New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-02-24
The True Significance Of
Richard Wagner's nParsifal. =

w agner S ars1tal.
Meaning Of the Wonderful
resented at the urner
Evening.
vanities and frivolities of the world
that are inclined to blind ones eyes
to the true path and so render one less
liable to successfully resist falling in
to the pit before him.
In Kundry, witch and enchantress,
we recognize at once a female type of
the "Jekyll and Hyde" order. The
author intended to portray with this
character the ordinary human love in
contrast to that higher and spiritual
love that we instinctively crave for.
But we see more than this. We per-
ceive the dreadful depths that polluted
passion and desire, so often mistaken
for the ennobling natural love, can
lead one to. We see in this BEINGS
dual nature, even at its worst stage,
the instructive craving for release
from her bondage of sin and the de-
sire to do good even when an outcast.
In her struggles to free herself from
the control of ''Klingsor'' we see poor
fallen womanhood striving to resist
with all her power, but, weak and
powerless in the grasp of sin, unable
to continue the struggle and falling
further still into the vortex of shame
and degradation. Yet we ultimately
see this being, fallen and vile as she
has become, restored to grace through
the all powerful influence of redeem
ing love.
It is, however, in the beautiful
character of Parsifal, the hero of the
story, wherein lies the chief charm of
the drama and its teachings. Parsifal
comes upon the scene when everything
is chaos and disaster. The knights
are in despair and misery. Amfortas
is bewailing his fate and suffering in
describable torments of mind and
body. He seeks and prays for death
to relieve him of his wretched con-
dition and plight. Klingsor, with his
magic garden, is in the height of his
power, ever seeking the complete de-
struction of all pertaining to the holy
temple and its afflicted knights.
Nothing seems possible to avert the
threatened doom, and, when every
thing seems the blacklist, Parsifal ap-
pears as a specially ordained and
divinely appointed redeemer.
Reared within the confines of a
lonely forest, guarded and guided by
a watchful mother, Parsifal has
entered the world without know
ledge of sin. The development of
his own inherited gifts is left to the
natural instincts Of nature that is
guileless and without a knowledge of
wrong. Seeing all the sorrow and
misery within the domain of the Holy
Grail" in the simplicity and goodness
of his nature he prays for the power
to alleviate it all. Klingsor and his
instrument. Kundry, seek in every
possible way to encompass his down
fall. Parsifal resists them to the ut
most, but in doing SO learns for the
first time the horrible significance of
sin. With the sign Of the cross, made
with the sacred spear that he has re-
covered from Klingsor, the magic
gardens and its habitants. that have
caused SO much of misery and sorrow,
are made to disappear from the face
of the earth, and Parsifal, determined
to make himself worthy of the glorious
: task of rescuing the knights from their
| impending fate, goes out into the
world with that sole object in view.
We see him returning later. after
, being chastened and sorely tried, still
; with the holy lance undefled, bringing
: JOY and relief to the suffering blu,
: devoted band.
) In all this action we are led to see
: the mysterious workings of divine
providence that chooses its own way
to restore poor humanity to it's bene
? fcent grace and good will.
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E to the
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