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

Swan Song

The section of the opera I chose to look at was from around 45:00-58:00. The scene focuses on the inscription of the grail: “Enlightened through compassion, the innocent fool,” and the moment when the “fool” Parsifal shoots down a swan and is chastised into remorse. With regard to the details of the scene, the music follows along with the expected emotion, which I imagine helps to present the message in a way that words are incapable of doing on their own. When the priest speaks about the grail’s message, the camera focuses closely on him and nothing else. When the swan is killed, the music turns from holy and hopeful to intense and distraught, as the camera zooms out and everyone, including the heathen woman on the ground, takes notice. When Parsifal enters the scene after the swan is placed on the ground, he is rather aloof. Throughout the scene he is then chastised for his behavior, while the camera focuses on his changing emotions in reaction to what he’s done, turning from cocky to eventually remorseful. Parsifal is completely ignorant about who he is and where he’s from at first, until the heathen woman gives him a few hints and he begins to remember. The audience is shown that he regrets his actions. A corresponding scene in the book that is similar lies on pg. 51 of Parzival, where there is talk about his killing of birds, as well as how he’s entranced by the sweetness of their song. There is a lot more background in the book regarding the origins of Parzival’s ignorance, his mother. Also he is definitely affected emotionally by killing birds, and when his mother has a bunch of them killed in an effort to thwart his anxiety, he wholeheartedly expresses his disagreement with her actions. This scene is then used to lead into his mother’s explanation of God and the Devil.
In comparing the two scenes that I chose here, it became apparent rather quickly that the differences are numerous. The focus on this section in the opera is aimed to drive-home a message about how compassion and remorse are positive traits, simply by the way the music follows closely along with the expected emotion, as the camera’s zoomed-in focus being on the grail’s message at the beginning, as well as a zoomed-in focus on the Parsifal’s throughout. The swan that has been killed is treasured immensely as a “faithful” and innocent creature, who was simply “seeking his mate.” Parsifal’s ignorance is really played-up in the opera, as well as there being a focus on how the death of the creature is no one’s fault but his own. They do not pay attention to how he obtained his ignorance at all. During the majority of this scene, the priest chastises Parsifal for what he’s done, and it’s drawn out in order to call attention to his guilt. It’s also easy to see the differences in how he feels when first asked about whether he has shot the swan, and how he feels at the end of the scene as I’ve mentioned above; being that toward the end of the scene Parsifal is so distraught that he breaks his bow in half, and then throws it to the ground. The swan is a symbol of true innocence and purity in the opera, due not only to its innocence being pointed out by the priest, but also because of its size and color; the size being obviously meant to illustrate its importance to the message. In the book however, while there is talk about his killing of birds, the focus is not on one particular bird, and he isn’t forced to accept what he has done by anyone but himself. There’s more of a focus in the book on why he is so ignorant, his mother’s over-sheltering behavior. The biggest similarity I found was how they both reminded me of the very first story of Perceval that we read this semester, being that he is a central character whose mother in an attempt to keep him from harm, sheltered him into ignorance. Also, Parzival in the book feels remorse like he does in the opera, but the focus in the book is more on how his anxiety about the birds drives his mother to have even more killed. The messages for the two forms of media are similar, calling to remorse and compassion, and pointing out how ignorance can still lead to these traits in someone. But with the opera it’s as if the reasons why Parsifal is ignorant don’t matter as much, and as a result it lacks depth in comparison, regardless whether its presentation exists in honor of the main message. The book focuses on why he became ignorant, probably in order to send a message about destiny and lineage. The one sentence that spells this idea out for me is located just after Pazival’s mother catches him admiring the birds’ sound. It is said that, “She observed that her child’s breast swelled at the sound of their voices, compelled to it by lineage and his desire.” This quote marks the moment his mother decides to take action by having many birds killed, which is her last attempt to keep her son away from the world he is destined to be a part of. It says that no matter what she does, lineage overrides all. I was not able to find another scene within the book which represented the use of birds in comparison to the opera, so I hope I was able at the very least, to get close to something for the sake of this assignment. On a closing note, there is also mention in the opera of Parsifal being, “shielded by his foolishness,” which in a sense is exactly what his mother in the book is trying to take part in; in that she’s hoping to keep him safe by keeping him ignorant.