Name: Parsifal
Start: 2024-02-25
End: 2024-03-08

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In the story about the "pure fool", Philipp Stölzl places questions about the fanaticism of hermetic religious communities at the centre of his interpretation: an anti-Enlightenment world view, belief in miracles, the violent exclusion of outsiders are themes that he shapes in tableaux vivants as a time travel through two millennia.

Thomas Johannes Mayer, Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Conductor: Sir Donald Runnicles
Director: Philipp Stölzl
With Jordan Shanahan, Günther Groissböck, Klaus Florian Vogt, Joachim Goltz, Irene Roberts a. o.

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.

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Additional information

Opera and poem by Richard WagnerFirst performed on 26th July, 1882 in Bayreuth Premiered at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on 21. October, 2012

recommended from 16 years on

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

Participating artists

Sir Donald Runnicles (Musikalische Leitung)

Philipp Stölzl (Inszenierung)

Mara Kurotschka (Co-Regie)

Conrad Moritz Reinhardt (Bühnenbild)

Philipp Stölzl (Bühnenbild)

Kathi Maurer (Kostüme)

Jeremy Bines (Chöre)

Ulrich Niepel (Licht)

Christian Lindhorst (Kinderchor)

Jordan Shanahan (Amfortas)

Andrew Harris (Titurel)

Günther Groissböck (Gurnemanz)

Klaus Florian Vogt (Parsifal)

Joachim Goltz (Klingsor)

Irene Roberts (Kundry)

Patrick Cook (1. Gralsritter)

Youngkwang Oh (2. Gralsritter)

Sua Jo (1. Knappe)

Arianna Manganello (2. Knappe)

Kieran Carrel (3. Knappe)

Chance Jonas-O'Toole (4. Knappe)

Hulkar Sabirova (Blumenmädchen (1. Gruppe))

Sua Jo (Blumenmädchen (1. Gruppe))

Arianna Manganello (Blumenmädchen (1. Gruppe))

Hye-Young Moon (Blumenmädchen (2. Gruppe))

Meechot Marrero (Blumenmädchen (2. Gruppe))

Marie-Luise Dreßen (Blumenmädchen (2. Gruppe))

Marie-Luise Dreßen (Stimme aus der Höhe)

Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Chöre)

Kinderchor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Chöre)

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Orchester)

Opernballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Tanz)

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