DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN PRESENTS
PARSIFAL
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)
Opera and poem by Richard Wagner; First performed on 26th July, 1882 in Bayreuth; Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 21. October, 2012
In German language with surtitles
Performances
Sat 5. April 2014 | 17:00h | |
Fri 18. April 2014 | 17:00h | |
Mon 21. April 2014 | 16:00h | last performance this season |
5 hrs 30 mins / 2 intervals
Photographs Parsifal © 2012, Matthias Baus
Cast
Conductor | Axel Kober |
Stage Production | Philipp Stölzl |
Co-Regie | Mara Kurotschka |
Stage-Design | Conrad Moritz Reinhardt |
Philipp Stölzl | |
Costume-Design | Kathi Maurer |
Chorus Master | William Spaulding |
Light-Design | Ulrich Niepel |
Children’s Chorus | Christian Lindhorst |
Amfortas | Bo Skovhus |
Titurel | Albert Pesendorfer |
Gurnemanz | Hans-Peter König |
Parsifal | Stefan Vinke |
Klingsor | Bastiaan Everink |
Kundry | Evelyn Herlitzius |
First Knight of the Grail | Burkhard Ulrich |
Second Knight of the Grail | Andrew Harris |
First Squire | Siobhan Stagg |
Second Squire | Christina Sidak |
Third Squire | Paul Kaufmann |
Fourth Squire | Alvaro Zambrano |
Klingsor´s Flower Maiden | Siobhan Stagg |
Martina Welschenbach | |
Katarina Bradic | |
Elena Tsallagova | |
Christina Sidak | |
Dana Beth Miller | |
A Voice | Dana Beth Miller |
Chorus | Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin |
Kinderchor der Deutschen Oper Berlin | |
Orchestra | Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin |
Dance | Opernballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin |
Richard Wagner’s PARSIFAL tells the story of a “pure-hearted fool”, who is unaware of his vocation and true nature. Parsifal is caught between two opposing worlds – the ascetic society of the Knights of the Holy Grail and Klingsor’s erotically charged magic garden. There, Parsival attains enlightenment from the kiss of a woman and is able to gain redemption for Amfortas, the suffering Grail king, and the Knights of the Grail. Borrowing freely from a diverse range of sagas, Christian and Buddhist motifs and Schopenhauer’s ideas, Richard Wagner created his own mythical tale. Wagner, too, was plagued for decades by a fear of disaster and a constant thirst for redemption. With his PARSIFAL he addressed head-on the question of redemption, both private and social, and conjured his own utopia in the chaste, male world of the Knights of the Grail.
The premiere of Richard Wagner’s PARSIFAL, his Bühnenweihfestspiel or ‘festival drama for the consecration of the stage’, represented the climax of festivities to mark the 100th anniversary of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. General Music Director Donald Runnicles teams up with film and opera director Philipp Stölzl, who has twice come up with spectacular and suggestive images for the works of Richard Wagner – in 2009 with THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at the Theater Basel and in 2010 with RIENZI at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Kindly supported by Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin, by Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin and Mercedes Benz