Parsifal

Parsifal is a story of suffering, compassion, and, ultimately, redemption, centred on the community of knights who guard the Holy Grail. Wagner said it was his ‘farewell to the world’, and so it proved. It was his final opera.

Amfortas, lord of the Grail knights, suffers physically from a wound inflicted upon him by the sorcerer Klingsor, and spiritually from the burden of sin: he allowed himself to be seduced in Klingsor’s magical realm by a beautiful woman. With no cure to be found for his suffering, the community of the Grail is threatened with disintegration. The only 

hope lies in a prophecy: that one day all may be redeemed by an innocent fool made wise by compassion. 

Widely regarded as the most mysterious of Wagner’s music dramas, debates about Parsifal’s ultimate meaning continue to rage. What is beyond argument is the overwhelming power and beauty of Wagner’s music, which reaches new heights of expressive intensity in this work.

Opera North’s first Parsifal is conducted by the Company’s former Music Director Richard Farnes, whose performances of the Opera North Ring cycle in 2016 met with universal acclaim.