Walter Meyer wrote an account of Lou Santacroce's talk to the Wagner
society on the interpretation of PARSIFAL as a Christian work.  While
this is a minority view, it is worth noting that Lucy Beckett gives
a very sophisticated Christian reading of PARSIFAL in her book on the
opera published by Cambridge.  Leaving the larger issue aside, I'd like
to comment on one of Mr. Santacroce's comments as reported by Mr. Meyer:

>At the outset Mr. Santacroce rejects, at least in *Parsifal* the idea that
>Wagner was influenced by Schopenhauer. . . .  What Schopenhauer influence
>may have pervaded *Tristan* and *The Ring* ends w/ the first note of
>*Parsifal*, which Santacroce considers a Christian "mystery play".

Schopenhauer's influence on Wagner should not be looked for exclusively
in the realm of "pessimism." Schopenhauer's ethics is built up on the
idea of compassion, arising in the individual who is able intellectually
or intuitively to penetrate what Schopenhauer calls the principle of
individuation, namely space and time.  Space and time are not ultimately
real (here Schopenhauer follows Kant), and thus the multiplicity they make
possible is not real either.  The individual who one way or another breaks
through the principle of individuation and overcomes the distinction
between self and other is overcome with compassion for the suffering of
others (since the others are not, at bottom, other than himself).  While
I suppose there will always be others who disagree, it seems to me obvious
that Kundry's kiss in Act II of PARSIFAL brings about a Schopenhauerian
insight in Parsifal, with his subsequent sharing in Amfortas' pain
("Amfortas!  Die Wunde!").  To note the centrality of compassion (Mitleid)
in PARSIFAL and deny Schopenhauer's influence seems to me just wacky.
(This is of course compatible with a reading of PARSIFAL that additionally
calls attention to the possibility of a Christian interpretation of the
overall work.)

Nick
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