The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-06

Wa9ner's Greatest Production AS 1t Will Be Seen
in New York Christmas Eve
~ C.alIes
BY CHARLES Henry Meltzer

he may accomplish a great mission upon earth He
is tempted, as Christ was tempted. and by the mercy
of his itcdeener. he rcsists temptation His mission
is to heal a suffering sinner King Amforas ruler of
Monsaiv and Chief guardian of the Temple OF the Grail
This King, with many knights sworn to defend the
Grail has been lIrrd to the enchanted gardens of his
foe, lngsor. where he has succumbed to the bandsl-
ments OF the witch woman kundrv- klingsors half
wiling. hr unwilling servant. Armed though he was
with the blessed spear that pierced Christ Calvary,
he has ..'u wounded with his own weapon, which
kim has wrcstcd from him. His wound, which,
lis else in ',Parsfai is symbolical, can never
cl,-. it is touched again by the Spear that
or. It, And as he lies upon litter, in deep agony.
'rys for rest-the rest he shall not know until
coming of ''guleless Fool Tor. in other Words
pure and ignorant y, who shall conquer King
All these things have occurred before the OPEN
my of the play.
rs to the symbolisms. or understandings of par
sifal'' 1t seems plain enough that, in Amortas
Wagner intended to Humanity Man. the
victim of passion In Klingsor behold Evil, a
re-incarnation of the Arcll-Enemy. The exact sig
nifcance of Kundry. who submits to klingsor,
while she rebels against him. is less selfevdent Yet
it is hard to doubt that the composer meant kundry
to be an embodiment of what Goethe calls the "Ewige
weihlche," the ''etcrnal-womanly," with her dual
nature her aspiration after good and lapses into wick
ednrss. The Grail or Holy Grail, may be accepted
the symbol of revvifving Grace Tennyson speaks
of it in of his most lovely dylls,
The cup. the cu, itself; from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad Supper with His own
faith of all his ills But then the
Grew such evil that the holy cup
Va caught Heaven. and disappeared.
We are told however, in 'Parsifal," that the
mysterious Grail restored to earth and entrusted
to Titure the aged father of Amfortas. He
built Temple and enrolled the knights by whom it
has since been guarded None but the pure
privileged to have to the cup which it conceals
benefit by its virtues The Spear stand
in the compoSer-poets scheme svmbolizaton of .
Power. All free read their interpret ations
into this strange work. rs into a grand symphony.
Wagner found the essentials of his ''Parsifal" in the
" Parzival' that Wolfram Eschenbach who
appears in ''Tannh;iser" 1t is plain from ''Lohen-
grin that he had long contemplated making his pure
Fool the centre of music-drama. Lohengrn, it
should he remembered. Knight of the Grail. son
vadc the later work meets in the earlier and more
operate masterpiece. Moreover. in "Lohengrin'' as
in ''Tannh;i,ser in ''The Flying Dutchman" and in
{. >irgfrird. Wagners theme redemption
alternately by faith. srlf-denia love and valor. But
the creator of ''Parsfal" did confine himself to
deb,ed to Chreten de Troyes. who wrote of the
same hero; to the Arthurian tales: II
and to the legends of that Northern Spain II
in which. without explicitly stating. he
has placed Monsalvat. That he had also
studied Buddhism may infer from his
making klingsor speak. in the second II IL
act. of Kundrv re-incarnation of y III
Herodas Most of all, he, of course II N
owed to his genius. n il
For it genius that enabled wv rs
him to give flesh to the dead bones M> .,
of myths - clothing them in the IN0O,
splendors of Theatre scenery and + ~ 81
glorifving them with the most =
noble music Out of an old leg + FL. II
end he made miracle-play. Out G/.o9s =.
of this mirace-play, he evolved