Amfortas

Operatic character in the opera Parsifal

Appears in 5 videos · 11 passages, 8 of them in depth.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani discusses Amfortas in his sessions on Wagner's Parsifal and the Grail quest, from 2022 to 2024. He presents him as the Grail king, the Fisher King, who unveils the Grail every Friday to the community he leads1. He often returns to his fault: having fallen into Kundry's arms, Amfortas lets Klingsor seize the spear and inflict on him a wound that never closes2. He names this sin as having succumbed to Kundry3, yet notes that Amfortas thanks Kundry when she looks for balms for his wound4. He stresses a paradox: Amfortas never suffers so much as when the Grail shines5, and only the spear that wounded him can heal him6. He also describes the scene in which Amfortas cries out his pain and shows his wound before Parsifal arrives, and comments on an engraving in which his blood provides the substance of the Grail.

Summary produced automatically from 11 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

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Cycle 12 · 21 Apr 2024Saving the saviour? Redemption, the end of the cycle or its new beginning?

18:31Head of the Grail community, he unveils the Grail every Friday.
35:09Fallen into Kundry's arms, wounded by the spear; a wound that never closes.
44:50In the engraving, his blood supplies the matter of the Grail.

Cycle 12 · 1 Apr 2024The quest for the Grail, sanctimony or sacrilege?

59:13The king of the Grail, seduced by Kundry and wounded by the spear; he is the fisher king with the incurable wound.
1:40:05He never suffers as much as when the Grail shines forth.

Cycle 12 · 4 Jun 2024The matrix of all illusion: the past lived as present

16:55King of the Grail whose sin is to have succumbed to Kundry.
53:11His suffering intensifies when the Grail shines; only the spear that wounded him can heal him.

Cycle 12 · 30 May 2024From fidelity to grace: from substance to subject

7:28In Kundry's arms, he lets Klingsor take the spear and inflict the wound that will not heal.
42:34He howls his pain and shows his wound before Parsifal arrives with the spear.

Cycle 11 · 12 Dec 2022Hesitation fascinated by hearing and by sight: Siegfried and Perceval

29:02The Fisher King, wounded for a sin; the Grail appears to him with the promise of the pure fool.
1:00:21Thanks Kundry, who seeks balm for his wound.