Tickets
Sold out
All tickets are sold out, try later for returns.
Dates
Location
Approximate timings
The performance lasts approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes, including two intervals.
Expand all dates
Thursday 1 October, 4:30 pm
Sunday 4 October, 3:00 pm
Friday 9 October, 5:00 pm
Guidance
More information available soon
Please note, as this is a new production, age guidance and content warnings may be subject to change.
Language
Sung in German with English surtitles, which are displayed on screens above the stage and around the auditorium.
Generous support from
Exceptional philanthropic support from
Royal Ballet and Opera Principal The Julia Rausing Trust and Mr Stefan Sten Olsson and Mr John Tierney
Generous philanthropic support from
Philipp Freise, Athena P S Ko, John McGinn and Cary Davis, The Thompson Family Charitable Trust, the Parsifal Production Syndicate, The Wagner Circle and Royal Ballet and Opera Patrons
Synopsis
The story of Parsifal
In a religious society in crisis, the Knights of the Grail long to cure their ailing leader, Amfortas, who suffers from a wound – from the Holy Spear – that will not heal. His ruin is blamed on a woman, Kundry, and his enemy, Klingsor, to whom he lost the Holy Spear. When the innocent Parsifal arrives, having killed a sacred swan, he seems unaware that he has done anything wrong. Gurnemanz, a knight of the Grail, wonders if Parsifal could be the ‘pure fool’ from the prophesies, come to redeem Amfortas. Gurnemanz takes Parsifal to the Grail ritual – a process intended to renew the immortality of the knights through the blood of Christ. Kundry, under Klingsor’s influence, is ordered to seduce Parsifal. Initially Parsifal is immune to the attractions of both her and the seductive Flower Maidens, but when Kundry kisses him, he realises his mission is to cure Amfortas, and he shuns her. The Knights gather once more for the Grail ritual, culminating in the ultimate test of Parsifal’s powers.
Creatives
The artists and creatives behind the production
Composer
Libretto
Director
Set Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Movement Director
Video Designer
Discover
A young man is hailed as the saviour of the crumbling Kingdom of the Grail – but is he all he appears to be? Wagner’s Parsifal is a majestic, shimmering and revelatory musical experience where religious ecstasy meets agony, awe and hope. Breathtaking lighting and a hallucinatory, dystopian set design bring Wagner’s all-consuming final opera to pulsating life in Evgeny Titov’s bold, dreamlike and disturbing debut production for The Royal Opera.
More than an opera
The inspiration
Wagner composed Parsifal between 1877 and 1882, and described it not as an opera, but a ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel’, or ‘festival work to consecrate a stage’. It was first performed in July 1882 at Bayreuth, Wagner’s custom-built theatre, which was initially constructed to house the operas of his Ring cycle. The opera’s source text was Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval poem, Parzival, with Wagner’s libretto combining elements of Christian and Buddhist ideology, as well as Arthurian legend. To find out more about Wagner’s eventful life, go to our Creative Spotlight: Richard Wagner page.
Music on an epic scale
The music
Debussy described Parsifal as ‘One of the most beautiful edifices in sound ever raised to the glory of music.’ The score is radiant and powerful, from the soaring Vorspiel (Prelude), to the ethereal Good Friday Music. As is typical of late Wagner, the music features Leitmotifs, or repeating melodic fragments which are associated with different themes and characters, and which develop and transform as the opera progresses. The opera – Wagner’s third-longest – is epic in scale, with the music creating a timeless, unearthly atmosphere. Even Gurnemanz, one of the knights’ leaders, seems to sense this when he introduces Parsifal to the Grail ritual at the end of Act One, announcing, ‘Here, time turns into space.’
The pure man: the guilty woman
The characters
The ’pure, innocent’ character of Parsifal is contrasted, in the opera, with the character of Kundry, who is defined by her guilt. She is the only principal female role, and she serves the knights of the Grail temple. She is also used by the sinister Klingsor as an agent of seduction. Klingsor describes her as the reincarnation of ‘Herodias’ – the scheming wife of Herod – but in some productions, her journey is often viewed as the tale of a soul travelling towards redemption.
Accessibility and resources
There is lift access and there are step-free routes to over 100 seats in the Stalls Circle, Balcony and Amphitheatre. Some seats in the Stalls Circle, Balcony, Amphitheatre and the Donald Gordon Grand Tier are accessed by 9 steps or fewer. There are 10 steps or more to access seats in the Orchestra Stalls.
You can use the assistive listening systems in our auditoriums. Surtitles, captions and translations in English are displayed on screens above the stage and around the auditorium.
Join our Access Scheme for priority access to tickets and to inform us of your access requirements.
See our Accessibility page for more information or view a visitors guide (PDF, 12.0 MB).
Be the first to know
Sign up to hear the latest Royal Ballet and Opera news, receive ticket alerts, and discover how to support us.