Richard Wagner: 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.”