What is Parsifal?
[[File:CodexManesseFol149vWolframVonEschenbach.jpg|thumb|300px|Wolfram von Eschenbach]] {{italictitle}} '''''Parsifal''''' is an [[opera]] in three acts by [[Richard Wagner]]. Wagner took most of the story from a [[medieval]] poem ''[[Parzival]]'' by the [[Germany|German]] [[poet]] [[Wolfram von Eschenbach]]. It was the last opera that Wagner completed. He started thinking about it in [[1857]] but did not do much work to it until after he had finished the cycle of four operas known as the [[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring Cycle]] which was produced complete in [[1876]] in the special theatre ([[Festspielhaus Bayreuth|Festspielhaus]]) he had built in [[Bayreuth]]. Wagner composed his opera ''Parsifal'' so that it would suit the sound of this new theatre. It was first produced in [[1882]]. The story is related to the [[King Arthur|Arthurian legends]]. ==The Musical background to the opera== Wagner did more than any other composer in the [[19th century]] to change the way that people listened to opera. In the [[18th century]] people went to the opera house and sat in their boxes to chat to other people and be seen. Composers wrote operas with big [[aria]]s which allowed the singers to show off their skills and make the audience applaud. Wagner changed all this. He soon developed operas in which there is no difference between [[recitative]] (where the story is told) and arias (big songs for the soloists). The music of his later operas, especially ''Parsifal'', is like a long, continuous line with rich, Romantic [[harmony]]. The music develops logically, with [[leitmotif]]s (very short pieces of music which represent particular people or ideas) which help the music and the story to develop. ==The story of Parsifal== The story of [[Percival|Parsifal]] and the Holy Grail has survived in several forms that date from between [[1170]] and [[1220]]. Wagner, who always wrote the words of his operas himself, used a mixture of several of these versions of the story to fit his ideas for the opera. Parsifal is a y