| 1908 | Bayreuth |
| 1909 | Bayreuth |
| 1911 | Bayreuth |
| 1912 | Bayreuth |
| 1913 | Monte Carlo Zürich |
| 1914 | Barcelona and 40 other theatres only in the first
month of the year Bayreuth |
Famous quotes from Parsifal
Parsifal
Wer ist der Gral?
Nur eine Waffe taugt -
die Wunde schliesst
der Speer nur, der sie schlug.
Gurnemanz
Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit.
Said about Parsifal
Mark Twain
The first act of the three occupied two hours, and I enjoyed that in spite of the singing.
[...]
it seems to me that the chief virtue in song is melody, air, tune, rhythm, or what you please to call it, and that when this feature is absent what remains is a picture with the color left out. I was not able to detect in the vocal parts of "Parsifal" anything that might with confidence be called rhythm or tune or melody; one person performed at a time--and a long time, too--often in a noble, and always in a high-toned, voice; but he only pulled out long notes, then some short ones, then another long one, then a sharp, quick, peremptory bark or two--and so on and so on; and when he was done you saw that the information which he had conveyed had not compensated for the disturbance.
[...]
An ignorant person gets tired of listening to gymnastic intervals in the long run, no matter how pleasant they may be. In "Parsifal" there is a hermit named Gurnemanz who stands on the stage in one spot and practices by the hour, while first one and then another character of the cast endures what he can of it and then retires to die.
Mark Twain in a travel letter from Bayreuth
Parsifal links
- Parsifal on DVD
- Parsifal on CD
- Parsifal conductors in Bayreuth
- Stefan Herheim's production of Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival 2008
The titles of Richard Wagner's operas in different languages