Parsifal Out West

When Richard Wagner died in February 1883, his final work, Parsifal, which he intended only for the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth (at left, 1), had already reached the American stage. Months after its July 1882 premiere, Parsifal was being excerpted without Bayreuth’s blessing for concerts in New York and Boston. In April 1885, the “Good Friday spell” in Act III became the first music from the composer’s Bühnenweihfestspiel or stage-consecrating festival play to be performed in San Francisco. The concert, commemorating Good Friday, was headlined by Amalie Materna (at right, 2), the Viennese soprano who was Wagner’s first Kundry in Parsifal just three years earlier.


Credits:
Festspielhaus postcard (1); Sarony, photographer (2)

Despite legal injunctions from the composer’s widow, Cosima Wagner (at left, 3), and allegations of blasphemy by New York clergy, the Metropolitan Opera presented the first fully staged performance of Parsifal outside of Bayreuth on December 24, 1903. A national tour followed, bringing the work to San Francisco’s Grand Opera House in April 1905. The role of Parsifal was portrayed by former Cosima Wagner protégé Alois Burgstaller (at right, 4), banned from Bayreuth for singing Parsifal in America.

In the lead-up to the San Francisco premiere, a silent film version (at left, 5) made by Thomas Edison was screened in a local theater.

Weeks after the opera’s presentation, the Belgian virtuoso violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (at right, 6) performed the “Parsifal paraphrase” in his San Francisco recitals, offering “a comforting echo of the great production that is still haunting those who heard it” (San Francisco Chronicle).


Credits:
Nationalarchiv der Richard Wagner Stiftung, Bayreuth (3); Aimé Dupont (4); Film still (5); Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (6)

European copyright on Parsifal expired at midnight on January 1, 1914, and impresarios rushed to present the work (the Barcelona premiere began at 12:01 a.m.). Anticipating the “Parsifalmania” that was about to grip audiences on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Alfred Hertz, the conductor for the Met’s controversial production, recorded orchestral selections from Parsifal with the Berlin Philharmonic (at left, 7) in late 1913. In March 1914, the touring Chicago Opera brought their production to San Francisco’s Tivoli Theater, beginning performances at 4:30 p.m. with a two-hour intermission for supper.

In the mid-1920s, Hertz, now music director of the San Francisco Symphony (above, 8), re-recorded the Prelude and “Good Friday spell” (below, 9) with his orchestra in an Oakland studio.

Credits:
Gramophone Co., record (7); Standard Hour, radio (8); Victor Co., record (9)

San Francisco Opera founder Gaetano Merola (at left, 10) enlisted Hertz to introduce Wagner’s operas into the Company’s repertoire beginning in 1927 with Tristan und Isolde; three years later Tannhäuser would follow. Also in 1930, Bayreuth recordings conducted by Karl Muck (at right, 11) with tenor Gotthelf Pistor in scenes from Parsifal hit the American market. 

Eager to produce more Wagner, including Parsifal, Merola hired Pistor and fellow stars Maria Müller, Friedrich Schorr, and Arnold Gabor for the 1931 Season. As the Company’s amateur chorus was not yet ready for Parsifal’s demands, Merola programed a revival of Tannhäuser and premieres of Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (at left, 12) for his German-opera specialists.


Credits:
Lawrence B. Morton Photography (10); Vanity Fair magazine, cartoon (11); Lawrence B. Morton Photography (12, L to R: Blechschmidt, Gabor, Merola, Müller, Schorr, Pistor, Agnini)

Weeks before the 1932 opening of the War Memorial Opera House (at left, 13), Gaetano Merola guided journalist Redfern Mason on a hard-hat tour of the new building’s backstage facilities. “When we put on Parsifal, and we shall, you know,” Merola said, “that heavenly chorus in the first act will be sung up here.” Merola’s next few seasons included revivals of the Company’s Wagner repertoire (Lohengrin, Tristan, Meistersinger, Tannhäuser) until the sudden emergence in early 1935 of Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad precipitated a commitment to showcase her in The Ring of the Nibelung. While the Company geared up for 

Wagner’s epic (above, 14), Merola led the “Good Friday spell” from Parsifal on the Standard Hour radio program (at left, 15) on April 18, 1935. 

Following the 1936 Season, Merola traveled abroad to recruit artists for the coming season with the goal of producing Parsifal. With his chorus still not ready and the breakout success of Lauritz Melchior and Kirsten Flagstad in Tristan und Isolde (at right, 16), Merola’s Parsifal dream was shelved once more; he conducted the “Good Friday spell” on the radio in September 1938.


Credits:
San Francisco Opera Archives (13); Lawrence B. Morton Photography (14 - Ring set models, 15, 16)

In 1945, the San Francisco Symphony, under music director Pierre Monteux (at right, 17), performed a heavily cut concert version of Parsifal (excising the scenes with Amfortas and Titurel altogether) with the Municipal Chorus augmented by boys from local high schools due to a wartime shortage of male singers. Merola conducted the Prelude from Parsifal on a 1946 Symphony program featuring Italian soprano Licia Albanese.


Four years later, Merola, at last, announced the Company premiere of Parsifal for the 1950 Season with a cast anchored by “The Voice of the Century” Kirsten Flagstad as Kundry (at left, 18).

Underwritten by San Francisco Opera Guild and designed by Stage and Technical Director Armando Agnini, the production (far left, 19) was inspired by the original stage sets in Bayreuth and New York.


Sold-out performances and strong reviews encouraged a revival in Fall 1951. Meanwhile, Bayreuth relaunched its festival in July 1951 under the co-direction of Wagner’s grandsons whose innovative production of Parsifal on a near-bare stage (at right, 20) had the theatrical world abuzz.


Credits:
Jon Martin Brenneis, San Francisco Symphony (17); Kirsten Flagstad Museum, Hamar, Norway (18); R. Strohmeyer (19); Nationalarchiv der Richard Wagner Stiftung, Bayreuth (20)

In 1964, General Director Kurt Herbert Adler introduced a new production (at left, 21) starring Sándor Kónya as Parsifal (at right, 22). 

The spare aesthetic and gradually changing lighting schemes were animated by a powerful cast that also included Giorgio Tozzi as Gurnemanz and Irene Dalis as Kundry (at left, 23). 

Following her 1962 Bayreuth appearances as Kundry (which yielded a now-legendary recording), Dalis’ portrayal was a hit in San Francisco (at right, 24).




Credits:
Pete Peters (21, 23, 24); Robert Cahen (22)

Building upon a decade of memorable Wagnerian performances, including a new Ring cycle in 1972 for the Company’s 50th season, Parsifal returned in 1974 with Thomas Stewart as Amfortas (far left, 25) and former Stanford psychology-student-turned heldentenor Jess Thomas as Parsifal (at left, 26). The cast, conducted by Otmar Suitner, also featured two significant American opera debuts: Czech mezzo-soprano Eva Randová as Kundry and German bass Kurt Moll as Gurnemanz (at right, 27).


Credits:
Carolyn Mason Jones (25, 26, 27)

With the centennial of Parsifal approaching in 1982, the work’s popularity extended in new directions, including the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (at right, 28), 

comic book artist P. Craig Russell’s 1978 graphic novel (at left, 29), 

and director Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s 1982 cult film (at right, 30) where the role of Parsifal is played by both male and female actors. The latter screened at the Castro Theatre in April 1983.


Credits:
Pictorial Press, Ltd., Alamy (28); Star Reach Productions (29); United Archives, Alamy (30) 

San Francisco Opera unveiled a new production (at right, 31) in 1988, 

designed by Nicolas Joël (at left, 32) and conducted by Music Director Sir John Pritchard. 

German mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier (at left, 33), peerless as Kundry, made her Company debut opposite the Parsifal of René Kollo, with Jorma Hynninen as Amfortas (at right, 34). 

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus augmented the Company’s choral forces for the production.


Credits: 
Robert Cahen (31, 33, 34); Ron Scherl (32)

Parsifal returned in 2000 in a staging by Nikolaus Lehnhoff (at right, 35) who pioneered the Company’s brilliant Ring production in 1985. The cast featured (below, L to R) Christopher Ventris as Parsifal (36), Tom Fox as Klingsor (37), Franz Grundheber as Amfortas (38), Catherine Malfitano as Kundry (39), and the indelible Kurt Moll who was the Company’s Gurnemanz in 1974, 1988, and 2000. Music Director Donald Runnicles (40) conducted the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in what the San Francisco Examiner called a “space-age, de-Christianized” staging.

Credits: 
Kenneth Friedman (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)

In 2021, the Company’s fourth Music Director, Eun Sun Kim (at left, 41), announced an initiative to conduct major works by Verdi and Wagner every season. The Wagner journey began in 2023 with Lohengrin (at right, 42), an event captured in the documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey into Lohengrin. 

The following season, Kim conducted Tristan und Isolde with Simon O’Neill and Anja Kampe in the title roles (at left, 43). 

In 2025, a new production by director Matthew Ozawa with choreography by Rena Butler, set designs by Robert Innes Hopkins, costumes by Jessica Jahn, and lighting by Yuki Nakase Link, and Brandon Jovanovich in the title role (at right, 44) was unveiled under Kim’s baton.


Credits:
Stefan Cohen (41); Cory Weaver (42, 43, 44)