Synopsis - Parsifal

Once upon a time, angels entrusted two relics to old Titurel: the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and the spear, which a Roman soldier thrust into Jesus' side as he hung on the cross.

Titurel founded an Order and had a temple erected, where the two relics would be preserved and honoured. During a regularly recurring ceremony, the carefully guarded cup, the Grail, is unveiled and allows the faithful to feel the presence of the Crucified One.

The brothers of the order, who called themselves Grail Knights, took a vow of chastity to be able to serve God and free people of the world. Many joined the believers, but several were also rejected, among them Klingsor, who could not keep the vow of chastity. However, his longing for the Grail Knights was so great that he castrated himself to force admission into the order. However, this made it impossible for him to ever gain access to the shrine and the Grail Knights. Since then, Klingsor has devoted himself to magic and sorcery and plans to destroy the Order of the Grail. Beautiful girls and women would corrupt and bring down the Grail Knights and their vow of chastity.

Amfortas, who had meanwhile taken over as King of the Order, finally set out to put an end to Klingsor and his machinations. He felt safe because he himself was armed with the Holy Spear. But Klingsor offered him the most beautiful of all his women and Amfortas allowed himself to be seduced by her.

In a duel, Klingsor was able to snatch the Holy Spear from the confused and shamed Grail King and wound him, just where Christ was also hit by the same spearhead.

Amfortas must return home to his Order without the spear and the wound he received never healed. It tormented him more and more and became a constant reminder of his failure.

From that day on, the knights trusted neither their king and his way of life nor God.

ACT I

Gurnemanz, who at that time had to watch when Amfortas was wounded, has retreated to a small house outside the monastery. The knights regularly ask him for advice, he is also a tutor to the young apprentices, who must go through a probationary period within the Order. And Amfortas himself seeks him out every morning when he is on his way to the lake to bathe as relief for his pains.

There is also a woman in Gurnemanz's vicinity, the strange Kundry, who appears from time to time and disappears again. When she is with Gurnemanz, she does unsolicited and grumpy housework, but also suddenly sets off on trips, to return from distant lands with medicine for Amfortas.

Gurnemanz is on the lookout for the "pure fool", the one awakened by compassion to insight, who can lift Amforta's curse and thus also the Grail Knights. For Amfortas had been prophesied that an innocent youth would have the power to break Klingsor's power and bring the spear back to the shrine.

But so far, Gurnemanz searches in vain, and he also cannot find "the pure fool" among the squires entrusted to him.

Suddenly, the Grail Knights arrive with an unknown young man to Gurnemanz, who is asked to judge him for daring to shoot a swan within the Grail area, where animals are considered sacred. To all the questions that Gurnemanz puts to the young man, he answers: I don't know. Only Kundry seems to know anything about his origins.

Gurnemanz decides to take the unknown with him to the Grail Temple where he will meet Amfortas. He thinks he has found the "pure fool".

However, the young man, who has probably spent the last few years in the forest, experiences Amforta's anguish and the rites of the Order without understanding anything. So Gurnemanz drives him back into the forest.

ACT II

Klingsor watches as the unknown youth approaches his enchanted castle. The flower girls and especially Kundry, who is in Klingsor's power when she is not with the Grail Knights, are to rob the young stranger of his innocence and thereby make him harmless.

Against her will, Kundry prepares for this mission, but soon finds herself fascinated by the aura of the one she knows only by his name: Parsifal. She tells him about his mother's death and wants to comfort him with the kiss of love. At this moment, Parsifal understands Amforta's agony, the agony of carnal desires - he suddenly feels them himself - which is the beginning of endless suffering and the cause of people's hatred, enmity and rage of destruction. He understands all this even more when he sees how Kundry humiliates herself before his gaze. Completely driven by the longing for love, she begs him for a physical union. She ultimately admits to him that she once laughed at Christ on the cross and has hence wandered through the world for centuries to meet the Saviour again. Now she sees her saviour in Parsifal and in her utter confusion he is both her lover and her saving Christ. But Parsifal wants only one thing – to tear the spear from Klingsor's hands and close Amforta's wound. Kundry curses him, but as if by a miracle, Klingsor's spear is in Parsifal's hand and Klingsor's spell is broken. Parsifal begins his journey to the Grail Castle.