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Kundry’s Kiss

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Date/Time
Saturday 27 Oct 2018
3:00 pm to 5:30 pm

Location
Queensland Multicultural Centre


Parsifal ~ Kundry’s Kiss: Four interpretations
Presented by Dr Stephen Emmerson

Kundry’s Kiss in Act 2 of Parsifal is the crucial turning point on the opera. Its meaning has long been widely questioned and discussed (right back to King Ludwig who put a “please explain” request to Wagner specifically about this scene.)

Understanding the implications of this scene is central to appreciating the Wagner’s intentions for the work as a whole.

This presentation will outline the dramatic significance of the scene as well as Wagner’s musical setting of the text, which will be examined and illustrated through musical examples.

Moreover, as the opera’s most dramatic event, the scene has been interpreted in various ways – with mixed success admittedly – in different productions. This presentation will show and discuss four particular interpretations from recent decades, those by directors: Hans-Jurgen Syberberg (1982), Otto Schenk (1992), Nikolaus Lehnhoff (2004), and François Girard (2013).