What happens when humankind can no longer agree on common values? When groups with opposing convictions entrench themselves in their respective bubbles, waiting for the moment when they can finally annihilate their opponents from the safety of a walled-off position? And when this hostile torpor threatens the survival of all and the future of the whole world? Parsifal, Richard Wagner’s enigmatic, mythical opera about the Holy Grail, the symbolic vessel of timeless, common values of faith, is an exploration of human co-existence – through the devices of art.

Parsifal has a sheltered childhood. His mother, a sorrowful war-widow, isolates him to keep him to herself. But the adventurous teenager, whose ambitious physical strength by far exceeds his knowledge and his sense of responsibility, is eager to conquer the world and accomplish heroic deeds – a “pure fool”, as Wagner calls him. Parsifal encounters people, destinies, nature. He comes across tasks and tempting opportunities at every turn, but he incurs guilt whether he decides to act or not. He begins to feel responsible for more than himself. Awareness of his shared blame oppresses him; the problems of individuals and the world as a whole appear to be irresolvable; the world is heading for doom. Parsifal learns to embrace hardship rather than negating it, and to take note of suffering in his environment and accept it as his life’s mission. His empathy, his “knowing compassion” make him a beacon of hope for everyone.

Wagner’s Bühnenweihfestspiel (a festival play for the consecration of the stage) raises the philosophical question of how the Holy Grail, the “salvation” of a society that has lost all hope, can be found. Rigid rituals on the one hand and an abandoned pleasure principle on the other have led the world to the edge of the abyss. A third way out of the existential crisis is essential for survival. The Icelandic director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson received the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST for his production of Edda at the Hanover State Opera in 2018. Set designer Wolfgang Menardi creates associative images for Parsifal that become an analysis of time. The costumes designed by Karen Briem and Andri Unarsson are based on a radical principle of sustainability and apply this fundamental topic of our times to the theatre production. GMD Stephan Zilias will conduct this musical drama with its countless expressive and often unresolved sound motifs that stand for human existence. Renowned soloists will be joined by the theatre’s choir, extra-choir and children’s choir.