Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-02-17
The Damrosch Lecture Recftals.

Mr. Damrosch began his fourth lecture
recital yesterday at United church chapel
by saying that Wagner had, early in his
life, wished to write q sacred opera. Find
ing this to be impossible, he took a sym
bolic theme, medieval legend of the Ho-
ly grail. The grail was supposed to be
the crystal goblet in which Joseph of
Arimathea caught the blood as it fell from
the wounded side of the Savior
on the CROSS. The goblet came
in the story of Parsifal, into the hands of
the good King Titurel, who gathered
about him in an inaccessible castle COM
pany of pure and true men, the Knights
of the Holy Grail. Their duty was to
guard the grail and also the sacred spear
with which the wound in the Savior's side
was made. Their castle was unapproacha-
BILE save by the chosen ones; the Knights
lived for good deeds alone, strengthened
by the ife-giving food of the holy supper.
But as goodness is always assailed by evil,
30 this holy company was endangered by
the magic arts of the wicked en-
chanter, Klingsor, who built a wonderful
castle and garden in the midst of a des-
ert and filed it with wonderful witch:
maidens, half flower, half woman,
WIZ ny tu0l1 SOuKuU W lure
the knights away from their guardianship
that Kingsor might gain possession of the
treasures. The good King Titurel had
grown old; he was now kept alive only by
the daily uncovering of the holy Grail and
he had bequeathed to his son Amfortas
the guardianship of the sacred treasures.
But Amfo1tas had been weak; he had fall
en- victim to the charms and enchant-
ments of one of Klingsor's wondrous
maidens, and in his forgetfulnsss of all
else the sacred spear had been snatched
from his careless grasp by Klingsor, who
had wounded him with it and fled with
his booty to his enchanted stronghold.
All this happens before the curtain rises
on the first act of "Parsifal." Amfortas
has been promised relief from the tor
turing pain of his wounds; in answer to
his prayers he has received a prophecy:
"By pity enlightened, the guileless fool
chat is, the child, the unknowing one),
tarry his coming, whom I have chosen"
In the forest, on the shore of the lake
where Amfortas is carried for his bath,
Parsifal is brought in as the slayer of one
of the sacred wild swans. He Is unaware
of his cruelty; he knows not his name, nor
whence nor why he comes; and we begin
to see very soon that he is the "Guile-
less Fool" is he also the promised
OlonftI0T, tuTOuku WAO1A A"lOItdS budll
be relieved from his agony! Kundry, the
black eyed, black haired witch-maiden who
was Amfortas' destroyer, is on the scene;
she is intensely weary, but knows that if
she succumbs to slumber Klingsor will
gain possession of her and make her serve
his own wicked ends; but she is not wholly
bad, and fights to the limit of her powers
against this fatal sleep. Parsifal is taken
to the castle where the knights are called
to their daily love feast. Amfortas, as
guardian of the grail, is borne in on litter;
his wound, synbolical Of his sin,
is nearly killing him, but though
he prays for it, death will
not come. At the uncovering of the grail
his wound breaks out afresh, for his sin
seems more real in the light of the divine
watching the scene in mute wonder, feels
strange thrill of emotion in his own
heart when he hears Amfortas' sgonized
cry. He is learning new and strange feel
ings of his hitherto innocent and ignorant
mind and heart The music is solemnly
suggestive through this act. The divine
suffering, the holy grail and sacred spear,
Amfortas' pain and consciousness of sin,
his prayers for relief and forgive
expression in the music. In |
strong contrast to these sacred subjects |
stand out the motives of the wicked en-
of Kingsor, the seductive mel
ody of the fower-maidens and charmed
garden and Kundry's witch-like, hendish
motive. The music of the swan and the
grail, as they are combined in one place,
suggest the swan music in "Lohengrin,"
and it is interesting to know that Lohen-
grin was son of Parsifal, for Wagner
never wrote without a reason.
The next lecture on "Parsifal" will DO
IiYes % February o. i