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71-531: The School grew to offer a varied programme of practical and academic courses for young musicians and singers at the start of their professional career. Master classes have been taught by such distinguished visiting faculty members as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , Murray Perahia and Pierre Fournier . The successor of the school, the Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme , continues to provide training for outstanding young professionals from around

142-521: A "complex, tortured Kundry in Wieland Wagner's revolutionary production of Parsifal during the festival's first postwar season", and would remain the company's exclusive Kundry for the remainder of the decade. Prelude to act 1 Musical introduction to the work with a duration of c. 12–16 minutes. Scene 1 In a forest near the seat of the Grail and its knights, Gurnemanz , an elder knight of

213-951: A Nazi program in the school. Further publications discussed her musical performances during the war before Nazi party conferences and for units of the Waffen-SS . Her defenders argue in favor of her claim that she always strictly separated art from politics and that she was a non-political person. In 1942, she was invited to sing with the Vienna State Opera , where her roles included Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Musetta and later Mimì in Puccini 's La bohème and Violetta in Verdi 's La traviata . Schwarzkopf sang four brief cameo roles in films produced by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels , but she

284-597: A close partnership and Legge subsequently became Schwarzkopf's manager and companion. They were married on 19 October 1953 in Epsom , Surrey ; Schwarzkopf thus acquired British citizenship by marriage. Schwarzkopf would divide her time between lieder recitals and opera performances for the rest of her career. When invited in 1958 to select her eight favourite records on the BBC 's Desert Island Discs , Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings, and an eighth of Karajan conducting

355-745: A court ruling that performances in the United States could not be prevented by Bayreuth, the New York Metropolitan Opera staged the complete opera, using many Bayreuth-trained singers. Cosima barred anyone involved in the New York production from working at Bayreuth in future performances. Unauthorized stage performances were also undertaken in Amsterdam in 1905, 1906 and 1908. There was a performance in Buenos Aires, in

426-480: A distant past, she saw the Redeemer and mockingly laughed at His pains in malice. As a punishment for this sin she has been cursed and bound by Klingsor and has fallen under his yoke. The curse condemns her to never be able to die and find peace and redemption. She cannot weep, only jeer diabolically. Longing for deliverance, she has been waiting for ages for a man to free her from her curse and yearns to once more meet

497-551: A mezzo-soprano. Schwarzkopf later trained under Maria Ivogün , and in 1938 joined the Deutsche Oper . In 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's father, a local school headmaster, was dismissed from his position by the new ruling authorities for having refused to allow a Nazi party meeting at his school. He was also banned from taking any new teaching post. Until Friedrich Schwarzkopf's dismissal,

568-737: A private performance of the prelude for his patron Ludwig II of Bavaria at the Court Theatre in Munich. The premiere of the entire work was given in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 26 July 1882 conducted by the Jewish-German conductor Hermann Levi . Stage designs were by Max Brückner and Paul von Joukowsky , who took their lead from Wagner himself. The Grail hall was based on the interior of Siena Cathedral which Wagner had visited in 1880, while Klingsor's magic garden

639-590: A professional necessity, her reputation has remained tarnished by what seems to have been an active party membership." Charles Scribner III, writing in The New Criterion , has defended Schwarzkopf's party affiliation on the grounds that she was the daughter of an anti-Nazi dissident living in constant fear of the authorities. Bach Brahms Humperdinck Lehár Mozart Puccini Johann Strauss II Richard Strauss Verdi Richard Wagner She can be seen in two videotaped performances as

710-574: A second and more extensive prose draft of the work, and by 19 April of the same year he had transformed this into a verse libretto (or "poem", as Wagner liked to call his libretti ). In September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these (known in German as the Gesamtentwurf and in English as either the preliminary draft or

781-447: A whole drama, of which I made a rough sketch with a few dashes of the pen, dividing the whole into three acts. However, as his second wife Cosima Wagner later reported on 22 April 1879, this account had been colored by a certain amount of poetic licence: R[ichard] today recalled the impression which inspired his "Good Friday Music"; he laughs, saying he had thought to himself, "In fact it is all as far-fetched as my love affairs, for it

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852-403: A wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive flowermaidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers ( "Komm, komm, holder Knabe!" ), yet the boy in his childlike innocent naïveté doesn't comprehend their temptations and shows only little interest in them. The flowermaidens soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to

923-634: Is considerable both in quality and in quantity and is distinguished for her Mozart and Richard Strauss operatic portrayals, her two commercial recordings of Strauss's Four Last Songs and her recordings of lieder, especially those of Wolf . Schwarzkopf is generally considered to have been the greatest German lyric soprano of the twentieth century and one of the finest Mozart singers of all time with an "indescribably beautiful" voice. Schwarzkopf's entry in The Grove Book of Opera Singers concludes: "Although she dismissed her [Nazi Party] membership as

994-511: Is now aged and bent, living alone as a hermit. It is Good Friday. He hears moaning near his hut and finds Kundry lying unconscious in the brush, similarly as he had many years before ("Sie! Wieder da!"). He revives her using water from the Holy Spring, but she will only speak the word "serve" ("Dienen"). Looking into the forest, Gurnemanz sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger removes his helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes

1065-705: The Gesamtentwurf of the next act; but because the Orchesterskizze already embodied all the compositional details of the full score, the actual drafting of the Partiturerstschrift was regarded by Wagner as little more than a routine task which could be done whenever he found the time. The prelude of act 1 was scored in August 1878. The rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882. On 12 November 1880, Wagner conducted

1136-602: The Marschallin : Parsifal Parsifal ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance Parzival of the Minnesänger Wolfram von Eschenbach and the Old French chivalric romance Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by

1207-849: The Oslo Laptop Orchestra . String quartets come together each spring and present a weekly recital of "work-in-progress" at the Jubilee Hall, and in late summer the International Academy of String Quartets provides further opportunities for working on repertoire. Menahem Pressler , Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Arditti Quartet have all taught masterclasses. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf , DBE ( German: [eˌliːzabɛt ˈʃvaʁt͡skɔp͡f] ; 9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006)

1278-728: The Province of Posen in Prussia , Germany (now in Poland), to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth ( née  Fröhlich ). Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg , Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik , where her singing tutor, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner , attempted to train her to be

1349-832: The Rosenkavalier prelude, as they evoked fond memories of the people she had worked with. In the 1960s, Schwarzkopf concentrated nearly exclusively on five operatic roles: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni , Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro , Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte , Countess Madeleine in Strauss's Capriccio , and the Marschallin. She was also well received as Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff . However, on

1420-426: The first complete draft ) was made in pencil on three staves , one for the voices and two for the instruments. The second complete draft ( Orchesterskizze , orchestral draft , short score or particell ) was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was much more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration. The second draft

1491-581: The 12th-century trouvère Chrétien de Troyes , recounting different accounts of the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival ( Percival ) and his spiritual quest for the Holy Grail . Wagner conceived the work in April 1857, but did not finish it until 25 years later. In composing it he took advantage of the particular acoustics of his newly built Bayreuth Festspielhaus . Parsifal was first produced at

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1562-410: The 26th of the same month. The full score ( Partiturerstschrift ) was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a fair copy of the entire opera, with all the voices and instruments properly notated according to standard practice. Wagner composed Parsifal one act at a time, completing the Gesamtentwurf and Orchesterskizze of each act before beginning

1633-827: The EMI label she made several "champagne operetta" recordings like Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow and Johann Strauss II's The Gypsy Baron . Schwarzkopf's last operatic performance was as the Marschallin on 31 December 1971, in the theatre of La Monnaie in Brussels. For the next several years, she devoted herself exclusively to lieder recitals. On 17 March 1979, Walter Legge suffered a severe heart attack. He disregarded doctor's orders to rest and attended Schwarzkopf's final recital two days later in Zurich. Three days later, he died. After retiring (almost immediately after her husband's death), Schwarzkopf taught and gave master classes around

1704-465: The Grail ("Enthüllet den Gral!"), and he finally does. The dark hall is illuminated by its radiant light and the round table of the knights is miraculously filled with wine and bread. Slowly all the knights and squires disappear, leaving Gurnemanz and the youth alone. Gurnemanz asks the youth if he has understood what he has seen. As the boy is unable to answer the question, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just an ordinary fool after all and angrily exiles him from

1775-531: The Grail, wakes his young squires and leads them in morning prayer ("He! Ho! Waldhüter ihr"). Their king, Amfortas, has been stabbed by the Holy Spear , once bequeathed to him into his guardianship, and the wound will not heal. Kundry arrives in a frenzy, with soothing balsam from Arabia. The squires eye Kundry with mistrust and question her. They believe Kundry to be an evil pagan witch. Gurnemanz restrains them and defends her. He relates history of Amfortas and

1846-474: The Grail, which renews the knights' immortality. Orchestral interlude – Verwandlungsmusik ( Transformation music ) Scene 2 The voice of the retired king Titurel resounds from a vaulted crypt in the background, demanding that his son Amfortas uncover the Grail and serve his kingly office ("Mein Sohn Amfortas, bist du am Amt?"). Only through the immortality-conferring power of the sacred chalice and

1917-818: The Kingdom of the Grail again, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her. Klingsor appears on the castle rampart and hurls the Holy Spear at Parsifal to destroy him. He seizes the spear in his hand and makes with it the sign of the Cross, banishing Klingsor's dark sorcery. The whole castle with Klingsor himself suddenly sinks as if by terrible earthquake and the enchanted garden withers. As Parsifal leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him. Prelude to act 3 – Parsifals Irrfahrt ( Parsifal's Wandering ) Musical introduction of c. 4–6 minutes. Scene 1 The scene takes place many years later. Gurnemanz

1988-608: The Metropolitan Opera in New York asked the audience not to applaud after act 1. Parsifal is one of the Wagner operas regularly presented at the Bayreuth Festival to this day. Among the more significant post-war productions was that directed in 1951 by Wieland Wagner , the composer's grandson. At the first Bayreuth Festival after World War II he presented a radical move away from literal representation of

2059-583: The Piccola Scala. On 11 September 1951, she appeared as Anne Trulove in the world premiere of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress . Schwarzkopf made her American concert debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on 28 and 29 October 1954, in Strauss's Four Last Songs and the closing scene from Capriccio with Fritz Reiner conducting; her Carnegie Hall debut was a lied recital on 25 November 1956; her American opera debut

2130-978: The Royal Opera House on 16 January 1948, as Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute , in performances sung in English, and at La Scala on 29 June 1950 singing Beethoven's Missa solemnis . Schwarzkopf's association with the Milanese house in the early 1950s gave her the opportunity to sing certain roles on stage for the only time in her career: Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande , Iole in Handel's Hercules , Marguerite in Gounod's Faust , Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin , as well as her first Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and her first Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte at

2201-550: The Saviour's blood contained therein may Titurel himself, now aged and very feeble, live on. Amfortas is overcome with shame and suffering ("Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen"). He, the chosen guardian of the holiest of relics, has succumbed to sin and lost the Holy Spear, suffering an ever-bleeding wound in the process; uncovering the Grail causes him great pain. The young man appears to suffer with him, clutching convulsively at his heart. The knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal

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2272-442: The Saviour's forgiving gaze, but her search for her redeemer in the end only ever turns into a desire to find her salvation in earthly desire with those who fall for her charms. All her penitent endeavours eventually transform into a renewed life of sin and a continued unredeemed existence in bondage to Klingsor. When Parsifal still resists her, Kundry curses him through the power of her own accursed being to wander without ever finding

2343-723: The Teatro Coliseo, on June 20, 1913, under Gino Marinuzzi . Bayreuth lifted its monopoly on Parsifal on 1 January 1914 in the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Bologna with Giuseppe Borgatti . Some opera houses began their performances at midnight between 31 December 1913 and 1 January. The first authorized performance was staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona: it began at 10:30pm Barcelona time, which

2414-509: The characters and themes of the drama. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven and a half years. During this time most of Wagner's creative energy was devoted to the Ring cycle , which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this gargantuan task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on Parsifal . By 23 February 1877 he had completed

2485-430: The deceased Titurel in a coffin and the Grail in its shrine, as well as Amfortas on his litter, to the Grail hall ( "Geleiten wir im bergenden Schrein" ). The knights desperately urge Amfortas to keep his promise and at least once more, for the very last time uncover the Grail again, but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail, as doing so would just prolong his unbearable torment. Instead, he commands

2556-483: The first and second acts, Wagner spoke to the audience and said that the cast would take no curtain calls until the end of the performance. This confused the audience, who remained silent at the end of the opera until Wagner addressed them again, saying that he did not mean that they could not applaud. After the performance Wagner complained, "Now I don't know. Did the audience like it or not?" At subsequent performances some believed that Wagner had wanted no applause until

2627-472: The hall of the Grail or the flowermaiden's bower. Instead, lighting effects and the bare minimum of scenery were used to complement Wagner's music. This production was heavily influenced by the ideas of the Swiss stage designer Adolphe Appia . The reaction to this production was extreme: Ernest Newman , Richard Wagner's biographer described it as "not only the best Parsifal I have ever seen and heard, but one of

2698-428: The issue once and for all, but unfortunately it has not survived. Wagner did not resume work on Parsifal for eight years, during which time he completed Tristan und Isolde and began Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . Then, between 27 and 30 August 1865, he took up Parsifal again and made a prose draft of the work; this contains a fairly brief outline of the plot and a considerable amount of detailed commentary on

2769-491: The knights to kill him and end with his suffering also the shame he has brought on the brotherhood. At this moment, Parsifal appears and declares only one weapon can help here: only the same spear that inflicted the wound can now close it ( "Nur eine Waffe taugt" ). He touches Amfortas' side with the Holy Spear and both heals the wound and absolves him from sin. The spear, now reunited with the Holy Grail, starts to bleed with

2840-408: The lad who shot the swan; to his amazement the knight also bears the Holy Spear. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion and freed from guilt through purifying suffering, and proclaims him the foretold new king of the knights of the Grail. Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of

2911-525: The lad, saying that this land is a holy place, not to be defiled by murder. Remorsefully the young man breaks his bow in agitation and casts it aside. Kundry tells him that she has seen that his mother has died. Parsifal, who cannot remember much of his past, is crestfallen. Gurnemanz wonders if Parsifal might be the predicted "pure fool"; he invites Parsifal to witness the Ceremony of the Uncovering of

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2982-680: The life of Buddha . The themes of self-renunciation, rebirth, compassion, and even exclusive social groups ( castes in Die Sieger , the knights of the Grail in Parsifal) which were later explored in Parsifal were first introduced in Die Sieger . According to his autobiography Mein Leben , Wagner conceived Parsifal on Good Friday morning, April 1857, in the Asyl (German: "Asylum"),

3053-705: The little garden was radiant with green, the birds sang, and at last I could sit on the roof and enjoy the long-yearned-for peace with its message of promise. Full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolfram's Parzival . Since the sojourn in Marienbad [in the summer of 1845], where I had conceived Die Meistersinger and Lohengrin , I had never occupied myself again with that poem; now its noble possibilities struck me with overwhelming force, and out of my thoughts about Good Friday I rapidly conceived

3124-476: The meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday , when all the world is purified and renewed. A dark orchestral interlude leads into the solemn gathering of the knights. Orchestral interlude – Verwandlungsmusik ( Transformation music ) – Titurels Totenfeier ( Titurel's Funeral March ) Scene 2 Within the Castle of the Grail, Titurel's funeral is to take place. Mourning processions of knights bring

3195-503: The mother he had abandoned and who had finally died of grief. She reveals many parts of Parsifal's history to him and he is stricken with remorse, blaming himself for his mother's death. Kundry tells him that this realization is a first sign of understanding and that, with a kiss, she can help him understand the love that had once united his parents, wanting thus to awake in Parsifal the first pangs of desire. However, as she kisses Parsifal,

3266-519: The omission of the dove that appears over Parsifal's head at the end of the opera, which he claimed inspired him to give better performances. To placate his conductor Wieland arranged to reinstate the dove, which descended on a string. What Knappertsbusch did not realise was that Wieland had made the length of the string long enough for the conductor to see the dove, but not for the audience. Wieland continued to modify and refine his Bayreuth production of Parsifal until his death in 1966. Martha Mödl created

3337-532: The orchestral interlude to the end. At the first performances of Parsifal , problems with the moving scenery (the Wandeldekoration ) during the transition from scene 1 to scene 2 in act 1 meant that Wagner's existing orchestral interlude finished before Parsifal and Gurnemanz arrived at the hall of the Grail. Engelbert Humperdinck , who was assisting the production, provided a few extra bars of music to cover this gap. In subsequent years this problem

3408-544: The point that he is about to flee, but a different voice suddenly calls out "Parsifal!". The youth finally recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams. The flowermaidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone. Parsifal wonders if the whole Garden is but a dream and asks how it is that Kundry knows his name. Kundry tells him she learned it from his mother ( "Ich sah das Kind an seiner Mutter Brust" ), who had loved him and tried to shield him from his father's fate,

3479-641: The probability was that the 17-year-old Elisabeth would have studied medicine after passing her Abitur ; but now, as the daughter of a banned school teacher, she was not allowed to enter university and she commenced music studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik . Schwarzkopf made her professional debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (then called Deutsches Opernhaus) on 15 April 1938, as the Second Flower Maiden (First Group) in act 2 of Richard Wagner 's Parsifal . In 1940 Schwarzkopf

3550-746: The realm with a warning to let the swans in the Grail Kingdom live in peace. Prelude to act 2 – Klingsors Zauberschloss ( Klingsor's Magic Castle ) Musical introduction of c. 2–3 minutes. Scene 1 Klingsor's castle and enchanted garden. Waking her from her sleep, Klingsor conjures up Kundry, now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress ( Urteufelin ), Hell's Rose ( Höllenrose ), Herodias , Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She mocks his self-castrated condition but cannot resist his power. He resolves to send her to seduce Parsifal and ruin him as she ruined Amfortas before. Scene 2 The youth walks into

3621-409: The same divine blood that is contained within the sacred chalice. Extolling the virtue of compassion and blessing Amfortas' suffering for making a pure fool knowing, Parsifal replaces Amfortas in his kingly office and orders to unveil the Grail, which is never to be hidden again. As the Grail glows ever brighter with light and a white dove descends from the top of the dome and hovers over Parsifal's head,

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3692-625: The second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on Parsifal productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York . Wagner described Parsifal not as an opera, but as Ein Bühnenweihfestspiel (a sacred festival stage play). At Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act. The autograph manuscript of

3763-473: The small cottage on Otto Wesendonck's estate in the Zürich suburb of Enge, which Wesendonck – a wealthy silk merchant and generous patron of the arts – had placed at Wagner's disposal, through the good offices of his wife Mathilde Wesendonck . The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April: ... on Good Friday I awoke to find the sun shining brightly for the first time in this house:

3834-408: The spear; it was stolen from him by the failed knight Klingsor. Gurnemanz's squires ask how it is that he knew Klingsor. Gurnemanz tells them that Klingsor was once a respected knight, but, unable to cleanse himself of sin, castrated himself in an effort to attain purity, but instead became an evil monstrosity. Parsifal enters, carrying a swan which he has killed. Shocked, Gurnemanz speaks sternly to

3905-415: The three or four most moving spiritual experiences of my life". Others were appalled that Wagner's stage directions were being flouted. The conductor of the 1951 production, Hans Knappertsbusch , on being asked how he could conduct such a disgraceful travesty, declared that right up until the dress rehearsal he imagined that the stage decorations were still to come. Knappertsbusch was particularly upset by

3976-516: The very end, and there was silence after the first two acts. Eventually it became a Bayreuth tradition that no applause would be heard after the first act, but this was certainly not Wagner's idea. In fact, during the first Bayreuth performances, Wagner himself cried "Bravo!" as the flowermaidens made their exit in the second act, only to be hissed by other members of the audience. At some theatres other than Bayreuth, applause and curtain calls are normal practice after every act. Program notes until 2013 at

4047-512: The way envisaged by him—a tradition maintained by his wife, Cosima, long after his death. Second, he thought that the opera would provide an income for his family after his death if Bayreuth had the monopoly on its performance. The Bayreuth authorities allowed unstaged performances to take place in various countries after Wagner's death (London in 1884, New York City in 1886, and Amsterdam in 1894) but they maintained an embargo on stage performances outside Bayreuth. On 24 December 1903, after receiving

4118-408: The work is preserved in the Richard Wagner Foundation . Wagner read von Eschenbach's poem Parzival while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845. After encountering Arthur Schopenhauer 's writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in Indian philosophies, especially Buddhism . Out of this interest came Die Sieger ( The Victors , 1856), a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from

4189-446: The world and also manages courses for the Britten-Pears Orchestra , formerly The Snape Maltings Training Orchestra. The contemporary composition and performance course was founded by Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews in 1992. More recently there has been in addition a digital media course, called New Music/New Media. In September 2012, the course was led by Rolf Wallin , Tansy Davies , and Alexander Refsum Jensenius , co-founder of

4260-587: The world, notably at the Juilliard School in New York City. After living in Ascona, Switzerland , for many years, she took up residence in Austria. She was made a doctor of music by the University of Cambridge in 1976, and became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1992. Schwarzkopf died in her sleep during the night of 2–3 August 2006 at her home in Schruns , Vorarlberg , Austria, aged 90. Her ashes, and those of Walter Legge, were buried next to her parents in Zumikon near Zürich , where she had lived from 1982 to 2003. Her discography

4331-472: The years immediately after the war but also in confrontation with revelations made in the 1980s and 1990s, made contradictory statements, including in regard to her membership in the NSDAP (Member No. 7,548,960). At first, she denied this and then with varying explanations defended it. In one version, for example, she claimed that she joined the party only at the insistence of her father who, himself, had earlier lost his position as school principal after forbidding

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4402-579: The youth suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas' name: having just felt for the first time material desire with Kundry's kiss, Parsifal finds himself in the same position in which Amfortas had been seduced and he feels the wounded king's pain and suffering of evil and sin burning in his own soul. Only now does Parsifal understand Amfortas' passion during the Grail Ceremony ( "Amfortas! Die Wunde! Die Wunde!" ). Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he should also be able to feel it for her. In

4473-413: Was an hour behind Bayreuth . Such was the demand for Parsifal that it was presented in more than 50 European opera houses between 1 January and 1 August 1914. At Bayreuth performances audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act. This tradition is the result of a misunderstanding arising from Wagner's desire at the premiere to maintain the serious mood of the opera. After much applause following

4544-429: Was a German-born Austro-British lyric soprano . She was among the foremost singers of lieder , and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta , as well as the operas of Mozart , Wagner and Richard Strauss . After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century. Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarotschin in

4615-519: Was a voice, not a film star. In 1947, Schwarzkopf was granted Austrian citizenship to enable her to sing abroad with the Vienna State Opera . In 1947 and 1948, Schwarzkopf appeared on tour with the Vienna State Opera at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on 16 September 1947 as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni and at La Scala on 28 December 1948, as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro , which became one of her signature roles. Schwarzkopf later made her official debut at

4686-404: Was awarded a full contract with the Deutsches Opernhaus, a condition of which was that she had to join the Nazi party. Since the theme was brought up in the dissertation of the Austrian historian Oliver Rathkolb in 1982, the question of Schwarzkopf's relationship with the Nazi Party has been discussed repeatedly in the media and in literature. There was criticism that Schwarzkopf, not only in

4757-403: Was begun on 25 September 1877, just a few days after the first; at this point in his career Wagner liked to work on both drafts simultaneously, switching back and forth between the two so as not to allow too much time to elapse between his initial setting of the text and the final elaboration of the music. The Gesamtentwurf of act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879 and the Orchesterskizze on

4828-408: Was modelled on those at the Palazzo Rufolo in Ravello . In July and August 1882 sixteen performances of the work were given in Bayreuth conducted by Levi and Franz Fischer . The production boasted an orchestra of 107, a chorus of 135 and 23 soloists (with the main parts being double cast). At the last of these performances, Wagner took the baton from Levi and conducted the final scene of act 3 from

4899-479: Was not a Good Friday at all – just a pleasant mood in Nature which made me think, 'This is how a Good Friday ought to be ' ". The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendonck's cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich . If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in Mein Leben was accurately dated (and most of Wagner's surviving papers are dated), it could settle

4970-552: Was solved and Humperdinck's additions were not used. For the first twenty years of its existence, the only staged performances of Parsifal took place in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus , the venue for which Wagner conceived the work (except eight private performances for Ludwig II at Munich in 1884 and 1885). Wagner had two reasons for wanting to keep Parsifal exclusively for the Bayreuth stage. First, he wanted to prevent it from degenerating into 'mere amusement' for an opera-going public. Only at Bayreuth could his last work be presented in

5041-472: Was with the San Francisco Opera on 20 September 1955 as the Marschallin, and her debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 13 October 1964, also as the Marschallin. In March 1946, Schwarzkopf was invited to audition for Walter Legge , an influential British classical record producer and a founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra . Legge asked her to sing Hugo Wolf 's lied Wer rief dich denn? and, impressed, signed her to an exclusive contract with EMI . They began

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