Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-14
CONGRATULATIONS
New National Theater


Washington will have it's first glimpse of
"Parsifar' next week
The production will be made in English
at the National Theater by Henry w
SaVages Company, and is announced as
rivaling in SPLENDID. briliancy and alti-
tude or purpose the magnificent spectacles
of either the METROPOLITAN Opera House in
New YORK or of the Festival Theater In
opera-sanctifed Bayreuth
The music-drama win be given here con-
tinuously Tor one week, with matinees on
Wednesday and Saturday.
Wagner's 'ParsifaI' is a lyric drama
based upon one of the most popular le-
gends of the middle ages and wrought into
the most attractive literary form by such
medlaevai singers as Chreten de Troyes
and Wolfram Won Eschenbach That Curl
Gus body of mystical romance which grew
up between the years ITO and 1920, and
which is known as the Grail Cycle forms
the legendary background of the tale The
Parsifal story is but one of the many ro-
mances in which the sacred cup which re-
ceivea tne blood of the Savior is the pivot
ABOUT which the action revolves. The Ar
thur1an legends are, of course affiliated
with Parsifal, and in the tale of the Round
iaple Sir Galahad may be somewhat iden-
tlhed with Wagner's hero In the onera
the one properly Arthurian figure p,ention
ed is the knight Gawain to whom Cur
nemanz makes brief allusion in the omen
ing scene. put, although Wagner was to
a considerable extent indebted to the whole
Dody or Grail literature for his "Parsifal' -
the direct source of his inspiration was tba
narrative poem of Wolfram Won Eschen-
pach, the celebrated minnesinger of the
court of Heinrich the First who oddly
enough, figures as one of the prominent
characters in the opera of "Tannhaeuser, -
WIN wolfram as working basis there
Iore' wagner proceeded to amplify alter
ana reVitalize the original legend until the
npretto OF "Parsifal' possesses a deep phil
osophlcal character which quite over
balances its early and purely romantic as
Buddhism
are the chief ingredients of the ethics of
larsHal' ana as result the work be-
comes, as Wagner primarily intended it
shoud, less an objective drama than the
exposition of a philosophy Wagner him
SER called it play for a holy day. and
IA ms mind its ethical significance was
ne i,r,. losl sight Of For that reason, from
i us ihitlai production in Bayreuth until last
CHRISTMAS eve, 1T was never given outside
of the Festival Theater 'NNe
Inc story of its so-called proclamation"
ny winch thousands of people who wouId
never have been able to make the Bayreutb
pilgrimage were put in touch with its
oeauties, Is now an important part of musi-
cal history
Briefly sketched. the action of the onera
concerns the adventures of youth, par
slfal,' known as the Guileless Fool. who
Journeys into the country Of the Grail near
the peak of Montsalvat, in the Pyrenees
He encounters an ancient knight, downcast
and sorrowful because Amfortas, King of
the Grail, has succumbed to the lascvious
temptations laid for him by Klingsor, a
magician, and implacable enemy of the
order. The moral fall of Amfortas has
two concrete results. He loses and is
wounded by the sacred lance that pierced
the side of the Savior. Furthermore the
unfortunate king can find no rest until his
wound is healed, and is unable without
great agony to preside at the love feast
which gives spiritual ,efreshment to the
Knights of the Grail. The story of how
Parsifal, the incarnation of innocence, sue
ceeds in Vanquishing the powers of evil,
in wfthstanding the Establishments of Kun
dry, that strange dual compound of good
and evil, OF the regeneration, physical and
moral of Amfortas, which he effects, and
of his final elevation to the kingship of
the Grail, are the leading events of Wag-
ners book
The prime significance of the drama is
its exposition of that theme which Schopen-
hauer has made the subject of one of his
greatest works-"the remuneration of the
Will to i've, or, in other words altruiSm:
the sacrifice of self for the sake of another
Regarding the score there are wide diff
ferences of opinion. OF course, as Wag-
ners final opera, the premiere taking place
in 1882 the work represents the Wagnerian
manner in its most intellectual and per-
fected state. The score, which is entirely
erected on the leit-motive principle, is won
drously subtle, and beyond all doubt con-
veys just that impression of mysticism of
strange aloofness from things mundane,
which was the composers purpose.
The Savage production of the music
drama promises to be in every way worthy.
The mise-en-scene vies in magnificence
with the Conried production, which in turn
is said to have very much eclipsed the Bay
reuth efforts: the cast numbers some of
the operate worlds noted figures, while the
orchestra is composed of expert musicians
under the skilled direction of conductors of
marked artistic personality.
Mr.. Savage's company is very large one,
and he, is fortunate in having always two
and sometimes three singers for the same
role. His Parsifals are Alois Pennarini,
loo n
Francis Maelennan. an American with q
fine reputation in England, and Christian
de VosS, leading tenor of the Amsterdam
Opera House. The Kundrys will be Mad
anne Kirby-Lunn the rich-voiced English
mezzo-soprano Hanna Mara, principal So
prano of the Breslau Opera House, and
Florence Wickham, young American, who