In the mood for Parsifal, my Passiontide fare

This week, I have been mostly listening to Parsifal. Not the St Matthew Passion, which is my usual Passiontide fare. And, boy, it’s been quite an experience. You have to be in the mood for the Bach, but for the Wagner you really have to be in the mood.

Parsifal is nearly five hours long. I’m reluctant to say that not a lot happens, because it’s a story of overpowering philosophical transformation. But, alas, no two commentators agree on the nature of that transformation and, unlike the Ring Cycle,  it doesn’t offer many plot twists by way of distraction. The knights who guard the Holy Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper, have lost their second most precious possession, the lance that pierced Christ’s side. It’s been captured by a self-castrated magician, Klingsor, who uses Kundry — a woman cursed for laughing at Christ on the Cross — to seduce knights who try to recapture the lance.