E 326K // Literature of the Middle Ages in Translation: Mysteries of the Grail

Opera vs. Parzival

In the opera, from 3:06 to 3:10 is the scene between (I believe) Titurel’s knight and Anfrontas. Titurel’s knight is having a conversation with Anfrontas making him aware of how he is no longer on the right path and what his results can lead to. This scene also discusses Anfrontas’ wounds. In the book Parzival by Wolfram, I believe that this scene is on page 330. The sentence I was able to locate is talking about Anfrontas’ wound, “That brought pain to his wound, Anfortas being in such torment that maidens and knights heard the frequent sound of his screaming and met with wretched glances from his eyes. He was wounded past help-they could not help him” (330). The scene from the opera starts out with who I believe is Titurel’s knight. He walks towards Anfrontas and making him realize that what has been done is not good and it needs “heeling”. Anfrontas is just listening and also walking around him. Titurel’s knight’s voice gets louder as he begins to speak about Anfrontas’ wound and the torment that was done to his soul. He seems to be upset as his voice dramatically fluctuates throughout the scene. He states, “The divine bread is now denied us.” And he mentions how he has to hide in the forest (3:10). This entire time, Anfrontas does not say much, he just takes all of the information in. The background of the scene includes a lot of trees giving it an outdoor appearance. Other than that, there is really not much more going besides the conversation between the two.

Although in the opera, Anfrontas’ pain is described, in the book it gives more significant details about the wounds by describing the screams that is a result of the pain and wound. Both of the scenes cover this topic, however the opera goes in depth explaining the consequences of not being in the right path and the implication behind the importance. The book on the other hand, goes into details about what is done to the wound to alleviate the pain. If I am not mistaken and these are similar scenes, the opera is focused more on the consequences of the actions while the scene from the book explains the pain and suffer Anfrontas went through due to the wound. Based off of the hour that I watched and the scene that I chose, I think that Wagner’s version talks about the result/consequences of the action where as the book talks about the moment and not what will happen as a result.