Wagner's Parsifal is the story of a hero who brings new life to the knights of the holy grail, gathered in their castle of Montsalvat and hitherto languishing under a sinning, wounded king, Amfortas. In accomplishing this regeneration, Parsifal also destroys the magician Klingsor and heals the single female character, Kundry. Gurnemanz, one of the knights, is both narrator and observer, at an action that, like a ritual, will have to unfold again and again.

English National Opera 1986

The terrible tragedy at the heart of Wagner's last opera is that of a work which knows it cannot fulfil itself, and Joachim Herz in his new production is right to identify one of the main reasons as the composer's presence in the drama in the guise of Amfortas. This was the character with whom he felt overwhelming sympathy: Parsifal was to be his redemption of himself just as Parsifal would be the redeemer of Amfortas.

If Herz offers a plausible diagnosis of the opera, however, he does so with little subtlety, though it is unfair to give a definitive judgement on the production as yet, since on opening night it was not running at all smoothly, and also since the title role was taken over at very short notice by Siegfried Jerusalem. He did a splendid job in entering a new production cold, and sang magnificently, particularly in the third act; it even seemed appropriate that this Parsifal should be singing his own language, with everyone else onstage too polite or too mystified to mention the fact.