thought for the week of August 29, 1999

        COPYRIGHT OF "PARSIFAL"
            =============
        PETITION TO THE REICHSTAG
                REJECTED

        (From our own correspondent)

                        Berlin, Feb. 6 [1913]

        The Reichstag Committee on Petitions 
        rejected today a petition which, among
        others, bore the signatures of the Crown
        Prince and other members of the Prussian
        Royal Family, demanding an extension of
        the now expiring copyright of _Parsifal_
        so that its performance may continue to
        be confined to Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
        Dr. Kerschensteiner, who read the report
        of the Committee, made a vigorous defence
        of the claims of Bayreuth.  In letters to
        King Ludwig II, Wagner had expressed the
        wish that _Parsifal_ should be performed
        there "solely and alone for all time."
        The composer himself, and subsequently
        his family, had made great financial 
        sacrifices in confining the drama to its 
        shrine and in trying to keep the full score 
        unpublished.  Such an art work as _Parsifal_
        would lose its influence upon mankind if
        it were not performed as Wagner intended.
        The Emperor Frederick had protested against
        its unrestricted performance, and Puccini
        had called the idea a profanation.  _Parsifal_
        offered peculiar opportunities for tasteless
        and immoral treatment at the hands of
        money-making theatre managers.  The objection
        that the restriction on its performance in
        Germany would not protect it abroad was
        hardly as vital to Germany as her own
        national obligation to a German artist.

        The opponents of the petition said that no
        national piety could justify an exceptive
        law in favour of the Wagner family, ideal
        though its motives were.  _Parsifal_ should
        become a common national treasure.  The
        petition really demanded an extension of
        the Copyright law, and "personal rights" 
        should not be protected like that.

        A bill in the sense of the petition has
        been presesnted to the Reichstag, but will,
        doubtless, share the fate of the petition.
        Meanwhile the first performance of _Parsifal_
        in German outside Bayreuth has been already
        arranged to take place at Leipzig next January,
        with scenery by Herr Max Klinger.
                --The Times (London), Friday, February 7, 1913,
                  page 6, column c.

I guess the Prussian Royal Family and the Wagner heirs didn't have Disney's millions.

I am not aware that Parsifal, or anything else of Wagner's, has gotten notoriously bad treatment since its copyright lapsed. Perhaps even, productions of Wagner tend to be overly-conservative and insufficiently experimental? Any opera buffs on the list with opinions on this?

Tim Phillips
<hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> Received on Tue Aug 31 1999 - 04:30:36 GMT