Critical Essay | Critical Essay by John M. McGlathery

Critical Essay by John M. McGlathery

SOURCE: McGlathery, John M. “Parsifal.” In Wagner's Operas and Desire, pp. 235-67. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.

In the following excerpt, McGlathery formulates a detailed explication of Wagner's final opera Parsifal with an emphasis on the work's representation of Parsifal's “triumph over desire.”

In his last opera, Wagner returns to the realm of magic and miracle. This time—more plainly than in Tannhäuser and Lohengrin—it is the world of Christian myth and legend. Parsifal indeed presents us with a community of knights of the Holy Grail, and is to that extent, at least, a drama of piety. Miracles, moreover, take place before our very eyes, so that as with the supernatural in Wagner's other operas, we must either accept the miracles at face value or attribute to them a symbolic role. Ultimately, the question in the present case is whether we have a glorification and recommendation of the Christian faith, or...
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