Outside/Inside: Sacred Spaces in Parsifal with Prof. Thomas Grey

HERE IS THE LINK TO AN ARCHIVAL VIDEO OF THIS PRESENTATION: https://youtu.be/KKctjlA29Wo

This talk looks at the ways that concepts of “the sacred” (religious, spiritual) in Parsifal are conceived according to a dichotomy of outside and inside spaces, natural and man-made: the “Grail Realm” (a protected natural space) and the Grail Temple (an exclusionary constructed space).  This dichotomy of outside/inside spaces is parodied, in a sense, by Klingsor’s realm in Act 2, and then further transformed back in the Grail Realm/Temple spaces in Act 3.  The talk considers the ways music and staging contribute to this dichotomy of outside/inside sacred spaces and inform or interpret the competing values of these spaces.  The characters of Parsifal and Kundry are analyzed with respect to this dynamic of “outside/inside,” belonging and exclusion, and with respect to the underlying concept of “redemption” in Wagner’s final drama.

Thomas Grey is a Professor Emeritus of Musicology and by courtesy, German Studies at Stanford University. His special fields of study are: Wagner, 19th-century opera, the history of musical aesthetics and criticism, Romantic music and visual culture. Professor Grey’s many publications include “Wagner’s Musical Prose: Texts and Contexts” (1995), “Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman” (editor and co-author, 2000), and “Cambridge Companion to Wagner”, (2008). He has published many articles and reviews as well as chapters in “The Wagner Compendium”, “The Mendelssohn Companion”, “Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera”, “Cambridge History of 19th-Century Music”, “New History Of German Literature”, and “Cambridge Opera Handbooks: Tristan und Isolde“. He was Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Musicological Society (1999-2001) and has been on the editorial/advisory boards of the Cambridge Opera Journal, Nineteenth-Century Music Review, Wagner Spectrum.