Parsifal – Search for the Holy Grail

The Grail – the cup which Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper, and which subsequently collected His blood as He bled on the Cross – is one of the most powerful symbols in the last two thousand years of Western culture.

Parsifal, Wagner' three-act opera, is the most famous work to celebrate the Search for the Grail. First performed in 1882, and written especially for the composer’s revolutionary theatre in Bayreuth, Parsifal has towered above twentieth-century culture, in so far as it became a principal source of inspiration for Hitler.

Tony Palmer’s film centres round a performance of Parsifal, with the unmistakable Placido Domingo in the title role, and conducted by the distinguished Valery Gergiev. The striking documentary, narrated by Domingo himself, offers a description of the plot and explores theories about Parsifal's origins and considerable sphere of influence.

The music was recorded at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and in the gardens of the Villa Rufolo in Ravello, Italy, which had been a principal source of inspiration for Wagner.

This powerful and controversial film provides an invaluable oppurtanity to explore Wagner and his most intense opera.