Monsalvat: the Parsifal home page |
Adolphe Appia
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Monsalvat: the Parsifal home page |
Adolphe Appia
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dolphe Appia (1862-1928) dared to criticise Wagner: while recognising his genius as
musician and poet, Appia thought Wagner both to have been limited in his concepts of staging
and (as he makes clear in the extract below) to have been naive in his expectation that nature
could be represented on stage with realistic effect. Appia advocated an expressive rather than
a naturalistic staging of Wagner's dramas. He proposed an hierarchy of scenic elements, with
the actor at the top of this hierarchy. All inessentials were to be removed from the staging
and, since the actor was a three-dimensional creature, also the elements of the staging should
be three-dimensional with the possible exception of the backdrop. Appia was one of the first
designers to understand the potential of stage lighting to do more than merely illuminate
actors and painted scenery. His ideas about the staging of "word-tone drama", together with his
own stagings of Tristan und Isolde (Milan 1923) and parts of the Ring (Basle
1924-25) have influenced later stagings, especially those of the second half of the twentieth
century. The following paragraphs are quoted from his Music and the Art of the
Theatre.
n
Parsifal and the Ring the episodes of the plot do not correspond to the
essential inner action, but whereas in Die Meistersinger the contrast between the
external events and the inner meaning is central to Wagner's intention, in the Ring it
is the complete development of this external life in itself which must be the cause of the
conflict in the hero's soul, and converge with the inner life to form the denouement and the
conclusion; hence the colossal dimensions of this drama.
arsifal did not require such a complex plot structure, for the transformation within
the hero's soul is not brought about by a series of causes and effects, but results from the
hero's vivid realization of universal suffering. The events which bring about the suffering are
of only secondary importance to the inner action. Thus, the production problem in
Parsifal differs from that of the Ring in that the duration and sequence of
events are determined by the duration and sequence of the psychological development of the hero
and not by the events themselves. Therefore, the ideality of the musical time pattern is far
more independent in Parsifal than in the Ring, because the inner action, the
object of the drama, is entirely within the domain of the music: its duration is by its nature
limitless. Furthermore, the visual expression which must be evoked by this inner action is
absolutely indeterminate: only through suffering can the hero's compassion be revealed, but
there are innumerable kinds of suffering. Consequently the fable in Parsifal assumes a
particularly arbitrary character. To avoid too great a disparity between the episodes of the
plot and the high significance of the musical expression, it was necessary to set the
production in an ideal atmosphere where the episodes would acquire a kind of universal
significance and would be in harmony with the inner world which was revealed. This Wagner did,
and it is well known with what artistry he seized upon a traditional form of suffering and by
means of the music identified it with the suffering of his characters. Nevertheless, this
defers but does not solve the problem of staging this drama.
he time
patterns of the music in the Ring are extremely complex. The human life which
determines the drama's general form and the sequence of its episodes is continually being
disturbed by the mythological anthropomorphism of certain of the characters. The epic poem can
easily encompass this kind of complexity; so can the spoken drama, although it is necessary to
reduce its scope considerably. But the extreme facility with which the music can express it
creates a problem for the word-tone dramatist [i.e. Wagner] which presently we shall see is
entirely one of production.
he evolution
taking place within the soul of Wotan is expressed by [all of] the episodes of
the play as well as in the passages devoted especially to him. Wotan's personal existence and
everything else in the drama are but two aspects of a single phenomenon. From a purely
naturalistic point of view, the incidents are responsible for Wotan's developing awareness, but
from the standpoint of the poetic intention of the drama the incidents themselves must be
considered to be that development. Because he is a god, Wotan has the painful privilege of at
the same time revealing and contemplating his own soul. How can the two aspects of this
conflict be presented consecutively with clarity? How can the musical pattern
be flexible enough to find a mean between the complete and poetic independence and relative
subordination to the realistic order of facts?
hanks to
Wagner's special genius, the episodes of the Ring are remarkably intense and
well-defined. However, there are passages where the music is strictly subordinated to the
realism of the plot, which deprives them of the free expression with which other passages can
be invested. Is their activity solely due to the power of genius or is it part of the dramatic
action? A drama which is in a sense the objectification of the soul of a god obviously cannot
be too rich, for his magnitude is revealed through his creations. On the other hand, the
indispensable space dedicated to Wotan's personal existence remains completely undetermined.
Nothing can dictate its dimensions nor its order; it is the domain of pure musical expression,
and the more obvious this is, the clearer will be the realistic opposition and the ideal
identity of the two faces of the drama.
efore these
apparently contradictory conditions, Wagner found himself captured by the principle of the
inflexible setting based on an impotent realistic convention. As we have seen, Wagner's vision
could adjust to the realism of sequence and form; only the inflexibility of the setting was
opposed to his conception. And yet he sought mobility through extreme realism. The notion that
an expressive setting could achieve the mobility he was seeking seems never to
have occurred to him. For Wagner, everything that happened on the stage had a real
existence.
ll the scenes
of the Ring are laid outdoors and nature in all its aspects is used throughout the
play. Thus, the role Wagner assigned to the landscape painter in The Art-Work of the
Future would theoretically have its richest opportunity for practical application in this
drama. But Wagner was too much the artist to use a work of art merely to illustrate his
theories. He would have been more likely to use his theories to explain the artist's
irresistible but still little understood impulse to create. Although at different times he says
that the painted drop is a background which the landscape artist provides for the actor,
nevertheless, when it comes to the specific dramatic conception, only man and nature at grips
with each other, the actor plunged into the scenic picture, can satisfy him.
But natural phenomena are highly mobile and the human being in the midst of natural phenomena
partakes of this mobility. Then a harmonious relation is established between them. We know that
in order to be united, actor and setting must sacrifice; the actor must yield some of his
personal independence and the setting must dispense with a considerable portion of
signification (multiplicity of specific detail). The setting will thus acquire an expressive
character which will influence the dramatist's intention, for as soon as the word-tone poet can
depend on the setting as a means of expression, he can permit his intention can develop freely.
The opposition between expression and signification remains the only law restricting and
guiding the creation of the score. A drama in which nature plays so large a part as in the
Ring is therefore incompatible with the principle of production adopted by Wagner. But
if the creative impulse is strong enough it will transgress all conventions, break through all
barriers. This occurs in the Ring: Wagner ceased to adhere to those very conventions
which he had endorsed; he wished to present on a traditional stage the phenomena of nature with
an impractical realism. In short, he believed he had achieved freedom in visual expression, but
he was unaware of the secret of that freedom. This contradiction is inherent in the score of
the drama and must be acknowledged if it is ever to be properly produced.
nly the
above- mentioned intensity of the episodes, since it depends upon a sequence of realistic
events, is affected by this contradiction; for it was only with respect to this intensity that
Wagner failed to appreciate his inability to achieve complete freedom. The pure musical
expression, on the other hand, exists in and dominates a boundless sphere which is the natural
element for a creative power such as Richard Wagner's, and neither its conception nor
composition could be affected by any extraneous consideration. Except in the purely episodic
passages, the purely musical expression attains a power in the Ring which has never
before been equalled in the history of the arts. But since this sheer musical expression is by
nature alien to the intense realism which controls the intention of the rest of the drama, it
disregards any possible scenic movement, and constitutes a series of rests within the form of
the production as a whole. A mise en scène created on the expressive
principle can permit all relationships; more, it can realize them progressively with perfect
timeliness. When I speak of "rests" in the form of the production, I refer to a type of
poetic-musical combination perfectly legitimate in itself, but to which the scenic principle
utilized by Wagner cannot be adapted, which he did not realize, and which incontestably
constitutes a violation of the integrity of the production.
hus, we find
in the Ring both realistic episodes which are almost impossible to present adequately
on the stage and a completely independent poetic-musical expression which is in conflict with
the form of production adopted for both.
hat is true
of the score of the Ring applies to a certain extent to that of Parsifal,
although in the latter the scenic requirements are far simpler. The music controls the whole
poetic conception of Parsifal, so that the realistic elements in the plot must be kept
to a minimum, in order that the divergence between the realistic elements and the great
significance of the musical expression shall not become so great as to destroy their mutual
relation. To avoid this Wagner has employed every device at his command. There is hardly a
moment in the drama when the realism of the plot is not in some way tempered or idealized. As
he makes Gurnemanz say, Here, time becomes space
. This
eliminates the idea of a specific locale. And when the object of this paradox becomes some
other locale, Wagner again evokes his characteristic magic to confuse time and space.
The interrelationships of the characters are of an ideal nature, without material analogy to those set up by real life. Some of the characters are ageless, personifying in a vague and disturbing way the idea of the transmigration of souls. In much the same way, such elemental ideas as death, sleep and physical pain assume straight off a transcendental significance. As in ancient drama, the law of cause and effect is almost entirely eliminated as a motivation for the action, with the obvious purpose of emphasizing the evolution within Parsifal's soul which is the direct effect of the action. As for the setting itself, Wagner has succeeded remarkably well in uniting it with his poetic idea. The setting unfolds and is several times transformed before our eyes; even the daylight seems to be subject to a divine or diabolical principle which transcends physical law. But this almost ideal mobility remains, nevertheless, deeply realistic, in the sense that the characters take part in it consciously; they even cause these transformations, under the influence of ecstasy or of some supernatural inspiration.
hus, the
Ring and Parsifal are similar in scenic conception for, contrary to all
appearances, their production is realistically conceived. They differ only in that in the
Ring the scenic requirements are impossible of fulfilment, while in Parsifal
they are achieved through an idealization of the setting, which here almost achieves an
expressive form, without violating the intent of the artist. Indeed, the characters in
Parsifal are, to some extent, an element of expression; and it is as such that they
are presented. To achieve this effect, the poet has relieved them of all responsibility to
reality, and as a result their participation in the drama is itself drawn into the realm of
pure expression.
n this
respect, as in all others, Parsifal may rightly be called a Bühnenweih-
festspiel (holy festival of the theatre), for it consecrates the stage upon which it
appears. Indeed, Wagner accomplished a miracle in his last work. He overcame the obstacle and
problems of visual realization with weapons more powerful than any technical principle.
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