Born-again Redeemer: Nicholas Baragwanath celebrates the return of an old friend

This updated version of the popular and dependable ENO guide to Parsifal, first published in 1986, manages to improve upon the original while retaining all the features that made it so successful. At its core remains Lionel Salter’s excellent translation of the libretto, accompanied by a parallel German text taken from the 1883 Leipzig edition. To assist in cross-referencing words with music, marginal numbers in square brackets direct the reader to an inventory of sixty-nine themes and motifs, devised by Lionel Friend. It is more than adequate for indicating the main correspondences. Reprints of original articles by Dieter Borchmeyer, Robin Holloway, Carolyn Abbate and Gerd Rienäcker continue to provide concise and stimulating introductions to key aspects of the work, while newly written chapters by Barry Emslie and Mike Ashman serve to bring the scholarship up to date. (Emslie’s new chapter alone makes the book worth buying.)