Parsifal

Susanne Kennedy, Markus Selg, Yi-Chen Lin

Music Vienna Festival

A theatrically staged set: In the center, a figure sits before a glowing, tunnel-like portal, surrounded by kneeling figures in bright robes. To the left and right, additional performers are grouped among symbolic objects and fire pits. In the background, a dramatic, vivid sky in shades of red and violet stretches out, lending the scene a mystical, ritualistic atmosphere. — © Annemie Augustijns

Halle E / Halle E+G

Richard Wagner’s final composition leads us straight into the centre of the fellowship around the Holy Grail – a community in deep crisis. The knights of the grail are awaiting the ‘fool enlightened by compassion’ who is supposed to redeem them – and find him in young Parsifal.

With a cast of over a hundred persons, Wagner’s composition was intended as a ‘festival play for the consecration of the stage’ – he himself wanted it considered a sacred act. The German director Susanne Kennedy and the artist Markus Selg transport this intention into the present day and lead the audience into a world of both archaic and futuristic aesthetics, of religious symbols and AI-generated images. Inspired by Christian motifs, Buddhist teachings and Hindu thought, they create a ritual that seeks out spiritual planes beyond the veils of the digital and material world.

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