e miraculous power of the Grail,
urges his son to the duty. Amfortas uncovers the Grail, which is
illumined with unearthly light, and the solemn ceremony closes in peace
and brotherly love. Parsifal, who has watched the whole scene from the
side, feels a strange pang of sympathy at Amfortas's passionate cry, but
as yet he does not understand what it means. He is not yet 'wise
through pity,' and Gurnemanz, disappointed, turns him from the temple
door.

In the second act we are in Klingsor's magic castle. The sorcerer,
knowing of the approach of Parsifal, summons Kundry to her task, and
with many sighs she has to submit to her master. Parsifal vanquishes the
knights who guard the castle, and enters the enchanted garden, a
wilderness of tropical flowers, vast in size and garish in colour. There
he is saluted by troops of lovely maidens, who play around him until
dismissed by a voice sounding from a network of flowers hard by.
Parsifal turns and sees Kundry, now a woman of exquisite loveliness,
advancing towards him. She tells him of his dead mother, and drawing him
towards her, presses upon his lips the first kiss of love. The touch of
defilement wakens him to a sense of human frailty. The wounded
Amfortas's cry becomes plain to him. He starts to his feet, throbbing
with compassion for a world of sin. No thought of sensual pleasure moves
him. He puts Kundry from him, and her endearments move him but to pity
and horror. Kundry in her discomfiture cries to Klingsor. He appears on
the castle steps, brandishing the sacred spear. He hurls it at Parsifal,
but it stops in the air over the boy's head. He seizes it and with it
makes the sacred sign of the Cross. With a crash the enchanted garden
and castle fall into ruin. The ground is strewn with withered flowers,
among which Kundry lies prostrate, and all that a moment before was
bright with exotic beauty now lies a bare and desert waste.

Many years have passed before the third act opens. Evil days have fallen
upon the brotherhood of the Grail. Amfortas, in his craving for the
release of death, has ceased to uncover the Grail. Robbed of their
miraculous nourishment, the knights are sunk in dejection. Titurel is
dead, and Gurnemanz dwells in a little hermitage in a remote part of the
Grail domain. There one morning he finds the body of Kundry cold and
stiff. He chafes her to life once more, and is surprised to see in her
face and gestures a new and strange humility. A warrior no