It is for the good of the great cause to know that Wagner prohibited the representation of his Parsifal anywhere out of that marvelous theater of Bayreuth…
We already stated with much assertion that after the legal terms were dissolved, Parsifal was known in all of the theaters of Europe…
Regarding the truth, we must be very frank. Indeed, it is lamentable that the widow and son of Wagner, along with other German musicians, wanted to modify the law in relation with the intellectual property, with the evident purpose of limiting the representation of Parsifal exclusively to the old theater of Bayreuth…
It is ostensible that these sincerely mistaken ones did not attain their fore mentioned purpose.
It is unquestionable that pain for some is happiness for others. The failure of these well intentioned people had formidable international repercussions among the public of Europe, who were not deprived of knowing this great work.
The magnum works cannot be limited neither in the space nor in time… It is absurd to try to hide the sun with a finger…
It has been milled around that this aforementioned work was sung before 1914 in the Metropolitan Theater of New York. For having done so, this company jumped above all kinds of legal obstacles.
It is pathetic, clear and definite, that such a company paid the fine with infinite pleasure, since, it is obvious that they received a substantial profit.
Nonetheless…! Bless my soul, oh God! Perchance, did not the same thing happen in Montecarlo? The whole world knows that they wanted to present this sacred poem. Unfortunately, because of the threats of Wagner’s widow and son, the work only could be sung in a function at a banquet.
We are now going to transcribe with great care a journalistic article, that is indeed, very interesting:
This matter about Parsifal emerged in the mind of Wagner in 1845; yet, he did not start to work on the poem until the spring of 1857. He interrupted it many times, until finally finishing it on February 23, 1877.
Long before concluding with the book, he composed some musical pieces, the first ones in 1857. However, indeed, he did not start to work seriously on the score until the autumn of 1877, that is to say, the same year in which he wrote the last phrase of the poem.
The work was definitively finished January 13, 1882, a little while after the preparations for its feature presentation began. So, once this was already very well rehearsed, Parsifal was featured July 26, 1882 in the theater of Bayreuth.
Parsifal became an enormous success, provoking tears from that genius who was so accustomed to challenge.
The excited Wagner hugged with enthusiasm Materna and Scaria, who interpreted the roles of Kundry and Gur nemanz, respectively. He also hugged the great Maestro Hermann Levi, who conducted the orchestra and who we met and applauded twelve or fourteen years ago in Madrid, in those famous concertos of Prince Alphonso, within which there were so many eminent German conductors.
When speaking about this, it is best to dedicate a memory of admiration and sympathy to the great Maestro Mancinelli, the one who, indeed, brought the duck with golden eggs, that is to say, the one who gave us the way in order to know almost the whole of Wagner and the one who organized great concertos.
The auditions of that opera season under the direction of Mancinelli constitute a memorable epoch for the history of the development of the Lyrical art in Spain.
Wagner survived approximately only six months after his great triumph, Parsifal.
A little while after the feature presentation of Parsifal, the Master went to Venice for winter, as he had the custom of doing since 1879. Suddenly, in an unexpected way, he passed away February 13, 1883, at the side of his wife, Cosima Liszt (daughter of the famous musician with the same family name) and of his friend Joukowsky.
Two day after, the mortal remains of the glorious creator of the lyrical drama were transported to Bayreuth, where now they are resting in the garden of the small house of Wahnfried, under a marble stone without ornament or any inscription.
Samael AunWeor
