This comment was written by Natalie Cormier on 4 Apr 2016.
3:39:05 Opera Comparrison
This scene in Parsifal features Anfortas lamenting the death of Titurel and his plea for his own death as well, it ends with his knights using force to keep him alive and Parsifal entering the scene. This corresponds to the opening on book XVI in Parzival on page 329-330 where Anfortas begs for death from his knights but they refuse to grant it to him and insist that he must wait for the second coming of Parzival. In the opera, Titurel has died and the knights have carried the coffin with his body off. The scene begins with a slow, mournful tone with dramatic pauses when Anfortas initially laments Titurel’s death and declares his own desire to follow Titurel into the afterlife in the middle of a circle of his soldiers. Also, note that Anfortas is not hindered in his movement when walking around the stage. The knights that surround the Anfortas on stage sing an oppressive cry that Anfortas must stay alive and for someone to bring the grail so that Anfortas will not be able to die. They rush to restrain Anfortas when he cries for them to stop collapsing and singing in a more forceful tone, he demands that they attack him with their weapons so that he can die. Several soldiers approach him with weapons drawn while Anfortas sings and does Parsifal who has entered the scene with the holy spear. The soldiers draw back as Parsifal hold the spear in front of Anfortas and declares that Anfortas can only be healed with the same weapon.
The opera and the book are glaringly different if only Parzival and Parsifal are compared. In the opera, Titurel has died; in the book, Titurel is still alive at the end of the book because Titurel instructs Firiel how to see the grail. The way in which Anfortas is healed is also different. Parsifal uses the holy spear and the holy grail in order to heal Anfortas while in the book, Parzival only needs to ask the question for Anfortas to be well once again. Furthermore, Anfortas can more around in the opera while in the book he is bedridden. Parisifal/Parzival is the one to heal Anfortas using the holy grail but the scences are much different when looking at details. The death of Titurel allows Anfortas to show a wider range of emotions and rather than making Anfortas only capable of lying in bed and screaming, Anfortas is able to fully express how much he wants to die and how much he is suffering. Furthermore, a spear coming together with the holy grail is much more appealing to a visual audience than a question being asked. A holy spear is also present in other versions of the Parzifal tale. Wagner is trying to appeal to a visual audience and create a wider range of emotions for his character so that the audience is more entertained.
