Parsifal's Promise or Parsifal's Reality? On the Politics of Voice Exchange in Wagner's Grail Operas
Both Parsifal and Lohengrin are operas about futurity: hope that prayers will be answered, promise that redemption will bring about a new day. Yet paradoxically, the two works also share an investment in reversing futurity: time turned into space, modernity exchanged for medieval regalia. These external similarities between Wagner’s “grail operas” are more than mere family resemblances, however, for this hesitant nexus of hope and despair, of progress and stultification, is perhaps at its strongest in the movement between the two works. Parsifal comes to its autumnal close so that Parsifal’s son may attend to his heroic duties, just as Lohengrin bows its head as an opera to make way for its prophetic older sibling, the music drama. Fueling this circular movement between the two works is the catalyst of self-realization, the promise—and the cost—of finding one’s voice, of fulfilling prophecy. This, then, is an essay about coming into one’s own within the ambivalent and closed economy of Wagnerian myth. Our starting point is the beginning of the third act in Parsifal, as Parsifal the character—now the “Black Knight”—shares with Gurnemanz what he has learned about his place within Parsifal the story: “Und ich,” he cries, “ich bin’s, der all dies Elend schuf” [And I, I am the one who caused all this misery]. The “misery” is Titurel’s death, and it represents the sorry state into which Montsalvat has fallen since Parsifal’s initial failure to recognize his redemptive potential. The bad news initially threatens to overwhelm Parsifal, but it ultimately serves to strengthen his resolve. “Ich bin’s”: I am the one I myself heard prophesied. Although this hard-won realization carries embarrassingly little dramatic suspense—Wagner made the “pure fool’s” identity painstakingly obvious in act 1—it serves as a decisive linchpin in the opera’s dénouement: Parsifal exchanges his old mien for a new one, and now armed with both spear and the knowledge of his role within a preordained narrative, he is able to heal Amfortas, baptize Kundry, and proclaim healed all the ills that have befallen Montsalvat. I begin with this moment in Parsifal not because it is unfamiliar, or because its mechanics demand detailed exegesis, but precisely because there is something so familiar about it. Indeed, we have heard Parsifal’s words before in other of Wagner’s works, and so, too, have we witnessed similar scenes of self-realization. Senta, at the turning point of her ballad, switches from narration to apostrophe to
Wagner's last chorus: Consecrating space and spectatorship in Parsifal
In Opera and Drama Richard Wagner promised to abolish the opera chorus. Although the chorus's continued appearance in Wagner's later works seems to belie this pledge, this essay argues that Wagner symbolically made good on his promise in his treatment of the knights in Parsifal. For most of the drama, the knights serve as active, even demanding, participants. Yet as the work closes, the knights simply join the off-stage treble voices to reflect on the action. Their reverent spectatorship now parallels that of the intended audience of Bayreuth itself, the theatrical space that Parsifal– Wagner's Bühnenweihfestspiel– was written to consecrate. This dramaturgical transformation is matched by a musical one, in which the intense chromaticism marking much of the knights' earlier music is abandoned for a mediated yet insistent diatonicism far removed from the chromatic space of the principals. By eliminating the chorus from the active sphere of the drama, Wagner counteracted a Nietzschean ideal of communal authorship ‘from below’ that had previously dominated German theorising of the chorus.
A Critical Assessment on Functional Attributes and Degradation Mechanism of Membrane Electrode Assembly Components in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are typically a subset of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) that possess benefits such as fuel flexibility, reduction in plant balance, and benign operation. Due to their benefits, DMFCs could play a substantial role in the future, specifically in replacing Li-ion batteries for portable and military applications. However, the critical concern with DMFCs is the degradation and inadequate reliability that affect the overall value chain and can potentially impede the commercialization of DMFCs. As a consequence, a reliability assessment can provide more insight into a DMFC component’s attributes. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is the integral component of the DMFC stack. A comprehensive understanding of its functional attributes and degradation mechanism plays a significant role in its commercialization. The methanol crossover through the membrane, carbon monoxide poisoning, high anode polarization by methanol oxidation, and operating parameters such as temperature, humidity, and others are significant contributions to MEA degradation. In addition, inadequate reliability of the MEA impacts the failure mechanism of DMFC, resulting in poor efficiency. Consequently, this paper provides a comprehensive assessment of several factors leading to the MEA degradation mechanism in order to develop a holistic understanding.