Richard Wagner’s opera built around the medieval Holy Grail and sacred spear legend is Parsifal.
Wagner called Parsifal a Bühnenweihfestspiel, or “festival drama for the consecration of the stage.” Its story follows the naïve knight Parsifal, who becomes connected with the Grail community and seeks to heal its wounded leader, Amfortas. The sacred spear and the Grail are central symbols in the drama.
Parsifal premiered at the Bayreuth Festival on 26 July 1882. Wagner wrote both the music and the German libretto, drawing on medieval romances, especially Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. The score uses recurring musical ideas and unusually spacious pacing.
The work is sometimes confused with Lohengrin, another Wagner opera involving the Grail tradition. Lohengrin concerns a Grail knight who arrives in Brabant, whereas Parsifal centers on the knight’s spiritual development and the Grail community at Monsalvat.