DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN - Parsifal

Richard Wagner's PARSIFAL tells the story of a “pure-hearted fool“, who is unaware of his vocation and true nature. Parsifal is caught between two opposing worlds - the ascetic society of the Knights of the Holy Grail and Klingsor's erotically charged magic garden. There, Parsival attains enlightenment from the kiss of a woman and is able to gain redemption for Amfortas, the suffering Grail king, and the Knights of the Grail. Borrowing freely from a diverse range of sagas, Christian and Buddhist motifs and Schopenhauer's ideas, Richard Wagner created his own mythical tale. Wagner, too, was plagued for decades by a fear of disaster and a constant thirst for redemption. With his PARSIFAL he addressed head-on the question of redemption, both private and social, and conjured his own utopia in the chaste, male world of the Knights of the Grail.

The premiere of Richard Wagner's PARSIFAL, his “Bühnenweihfestspiel“ or 'festival drama for the consecration of the stage', represented the climax of festivities to mark the 100th anniversary of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. General Music Director Donald Runnicles teams up with film and opera director Philipp Stölzl, who has twice come up with spectacular and suggestive images for the works of Richard Wagner - in 2009 with THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at the Theater Basel and in 2010 with RIENZI at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

duration: 5 hrs 30 mins / 2 intervals

program

Parsifal
Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)

Bühnenweihfestspiel in drei Aufzügen
Dichtung von Richard Wagner
Uraufführung am 26. Juli 1882 in Bayreuth
Premiere an der Deutschen Oper Berlin am 21. Oktober 2012

In deutscher Sprache mit deutschen und englischen Übertiteln
Einführung: 45 Minuten vor Vorstellungsbeginn im Rang-Foyer rechts
empfohlen ab 16 Jahren

Place

On September 24, 1961 the Opernhaus that had been inaugurated in 1912 and destroyed during the War was reopened as Deutsche Oper Berlin. Ever since it has been Berlin´s largest and Germany´s second largest music theatre, featuring among the most modern institutions in Europe. The straightforward and elegant building that was realized by architect Fritz Bornemann (he also conceived the America Memorial Library and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, a. o.) seats 1.859 and guarantees a maximum viewing and hearing experience for every visitor.