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.
With Russell Thomas (Parsifal), Dshamilja Kaiser (Kundry, Stimme aus der Höhe), Albert Dohmen (Gurnemanz), Kartal Karagedik (Amfortas), Werner Van Mechelen (Klingsor), Kurt Rydl (Titurel), Werner van Mechelen (Klinsor), Kartal Karagedik (Amfortas), Lulama Taifasi (First Grail Knight), Smelo Mahlangu (Second Grail Knight), Chelsea Guo (First Squire/Fourth Flower Maiden), Camila Aguilera Yañez (Second Squire/Sixth Flower Maiden), Timothy Veryser (Fourth Squire), Maria Chabounia (First Flower Maiden), Ondelwa Martins (Second Flower Maiden), Mira Alkhovik (Third Flower Maiden), Zofia Hana (Fifth Flower Maiden), Dshamilija Kaiser (Voice from Above), Dominic Santia (Performer/Choreographer), Ixchel Mendoza, Melyn Chow, Sjaid Foncé, Martina de Domenic, Anna Maria Sturm (Performers) and others Orchestra ORF Radio-Sinfonieorchester Wien Choir Arnold Schoenberg Chor & Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen
Direction Susanne Kennedy Concept Susanne Kennedy, Markus Selg Musical Direction Yi-Chen Lin Stage design, Video Markus Selg Collaboration video design, Creative technologies Warja Rybakova Costume Andra Dumitrascu Light design Sascha Zauner Choreography Dominic Santia Dramaturgy Tobias Staab Music dramaturgy Piet De Volder
Production Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Coproduction Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) I Free Republic of Vienna In cooperation with Volksoper Wien Supported by the Tax Shelter Programme of the Belgian government With the kind permission of UNIVERSAL EDITION AG, Wien, in Vertretung von Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG
Richard Wagner: Parsifal
Bühnenweihfestspiel in drei Akten
Edited according to the text of the Richard Wagner Complete Edition by Egon Voss und Martin Geck
World premiere September 2025, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Gent)
