The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-19
THE STORY OF "PARSIFAL.'
THE PLOT AND INCIDENTS OF
WAGNER'S DRAMA.

Against His own Passion - Its
Treatment of the Same Topic a'
"Tannhaeuser" A synopsis Oi
Each of the Three Acts.
w. j. Henderson in the New York
Sun.
The forthcoming production Of Par
sifal" at the Metropolitan Opera House
is entitled to be regarded as aSnusi-
cal event of the greatest magnitude
Already it has awakened much dis
cussion, more or less wise and net
overinstructive. Many thousands OF
words will yet be written and printed
about the work. 1t is the purpose OF
the editor of the musical department
of The Sun to endeavor to open w
the work to general consideration. The
FIRST thing TO be done, therefore, is
to tell its story in plain words.
To the ever widening circle of de-
voted lovers Of musical art 'Parsifal'
Is we'll known. Most of them have
studied the book and the score and
not few of them have crossed the
restless sea to visit the sacred TESTS
pielhaus at Bayreuth and witness a
performance under the immediate su-
pervision of the amiable widow of the
master. But Mr.. Conrieds enterprise
has awakened the interest of thou
sands who have never before given
this work a moments thought. 1t Is
to persons of that class that the writer
must first address himself.
To clear away some ground let 1t
be said in the beginning that Richard
Ill al ...4s
Of the drama, and that he never thought
of opera as anything else than a form
of drama. In nearly every one of his
works he preached the redeeming pow
er of love. In nearly every work he
showed man hopelessly struggling in
the meshes of his own sins and re-
deemed by some power outside him
self. usually the devotion of woman.
In the great Nibelungen trilogy he
proclaimed his belief in the ultimate
abstraction of law by showing Wotan,
q god and the master of gods, vainly
seeking to avoid the consequences of
his own sin. His redemption came in
the self-sacrifice of Brunnhilde, as the
Flying Dutchman's had come in the
death of Senta, as Tannhauser's had
come in the death of Elizabeth.
In "ParsifaT' Wagner took up again
In new from the thought which he
treated in ''Tannhauser," namely, the
battle of man against carnal tempta-
ton. In "Tannhauser" we see the
errant knight, the lordly minnesinger,
wearied of godly life, hidden in the
seclusion of the grotto of Venus. 1t
was one of the medieval beliefs that
the heather gods had not been utterly
destroyed by the advent of Christian
ity, but were hiding in secret places Of
the earth To hold converse with one
of them was apostasy in its worst
form. Venus, the goddess of love,
holds Tannhauser ensnared till he
wearies of license and longs for PAIN
for the outer world and the WAYS of
life. He prays to the Virgin, and in
stantly the whole grotto with all its
nymphs and classic paraphernalia dis
appears, and Tannhauser finds him
self standing near the Wartburg Cas-
tie, where dwells Elizabeth, niece Of
the Landgrave, the holy Elizabeth, the
foil of Venus, and who loves him.
The rest of the drama is taken up
with showing how Tannhauser cannot
blot out of his soul the stain Of his
sin, but must needs passionately be-
tray the fact that he has been with
Venus. For this he is banished from
the court and sent to Rome to ask for
giveness of the Pope, but only after
Elizabeth, whose heart wound is NOR
tai, has interceded for him. He goes,
and the Pope says he shall be forgiv-
en- when the staff which he carries in
his hand shall blossom. He returns in
despair and would again seek Venus,
but the prayers of the dying Eliza
beth are efficacious, and at the last
moment he sinks dying beside her
bier, mumuring: Holy Elizabeth, pray
for me-" And the staff blossoms.
Tn Do vcffo1u 70 franfad the
battle of man against the flesh from
a wholly different point Of view. New
ertheless, the theme is the same one.
The Holy Grail, the sacred vessel in
which was caught the blood Of
Christ upon the cross. is held in the
keeping of a company of knights in
the Castle of Monsalvat. To be a men,
Der of that company man must be
personally pure. One Klingsor has
tried to enter the guild, but has been
rejected because he was not pure. He
has set up a magic castle in the val
ley below Monsalvat. He has a CO.
terie of seductive sirens, whose object
is the temptation of Knights of the
Grail. One of these Knights Amfor-
tas, son of the decrepit chief of the
order, Titurel by name, has fallen a
prey to the wiles of the sirens. A
struggle has ensued, and in 1t Klinsor
wrests from Amfortas the sacred spear
and wounds him with 1t. This is the
spear with which the side of the cru
Gifted Saviour was pierced, and the
wound will not heal.
We learn that, according to prophecy,
Amfortas will be redeemed from his
sufferings by ''guileless fool by pity
enlightened" The guileless fool ap-
pears in the person of Parsifal, but
when he is taken to Monsalvat and
shown the agony of Amfortas and the
ceremonies surrounding that wretched
knights exercise of his sacred Office of
grail keeper, he is dumb and motion
less.
But Kiingsor realizes the dangers of
the future, and he seeks to make il
impossible for Parsifal to re-enter
Monsalvat, or to be guileless fool.
He subjects him to the temptation of
the magic garden, employing as the d.
rect instrument of his will Kundry,
whose strange personality will be de-
scribed at the proper time. From her
he hears for the first time the story
of his mothers life, suffering and
death. To round her tale to perfect
close Kundry presses a kiss upon his
lips and bids him learn to love. But
instead of that he learns to pity. The
fool remains guileless and is enlight-
ened.. In time he returns to Monsalvat
and fulfls the prophecy. Amfortas is
redeemed and Parsifal succeeds him as
warder of the Holy Grail
Let us now review the story in some
detail as it is told in the dramatic poem
of Wagner. The music we may reserve
for future consideration. The drama
begins in the realm of the Castle OF
the Warders of the Grail, which is as
sumed to stand on the northern slope
OF mountains in Gothic Spain. In a