Requiem for Schlingensief’s ‘Parsifal’: Paula M. Bortnichak and Edward A. Bortnichak offer an intriguing interpretation of the controversial production, now in its last year

The great music dramas are masterpieces that serve as mirrors to our lives, and as audiences change over time, so should the representation of these timeless reflections of our common humanity. Every now and then in the performance history of such works there comes a production that enables us to experience it as if for the first time. For Parsifal, the Wieland Wagner staging at Bayreuth in 1951 was such a defining moment. Christoph Schlingensief’s Bayreuth production (2004–7) was another such, all-too-rare, landmark. Schlingensief may not be a traditional Wagnerite, but he is nonetheless a ‘perfect’ one: his respect for the inner spirit of the work, his remaining true to both text and music, and his willingness to engage tirelessly with the difficult questions they raise mark him as a Wagnerian of the front rank.