Click "free sample" to read the whole book no need to purchase.A Mystical Drama by Richard Wagner Retold in the Spirit of the Bayreuth Interpretation In Wagner's retelling of the legend of Percival and the Holy Grail, the naive young Parsifal (the German form of Percival) stumbles across a kingdom he does not understand. After being raised by his mother, away from the world of men, Parsifal knows nothing of right or wrong, nor of sin or redemption 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 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.