Parsifal (1982)

Director:

Hans-Jürgen Syberberg

Writer:

Richard Wagner (text)

Release Date:

1 December 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Plot:

Richard Wagner's last opera has remained controversial since its first performance for its unique, and...

Plot Keywords:

Richard Wagner | Opera | Filmed Opera | Based On Opera | Myth

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Armin Jordan	...	Amfortas
Robert Lloyd	...	Gurnemanz
Martin Sperr	...	Titurel
Michael Kutter	...	Parsifal 1
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edith Clever	...	Kundry
Stephanie Corler
Anahita Farroschad
Miriam Feldman
Johanna Fink
Thomas Fink	...	2nd Squire
Rudolph Gabler	...	1st Knight of the Grail
Monika Gärtner	...	1st Squire
Reiner Goldberg	...	Parsifal (voice)
Alexandra Grunsberg
Aage Haugland	...	Klingsor
Eva Kessler
Vivian Kintisch
Catharina Klemm
Judith Klemm
Karin Krick	...	Parsifal 2
Sabine Kueckelmann
Martina Lanzinger
David Luther	...	Young Parsifal
Isabelle Malbrun
David Meyer	...	3rd Squire
Yvonne Minton	...	Kundry (voice)
Antonia Preser
Catharina Preser
Caroline Riollot
Guillemette Riollot
Sofia Romani
Bruno Romani-Versteeg	...	3rd Knight of the Grail
Judith Schmidt	...	4th Squire
Wolfgang Schöne	...	Amfortas (voice)
Claudia Schumann
Bettina Stiller
Amelie Syberberg	...	Bearer of the Grail
Anya Tölle
Urban von Klebelsberg	...	2nd Knight of the Grail
Sophie von Uslar
Anette Woll

Also Known As:

Parsifal (France)

Runtime:

USA:255 min

Country:

France | West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:G | UK:PG | USA:PG

Company:

Gaumont

Trivia:

Among the severed heads at the base of the broken phallus in Klingsor's castle (symbolizing the self-castration that gave the wizard his powers - this is one weird opera) are those of Karl Marx, Wagner himself...and Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher who was one of Wagner's most devoted champions until he broke with him over this very opera (he despised Christianity as a "slave" religion and thought Wagner had caved in to bourgeois morality).

Movie Connections:

Version of Parsifal (1999) (TV)

Despite all, it works!

updated January 1st, 2006

Parsifal is one of my two favorite Wagner operas or music dramas, to be more accurate, (Meistersinger is the other.) though it's hard to imagine it as the "top of anyone's pops". The libretto, by the composer as usual, is a muddle of religion, paganism, eroticism, and possibly even homo-eroticism, and its length may make it seem to the audience like hearing paint dry.

Wagner, being a famous anti-Semite, (Klingsor may be one of his surrogate Jewish villains.) naturally entrusted the premiere to an unconverted (not for want of RW's trying!) Hermann Levi, who was his favorite conductor! (Go figure!) Kundry, a most mixed-up-gal and another likely Jewish surrogate, is both villainous or benevolent, depending on the scene.

Considering that many video versions of Parsifal seem on the stodgy side, this film of the opera is, in comparison, a breath of fresh air. Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, the director, has brought considerable imagination to it but it's hard to know why he made some of his choices. For example: the notorious dual Parsifals (of each gender!), the puppets, the death-mask-of-Wagner set and various dolls and symbols such as the Nazi swastika in one of the traveling scenes. (If I remember, the "real" Engelbert Humperdinck wrote the actual music to pad out the scene changes.) Though Wagner himself died much too early to be an actual Nazi, many of his descendants (As well as his second wife Cosima.) were at least fellow-travelers, including their grandson Wolfgang Wagner who still runs the Bayreuth Festival at an advanced age. In fact, Wolfgang's son Gottfried Wagner, in complete opposition to his father, has tried to come to terms honestly with his great-grandfather.

Syberberg, too, seems politically ambiguous from what I've read. In 1977, he made a well-known film on Hitler, "Hitler: ein Film aus Deutschland" (Sometimes called "Our Hitler" in English.). Since it lasts all of 8 hours and hasn't been widely distributed, most people have not seen it (including myself.).

Armin Jordan, the conductor of the audio CD on which this film is based, plays Amfortas (sung by Wolfgang Schöne) Edith Clever (Yvonne Minton) plays Kundry, Michael Kutter and Karin Krick play the dual Parsifals (Both sung by Reiner Goldberg.!) and Robert Lloyd and Aage Haugland both play and sing Gurnemanz and Klingsor.

Though the opera takes place over a long period of time and all (except Kundry?) have been described as having aged considerably between Acts 2 and 3, no one looks a day older by the end of the opera. (The magic of the Grail? In this opera the Grail is the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper and not Mary Magdalene as in more recent times, an idea I find preposterous!).

The conducting and singing are all quite serviceable and the DVD seems to have improved the sound, if not the picture, to a great extent. (Yes, I agree that "Kna's" approach is superior, even on the second, stereo, version but he is probably superior to all recorded versions on the whole.)

Not a Parsifal for all Wagnerites but I think it works quite well as a filmed opera.