Parsifal: The Solution Assessed

As we saw two weeks ago, Richard Wagner’s last opera Parsifal makes use of most of the same symbols as The Ring of the Nibelung, and thus provides a mordant commentary to the theme of that vast and sprawling work. The magic treasure, the magic spear, the antagonist who wins power by a terrible renunciation of love, the ruler of gods or knights who can’t bring himself to make a permanent choice between love and power and so fails catastrophically, the hero raised in the wilderness who alone can w...