Tale Of The Holy Grail Analysis

The opera opens with Gurnemanz, who is a veteran Grail Knight, and four other Grail Knights sleeping outside in a clearing in the woods. When they wake up, they prepare a bath for Amfortas, the current King of the Kingdom of the Grail. Amfortas has an ailment, but it can only be soothed by a “blameless fool.” Kundry arrives, a woman who apparently brings fortune wherever she goes. Amfortas explains that Amfortas’s father, Titurel, was entrusted with the Holy Grail, the vessel that caught Jesus’s blood, and the Lance of Longinus. A magician, Klingsor, wanted to enter the temple that Titurel made, but was refused. In retaliation, Klingsor made a garden of seductive maidens, and was thus the ruin of many noble knights. Amfortas had lost the Lance of Longinus when he was wounded in the attack against Klingsor’s
It is at this point in the opera that Percival arrives. Percival was sad about shooting down a swan, and he didn’t know much about his past, other than his mother’s name. Kundry says that his mother died because Percival had abandoned her, and then she collapses. Titurel asks Amfortas to show the Holy Grail, but Amfortas refuses since the sight of it makes his wounds bleed and hurt. Amfortas eventually gives in and does show the grail, and holds the ceremony with the bread and wine. Percival is fascinated by the whole thing, and wonders why Amfortas is wounded, but he doesn’t ask any questions. Klingsor sees Percival approaching Klingsor’s castle through a crystal ball and calls Kundry to be an unwitting instrument of Klingsor’s will. The scene changes, and Percival is in the garden of maidens. The maidens are trying to charm Percival, but Kundry, now dressed seductively, shoos them away. Kundry talks about Percival’s mother, and attempts to seduce him. However, before she can kiss him, Percival is broken from the spell because he feels the pain from