Parsifal: Facing the ContradictionsAuthor(s): Barry MillingtonSource: The Musical Times, Vol. 124, No. 1680, Richard Wagner Centenary Issue (Feb., 1983),pp. 97-98Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/962677Accessed: 27/07/2010 15:04

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Parsifal: Facing the Contradictions Barry Millington Parsifal, no less than the Ring, is a syn- thesis of disparate and sometimes con- tradictory elements. Wagner drew for his libretto on a wide range of ideas: pagan motifs from the earlier medieval sources; ethical virtues implanted in his main source, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Par- zival; subsequent Christian accretions to the legend such as the association of the Holy Grail with the Last Supper; Scho- penhauerian- Buddhist concepts of re- nunciation, extinction and learning through suffering; and finally notions of racial purity such as were expounded at length in the so-called 'regeneration writings' of Wagner's last years. The fact that these elements were welded together with consummate mastery, and matched with a score of all-enveloping radiance, has perhaps tended to blind us to the in- ternal tensions that result from such a synthesis.

Any general appreciation of Parsifal needs to take all these aspects into ac- count and it is therefore risking distortion to focus on only one - the regeneration writings - though this is justified on the grounds that they have received inade- quate attention as the theoretical counter- part of Parsifal. Before looking at the hard core of regeneration writings dating from 1878 to 1881, it should be mention- ed that Wagner's drastic measures for dealing with what he regarded as the bane of miscegenation date back much earlier: Hartmut Zelinsky has detected the for- mulation of key concepts such as 'des- truction', 'fire cure' and 'artistic terror- ism' as early as the late 1840s; the virulently anti-Semitic Das Judentum in der Musik (1850) ended with a ringing ex- hortation to the Jew to seek redemption in some unspecified form of self-annihila- tion ('die Erl6sung Ahasvers, - der Un- tergang!');1 and other writings from here on give rein to what Zelinsky calls 'burn- ing and destruction fantasies',2 always with the object of freeing the world from the mercenary, cultureless domination of the Jews.

The nucleus of regeneration writings opens with Modern (1878). Also included are Publikum und Popularitdt, Wollen wir hoffen?, Religion und Kunst, Was niitzt diese Erkenntnis? ('What use is this knowledge?'), Erkenne dich selbst ('Know thyself') and a baleful climax is reached in 1881 with Heldentum und Christentum. Cosima Wagner's Diaries reveal an even more obsessive, bigoted hatred of other races. Present-day culture is detrimental- ly controlled by the Jews, argues Wagner; they 'intervened too early in our cultural condition' with the result that 'the human qualities the German character might have developed from within itself and then passed on to the Jewish character have been stunted by their premature interference in our affairs, before we have become fully aware of ourselves'.3 They have even debased religion, causing people mistakenly to associate the crucified Son of God with the Jewish creator of heaven and earth. It is not only Jews of whom Wagner disapproves: 'the Negroes', Cosima records, Wagner 'can hardly visualize taking part in public affairs'.4 Wagner was also very close intellectually and emotionally to Count Gobineau (a regular guest at Wahnfried) and felt that he was progressing beyond Gobineau's pessimistic theory of an ir- remediably contaminated human race with his view that 'a human being who is born black, urged toward the heights, becomes white and at the same time a dif- ferent creature'.5 The concept of an Aryan Jesus is floated6 and in Heldentum und Christentum it becomes clear what Wagner is driving at: the Saviour's blood was pure since he represented the highest possible development of the human species; by partaking of the blood of Jesus in the sacrament of Eucharist the very lowest races might be raised to the purity of gods.

This is the ideological background against which Parsifal was composed. The knights of the Grail are sustained and purified by the miraculous trans- fusion of Christ's blood. And as Zelinsky

shows in an earlier publication, Richard Wagner - ein deutsches Thema,7 the ex- clusive, inward-looking Grail brother- hood had its real-life counterpart in the mysterious bonds and secret societies and the overbearing aura of incestuous self- regard which was to characterize Wahn- fried for decades to come. Ein deutsches Thema is a revealing assemblage of documents from the Wagnerian and post- Wagnerian eras which enables the reader to trace the cross-currents of thought that informed on the one hand the works and writings of Wagner and on the other the philosophy of the proto- and actual Nazis who pressed Wagner into service for their own ends. It is thus a more valuable reference tool than "Die Feuerkur", in which Zelinsky confusingly intertwines Wagner's language and his own to make a devastating case against Wagner but one that fails to put the charges in perspec- tive. Neither publication does justice to the historical fact that Wagner was only one German middle-class intellectual among thousands who felt threatened by 'alien' peoples and for whom national pride was an honourable, even a pro- gressive notion. Nor, because they are solely concerned with the regeneration theories, do they begin to take account of the other themes essential to Parsifal, those mentioned at the beginning of this article.

What about the score? Does not its nobility put the morality of Parsifal beyond question? It is, I believe, only bland interpretations and lazy listening that lead to such a conclusion. Carl Dahlhaus, among others, has analysed the ways in which the score is peculiarly related to the subject matter8 and in par- ticular how the categories of diatonicism and chromaticism overlap and contradict each other for an allegorical purpose.9 Other analysts have emphasized the ambiguities in Wagner's mature style and Arnold Whittall has observed that the apparent association between certain themes and tonalities does not extend to 'a rigid, all-inclusive system of tonal rela-

1 Sdmtliche Schriften und Dichtungen (Leipzig, 1911i), v, 85 2

'Die "Feuerkur" des Richard Wagner oder die "neue religion" der "Erl6sung" durch "Vernich- tung" ', in Musik-Konzepte 5: Richard Wagner: Wie antisemitisch darf ein Kiinstler sein?, ed. H.-K. Metz- ger and R. Riehn (Munich, 1978), 81

3 Cosima Wagner's Diaries, ii, trans. Geoffrey Skelton (London, 1980): 13 Jan 1879 4 ibid, 24 Jan 1879 5 ibid, 16 Oct 1882 6 Sdmtliche Schriften, x, 89; x, 232

7 Frankfurt am Main, 1976 8 essay (in Ger. and Fr. only) in booklet accompany-

ing Decca's Solti recording of Parsifal (Decca SET550-54), 2 and 18 9 Richard Wagner's Music Dramas (Cambridge,

1979), trans. Mary Whittall, 151-2 97

tions'.10 Strong as the temptation is, it is misleading to regard the A flat major in which the work begins, ends and fre- quently moves as the focal point of a scheme of tonal unity. Wagner's tonal relations require more sophisticated analysis." 1

The recent production of Parsifal at the Frankfurt Opera by the East German Ruth Berghaus brought the first hundred years of the staging of this work to a spec- tacular close. The importance of this pro- duction lies in its willingness to address itself in the first place to the regeneration ideology that lurks in the shadows behind Parsifal, and in the second to the con- tradictions and inconsistencies inherent in the work itself.

The Grail Brotherhood is surely the most chilling ever seen. As a community in need of redemption it has been presen- ted before with sinister overtones, but Berghaus's hoodlums - shaved heads and dark glasses - are a fearsome threat as well as a body on the verge of extinc- tion. Their insistence that Amfortas (John Br6cheler) perform the Grail cere-

mony is a violent and desperate act of self-preservation. Parsifal's path to redemption (self-knowledge?) is indeed an arduous one: the Good Friday meadow has to be painstakingly un- covered by Parsifal (Walter Raffeiner) and Kundry themselves by rolling back grey canvases, and in the final thrilling tableau, the Grail knights having expired to represent the passing away of the old corrupt order, Parsifal stands alone, weeping, in a brilliant fluorescent red circle: a triumphant outcome or a tragic one? - certainly a resolution achieved at enormous cost.

Kundry's baptism by Parsifal enables her to play a more active role than usual: at the final moment of redemption she is prominent and participating, though like Amfortas she joins the knights in their apparently voluntary act of self-annihila- tion. Gurnemanz records the transgres- sions of his knights in a professorial note- book; Klingsor's self-mutilation is repre- sented visibly and shockingly by a large red stain on the crotch of his white costume. Kundry, dressed to suggest per- haps a bird of prey, is presented in an almost traditional manner but at the per- formance I saw on 25 December Gail Gil- more, the outstanding American singing- actress in the role, was the most compell- ing of all the characters. One wondered whether it was a deliberately provocative decision to have a black actress partici- pating in the redemption process, but in fact Miss Gilmore was standing in for Pauline Tinsley.

As will have been noticed, Frau Berg- haus's reading of the stage directions is liberal, even cavalier where she wants to make a forceful point. I willingly con- ceded her that freedom in return for an abundance of illuminating ideas; in many other respects, her staging confirms a close knowledge of text and music and an acute awareness of the possibilities offered by both.

But there is much to be puzzled at. The primary colours of red, yellow and blue are associated with different characters and situations, the flowermaidens sport- ing all three; however, the significance of any colour symbolism eluded me. A huge book is part of the stage apparatus in Acts 1 and 3, but again the meaning of this was no clearer to me at the final curtain than that of the suitcases on which the Grail knights sit. So many ends of this sort remain untied that one is driven to the conclusion that the producer is deliberately creating uncertainties, per- haps to draw attention to the irreconcil-

able elements of the work itself. Without doubt it is a production that continually challenges received opinion on Parsifal; that alone would have been a good deed but this is also a thoroughly gripping theatrical experience in its own right. A uniformly strong cast was conducted by Michael Gielen, whose measured pacing of the outer acts and almost brutal reading of the transformation scenes har- monized perfectly with the production. Credit for the staging also belongs to the designer Axel Manthey and the drama- turg Klaus Zehelein.

Less than half a century after the holocaust we, and even more so Ger- many, are still struggling to come to terms with the man the Nazis chose as their figurehead. With shrewd artistic judgment, Wagner refrained from couch- ing his extremist views on racial purity in the language of music drama, just as, in my opinion, he held back from instilling a message that was explicitly Christian,12 or explicitly anything else. Parsifal is an enigma, an enigma replete with ambigu- ities and contradictions. May the next hundred years bring many more stagings that are prepared to face up to that fact. 10 chap.3 in Lucy Beckett: Parsifal (Cambridge,

1981), 66 11 ibid; see whole chapter, 61-86

The Finzi Trust in association with the

New Macnaghten Concerts Gerald Finzi Composition

Award 1984

I Prize ?500

and First performance in the

1984 New Macnaghten Concerts

Judges Odaline de la Martinez

Anthony Payne Jeremy Dale Roberts

Full details available from The Secretary, Finzi Trust,

22 Hillside Road, Frodsham, Cheshire WA6 6AQ

12 for a persuasively argued contrary view see Lucy Beckett: Parsifal, chap.6

Appoinrmnts, Awards John Bain is appointed principal of the Purcell School.

John Deathridge is appointed lecturer in music at Cambridge University. Andrew Ford and Mark-Anthony Turnage won the Yorkshire Arts Association Young Composers' Competition, the former for his Portraits, and the lat- ter for Entranced.

John Hall won the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Singers' Award for 1982.

John Hancorn (baritone) and Gary Mercer (piano) have won Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Awards.

Istvan Kassai won the Claude Debussy Piano Com- petition at St-Germain-en-Laye. Yoko Matsuo won the Emile Vuillermoz Prize in the International Competition for Young Conductors at Besanpon. W.E. Hill's violin workshops at Havenfields, Great Missenden, have been given a Civic Trust Award.

The Royal Society of Arts - Radcliffe Award for Graphic Excellence in Music Publishing has been instituted to encourage high standards in the visual aspects of musical publications; it will be open to any manufacturing publisher in the United King- dom or the Commonwealth, and the award will be made annually. Details from the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ.

98

Article Contentsp. 97p. 98

Issue Table of ContentsThe Musical Times, Vol. 124, No. 1680, Richard Wagner Centenary Issue (Feb., 1983), pp. 73-136Front Matter [pp. 73-132]Richard Wagner Died 13 February 1883. Producing a New 'Ring' [pp. 86-89]Wagner's 'A Communication to My Friends': Reminiscence and Adaptation [pp. 89-92]Cataloguing Wagner [pp. 92-93+95-96]Parsifal: Facing the Contradictions [pp. 97-98]The RCM Novello Library [pp. 99-101]William Bathe and His Times [pp. 101-102]Book ReviewsReview: Music and Meaning [p. 103]Review: Cook Book [pp. 103+106]Review: British Romantics [p. 106]Review: The Young Strauss [pp. 106-107]Review: Wolf Guide [p. 107]Books Received [p. 107]

Record ReviewsReview: untitled [p. 108]Review: untitled [p. 108]Review: untitled [p. 108]Review: untitled [p. 108]Review: untitled [p. 108]

Music ReviewsReview: Bach for Lute? [p. 109]Review: Modern Piano [pp. 109-110]Review: Wind plus [p. 110]

Music in London [pp. 111-114]Reports [pp. 115-118]Review: Television [p. 118]Church and Organ MusicA Purcell Service and Its Sources [pp. 121-122]Book ReviewReview: untitled [p. 123]

Royal College of Organists [p. 124]

London Diary for March [pp. 133-136]Back Matter