The Redeemer Reborn Parsifal as the Fifth Opera of Wagner's Ring

by Schofield, Paul

• ISBN13: 9781574671612
• ISBN10: 1574671618
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-11-01
• Publisher: Amadeus

Summary

Traditionally, Wagnerian scholarship has always treated the Ring and Parsifal as two separate works. The Redeemer Reborn: Parsifal as the Fifth Opera of Wagner's Ring shows how Parsifal is in fact actually the fifth opera of the Ring. Schofield explains in detail how these five musical dramas portray a single, unbroken story which begins at the start of Das Rheingold when Wotan breaks a branch from the World Ash-tree and Alberich steals the gold of the Rhine, thus separating Spear and Grail, and ends with the reunion of the Spear and Grail in the temple of Monsalvat at the end of Parsifal. Schofield explains how and why the four main characters of the Ring are reborn in the opera Parsifal, needing to complete in Parsifal the spiritual journey begun in the Ring. He also shows how the redemption that is not attained in the process of the Ring is finally realized in the events of Parsifal.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: The Journey Begins	p. 1
Die Sieger: The Forerunner of Parsifal	p. 5
Schopenhauer and Buddhism	p. 6
Wagner, Schopenhauer, and Buddhism	p. 13
The Ring and Parsifal as One Work	p. 35
Alberich-Klingsor	p. 38
Wotan-Amfortas	p. 40
Brunnhilde-Kundry	p. 41
Siegfried-Parsifal	p. 44
Tragedy as Mysticism	p. 47
Wagner and the Grail	p. 77
The Fisher King	p. 88
The Tavatimsa Heaven	p. 94
The World of the Grail	p. 98
The Christianization of the Grail	p. 112
The Bloodline of the Grail	p. 121
Parzival	p. 125
Parzival and Wagner	p. 149
Lohengrin	p. 184
The Separation and Reunion of the Spear and Grail	p. 187
Wagner's Sources for the Ring	p. 197
The Sins of the Fathers	p. 205
Siegfried	p. 223
Parsifal	p. 249
The Final Redemption	p. 279
Epilogue	p. 289
Notes	p. 291
Bibliography	p. 301
Index	p. 305
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