Paula M. Bortnichak and Edward A. Bortnichak, Monsalvat’s Magnetic Wand

Our analysis of Parsifal will focus on an examination of the audience at the time of the premiere, and it will specifically explore how the then popular interests in mesmerism and spiritualism may have conditioned audience impressions about, and acceptance of, this work. The intersection between the intense contemporary interests in Wagnerian music drama and in the early practice of hypnosis and fascination with paranormal psychology has not, to date, been explored from the perspective of its potential combined impact on early audience reaction to Parsifal. We pose the question: what common beliefs and experiences did an educated person at Bayreuth in July 1882 bring into the Festspielhaus as he or she waited in the darkness for the curtain to rise on that first performance of Parsifal? In particular, what did this audience know about the early science of psychology and of paranormal phenomena, and how might that knowledge have framed their experience of the work?