How can life be completed when there are still unpaid bills? A stage accident not only deprives a diva of the grand finale of her comeback show, but also of her life. After her death, she meets an undertaker who talks to the dead and fulfils their last wishes. He tries to pass this gift on to his delinquent apprentice. For this musical world premiere, Philipp Stölzl and Jan Dvořák (including ‹Andersens Erzählungen›) return to Theater Basel, together with song and theatre music composer Christoph Israel. His songs revive the bittersweet, lush sound of the film musicals from the sixties.

Grand Finale

Theater Basel

Drawing loosely on motifs from Christianity, Buddhism, assorted legends and Schopenhauer’s philosophy, Richard Wagner eventually completed a myth of his own, PARSIFAL. The work that he dubbed a “stage-hallowing play” tells the story of a “pure fool” who is blissfully unaware of his own nature and calling. Parsifal sallies forth into the ascetic brotherhood of the Knights of the Grail and into another very different world, that of Klingsor’s erotically charged garden, where a kiss from Kundry infuses him with an enlightenment that leads him to release Amfortas, the King of the Grail, from his suffering and redeem the brotherhood.

Kathi Maurer

Events

Past events

9 - 22 May, 2026

Grand Finale · Theater Basel

Mar 29 - Apr 11, 2026

Parsifal · Deutsche Oper Berlin

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