title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "Womanizer" was released on September 26, 2008, as the album's lead single. The song was met with positive response from critics, who complimented its hook and empowering lyrics and deemed it as a return of form and a "comeback" single for Spears. Womanizer debuted on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at number ninety-six before jumping to number one the next week. The song broke the record for the largest leap to any position. The record was later broken by Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You". The song is considered one of Spears's biggest songs and has been covered by several other artists. "Womanizer" has sold over 3,500,000 digital downloads in the United States. The music video premiered on October 18, 2008, as a spiritual sequel to "Toxic" (2004). It portrays Spears as a woman who disguises herself in different costumes and follows her boyfriend through his daily activities to expose him in the end. Womanizer had received above 70 million views at that time, making it one of the highest viewed YouTube videos in YouTube at the time.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "Circus" was released on December 2, 2008, as the album's second single, a day earlier than planned due to unauthorized leaks. It debuted and peaked at number three on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. "Circus" has sold over 3,200,000 digital downloads in the United States. The accompanying music video portrays Spears as a ringleader of a circus accompanied by different performers, and features scenes of Spears in different circus settings. The video received positive reviews from critics, but was criticized for featuring "cruelly trained animals", however claims were dismissed. It won a Best Video award on Fuse TV.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "If U Seek Amy" was released on March 10, 2009, as the album's third single. Due to the song's double entendre in the chorus, the Parents Television Council (PTC) threatened to file indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against any station that played the song between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. A clean edit of the song, titled "If U See Amy", was later provided by Jive Records. The song peaked at number nineteen on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. The music video was released on March 12, 2009, and depicts Spears poking fun at American culture.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "Radar" was originally included on "Blackout" and to be released as its fourth and final single. However, its release was cancelled when Spears began work on "Circus", and was instead released as a promotional single in 2008. "Radar" was included as a bonus track on "Circus" and was released as the album's fourth and final single on June 5, 2009. The music video portrays Spears as an aristocrat at a polo mansion involved in a love triangle with two men who are polo players. "Radar" originally entered the US Digital Songs at number fifty-two due to digital downloads from "Blackout" and after being confirmed as a single entered the US "Billboard" Hot 100 at number ninety and then peaked at number eighty-eight the following week.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "Mannequin" was supposed to be the fifth single for "Circus" but was canceled due to Spears already working on her second greatest hits album, "The Singles Collection".


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: Upon its release, "Circus" received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of hundred to reviews from mainstream critics, "Circus" received an average score of 64, based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine provided a favorable review, describing it as a "friendly remake of the hedonistic "Blackout"", but preferred its predecessor for being more "sleek or addictive" than "Circus". Genevieve Koski of "The A.V. Club" appreciated that Spears appeared to "put some real effort into her "Circus" performances", rather than seeming "flat-sounding" as she felt "Blackout" had. Writing for Digital Spy, Nick Levine opined that Spears "sounds more confident" than she had on "Blackout". While Chris Willman from "Entertainment Weekly" appreciated the overall production of "Circus", he was critical of Spears' recently established pattern of "putting out albums with titles that promise more self-revelation than she's ultimately able to provide."


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: Robert Christgau gave "Circus" a , stating that it was "still fun more often than not". Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" expressed his enjoyment of the "crisp" material that incorporated "catchy melodic interludes". Caryn Ganz from "Rolling Stone" opined that the "clubby, adventurous pop" included on the album could have been a satisfactory successor to her fourth studio album "In the Zone" (2003). Writing for "USA Today", Steve Jones applauded Spears for being "resilient" and "[knowing] who she is as a singer" and not "[wasting] time searching for artistic direction or overthinking her appeal." "The Village Voice" considered it "no better or worse than Janet Jackson's dominatrix-lite "Discipline"."


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: Alexis Petridis of "The Guardian" gave a more mixed review, suggesting that Spears "frequently sounds disconnected, even a bit bored" throughout the record, whereas "Blackout" was a "relentless, risky album made by a woman whose obituary was apparently being prepared by Associated Press." A writer for "The Independent" gave a negative review, opining that Spears' vocal delivery sounded emotionless in mid-tempo and ballad-paced tracks. Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson shared a similar sentiment, suggesting that the album's "self-actualization" gave off a "hollow" feel through the majority of the record. Ann Powers from "Los Angeles Times" felt that "Circus" served as a "bang-up job" of stating that "Spears is still a young woman trying to manage an impossible situation." Writing for "NME", Hamish MacBain was disappointed that "Spears is quite simply rubbish at being sexy", adding that "Circus" is the "umpteenth attempt to turn the perceived chaos of Britney's transition to adulthood – she's 27 next week! – into sleazy, raunchy, dirrty adult-pop product."


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: "Circus" debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of over 505,000 copies. It was the second biggest debut week sales by a female artist of 2008, only behind Taylor Swift's "Fearless". The album spent nine weeks in the top ten, making it Spears's longest-running top ten album since "Oops!... I Did It Again", which spent twenty-three weeks in the top ten in 2000. "Circus" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 29, 2009. According to Nielsen SoundScan, by March 2015, the album had sold 1.7 million copies in the United States. With over 51,000 units sold, the album opened at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, her best first-week sales in the country since "Oops!... I Did It Again", which sold 95,000 copies in May 2000. In less than a month, "Circus" became the ninth best-selling album of 2008, with 143,000 copies, and one of the top ten selling digital albums of the year with over 10,100 downloads. In March 2009, "Circus" was certified triple platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), denoting 240,000 shipped copies to retailers. In Mexico, the album debuted atop the international chart and at number three on Top 100 Mexico, selling over 46,000 copies and being certified gold by the Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON) in its first week.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: In Oceania, the album was a top-ten success, peaking at number three in Australia and number six in New Zealand, and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) after three weeks for shipments of 70,000 units. It has since gone on to be certified double platinum for shipments of 140,000 units. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted and peaked at number four on the UK Albums Chart, spending thirty-one weeks on the chart. The album was certified Platinum in the United Kingdom. In France, the album sold 18,319 copies in its first two days of release, debuting at number five on the French Albums Chart. In Japan, the album peaked at number five on the Oricon Albums Chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). Worldwide, "Circus" has sold over 4 million copies.


title: Circus (Britney Spears album)

text: Despite not being released as singles, several songs from "Circus" appeared on "Billboard"s component charts after the album's release. "Shattered Glass", peaked at number seventy on the US "Billboard" Hot 100, higher than the album's fourth single "Radar". It peaked at number twenty-nine on the US Hot Digital Songs, while peaking at number thirty-six on Canadian Hot Digital Songs. The song also entered the Pop 100 chart, peaking at number fifty-seven. "Unusual You", "Lace and Leather" and "Mmm Papi" peaked at numbers eighty, eighty-four and ninety-four on the US Pop 100, respectively. "Out from Under" debuted at number forty on Swedish Singles Chart on the week of August 14, 2009, reaching number thirty-two following week. It stayed on the chart for five weeks.


title: Parsifal

text: Parsifal (WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem "Parzival" of the "Minnesänger" Wolfram von Eschenbach, recounting the story of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail.


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner conceived the work in April 1857, but did not finish it until 25 years later. In composing it he took advantage of the particular acoustics of his Bayreuth Festspielhaus. "Parsifal" was first produced at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882. The Bayreuth Festival maintained a monopoly on "Parsifal" productions until 1903, when the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner described "Parsifal" not as an opera, but as (a festival play for the consecration of the stage). At Bayreuth a tradition has arisen that audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act.


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner's spelling of "Parsifal" instead of the "Parzival" he had used up to 1877 is informed by one of the theories about the name "Percival", according to which it is of Persian origin, "Parsi "(or "Parseh") "Fal" meaning "pure (or poor) fool".


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner read von Eschenbach's poem "Parzival" while taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845. After encountering Arthur Schopenhauer's writings in 1854, Wagner became interested in Asian philosophies, especially Buddhism. Out of this interest came "Die Sieger" ("The Victors", 1856), a sketch Wagner wrote for an opera based on a story from the life of Buddha. The themes which were later explored in "Parsifal" of self-renunciation, reincarnation, compassion, and even exclusive social groups (castes in , the Knights of the Grail in Parsifal) were first introduced in .


title: Parsifal

text: According to his autobiography , Wagner conceived "Parsifal" on Good Friday morning, April 1857, in the (German: "Asylum"), the small cottage on Otto Wesendonck's estate in the Zürich suburb of Enge, which Wesendonck – a wealthy silk merchant and generous patron of the arts – had placed at Wagner's disposal, through the good offices of his wife Mathilde Wesendonck. The composer and his wife Minna had moved into the cottage on 28 April:


title: Parsifal

text: However, as his second wife Cosima Wagner later reported on 22 April 1879, this account had been colored by a certain amount of poetic licence:


title: Parsifal

text: The work may indeed have been conceived at Wesendonck's cottage in the last week of April 1857, but Good Friday that year fell on 10 April, when the Wagners were still living at Zeltweg 13 in Zürich. If the prose sketch which Wagner mentions in was accurately dated (and most of Wagner's surviving papers are dated), it could settle the issue once and for all, but unfortunately it has not survived.


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner did not resume work on "Parsifal" for eight years, during which time he completed "Tristan und Isolde" and began "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". Then, between 27 and 30 August 1865, he took up "Parsifal" again and made a prose draft of the work; this contains a fairly brief outline of the plot and a considerable amount of detailed commentary on the characters and themes of the drama. But once again the work was dropped and set aside for another eleven and a half years. During this time most of Wagner's creative energy was devoted to the "Ring" cycle, which was finally completed in 1874 and given its first full performance at Bayreuth in August 1876. Only when this gargantuan task had been accomplished did Wagner find the time to concentrate on "Parsifal". By 23 February 1877 he had completed a second and more extensive prose draft of the work, and by 19 April of the same year he had transformed this into a verse libretto (or "poem", as Wagner liked to call his libretti).


title: Parsifal

text: In September 1877 he began the music by making two complete drafts of the score from beginning to end. The first of these (known in German as the and in English as either the "preliminary draft" or the "first complete draft") was made in pencil on three staves, one for the voices and two for the instruments. The second complete draft (, "orchestral draft", "short score" or "particell") was made in ink and on at least three, but sometimes as many as five, staves. This draft was much more detailed than the first and contained a considerable degree of instrumental elaboration.


title: Parsifal

text: The second draft was begun on 25 September 1877, just a few days after the first; at this point in his career Wagner liked to work on both drafts simultaneously, switching back and forth between the two so as not to allow too much time to elapse between his initial setting of the text and the final elaboration of the music. The of Act 3 was completed on 16 April 1879 and the on the 26th of the same month.


title: Parsifal

text: The full score () was the final stage in the compositional process. It was made in ink and consisted of a fair copy of the entire opera, with all the voices and instruments properly notated according to standard practice. Wagner composed "Parsifal" one act at a time, completing the and of each act before beginning the "Gesamtentwurf" of the next act; but because the already embodied all the compositional details of the full score, the actual drafting of the was regarded by Wagner as little more than a routine task which could be done whenever he found the time. The prelude of Act 1 was scored in August 1878. The rest of the opera was scored between August 1879 and 13 January 1882.


title: Parsifal

text: On 12 November 1880, Wagner conducted a private performance of the prelude for his patron Ludwig II of Bavaria at the Court Theatre in Munich. The premiere of the entire work was given in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 26 July 1882 under the baton of the Jewish-German conductor Hermann Levi. Stage designs were by Max Brückner and Paul von Joukowsky, who took their lead from Wagner himself. The Grail hall was based on the interior of Siena Cathedral which Wagner had visited in 1880, while Klingsor's magic garden was modelled on those at the Palazzo Rufolo in Ravello. In July and August 1882 sixteen performances of the work were given in Bayreuth conducted by Levi and Franz Fischer. The production boasted an orchestra of 107, a chorus of 135 and 23 soloists (with the main parts being double cast). At the last of these performances, Wagner took the baton from Levi and conducted the final scene of Act 3 from the orchestral interlude to the end.


title: Parsifal

text: At the first performances of "Parsifal", problems with the moving scenery (the ) during the transition from Scene 1 to Scene 2 in Act 1 meant that Wagner's existing orchestral interlude finished before Parsifal and Gurnemanz arrived at the Hall of the Grail. Engelbert Humperdinck, who was assisting the production, provided a few extra bars of music to cover this gap. In subsequent years this problem was solved and Humperdinck's additions were not used.


title: Parsifal

text: For the first twenty years of its existence, the only staged performances of "Parsifal" took place in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the venue for which Wagner conceived the work (except eight private performances for Ludwig II at Munich in 1884 and 1885). Wagner had two reasons for wanting to keep "Parsifal" exclusively for the Bayreuth stage. First, he wanted to prevent it from degenerating into 'mere amusement' for an opera-going public. Only at Bayreuth could his last work be presented in the way envisaged by him—a tradition maintained by his wife, Cosima, long after his death. Second, he thought that the opera would provide an income for his family after his death if Bayreuth had the monopoly on its performance.


title: Parsifal

text: The Bayreuth authorities allowed unstaged performances to take place in various countries after Wagner's death (London in 1884, New York City in 1886, and Amsterdam in 1894) but they maintained an embargo on stage performances outside Bayreuth. On 24 December 1903, after receiving a court ruling that performances in the United States could not be prevented by Bayreuth, the New York Metropolitan Opera staged the complete opera, using many Bayreuth-trained singers. Cosima barred anyone involved in the New York production from working at Bayreuth in future performances. Unauthorized stage performances were also undertaken in Amsterdam in 1905, 1906 and 1908. There was a performance in Buenos Aires, in the Teatro Coliseo, on June 20, 1913 under Gino Marinuzzi.


title: Parsifal

text: Bayreuth lifted its monopoly on "Parsifal" on 1 January 1914 in the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Bologna with Giuseppe Borgatti. Some opera houses began their performances at midnight between 31 December 1913 and 1 January. The first authorized performance was staged at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona: it began at 10:30pm Barcelona time, which was an hour behind Bayreuth. Such was the demand for "Parsifal" that it was presented in more than 50 European opera houses between 1 January and 1 August 1914.


title: Parsifal

text: At Bayreuth performances audiences do not applaud at the end of the first act. This tradition is the result of a misunderstanding arising from Wagner's desire at the premiere to maintain the serious mood of the opera. After much applause following the first and second acts, Wagner spoke to the audience and said that the cast would take no curtain calls until the end of the performance. This confused the audience, who remained silent at the end of the opera until Wagner addressed them again, saying that he did not mean that they could not applaud. After the performance Wagner complained, "Now I don't know. Did the audience like it or not?" At subsequent performances some believed that Wagner had wanted no applause until the very end, and there was silence after the first two acts. Eventually it became a Bayreuth tradition that no applause would be heard after the first act, but this was certainly not Wagner's idea. In fact, during the first Bayreuth performances, Wagner himself cried "Bravo!" as the Flowermaidens made their exit in the second act, only to be hissed by other members of the audience. At some theatres other than Bayreuth, applause and curtain calls are normal practice after every act. Program notes until 2013 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York asked the audience not to applaud after Act 1.


title: Parsifal

text: "Parsifal" is one of the Wagner operas regularly presented at the Bayreuth Festival to this day. Among the more significant post-war productions was that directed in 1951 by Wieland Wagner, the composer's grandson. At the first Bayreuth Festival after World War II he presented a radical move away from literal representation of the Hall of the Grail or the Flowermaiden's bower. Instead, lighting effects and the bare minimum of scenery were used to complement Wagner's music. This production was heavily influenced by the ideas of the Swiss stage designer Adolphe Appia. The reaction to this production was extreme: Ernest Newman, Richard Wagner's biographer described it as "not only the best "Parsifal" I have ever seen and heard, but one of the three or four most moving spiritual experiences of my life". Others were appalled that Wagner's stage directions were being flouted. The conductor of the 1951 production, Hans Knappertsbusch, on being asked how he could conduct such a disgraceful travesty, declared that right up until the dress rehearsal he imagined that the stage decorations were still to come. Knappertsbusch was particularly upset by the omission of the dove that appears over Parsifal's head at the end of the opera, which he claimed inspired him to give better performances. To placate his conductor Wieland arranged to reinstate the dove, which descended on a string. What Knappertsbusch did not realise was that Wieland had made the length of the string long enough for the conductor to see the dove, but not for the audience. Wieland continued to modify and refine his Bayreuth production of Parsifal until his death in 1966. Martha Mödl created a "complex, tortured Kundry in Wieland Wagner's revolutionary production of Parsifal during the festival's first postwar season", and would remain the company's exclusive Kundry for the remainder of the decade.


title: Parsifal

text: In a forest near the seat of the Grail and its Knights, Gurnemanz, elder Knight of the Grail, wakes his young squires and leads them in morning prayer ("He! Ho! Waldhüter ihr"). He sees Amfortas, King of the Grail Knights, and his entourage approaching. Amfortas has been injured by his own Holy Spear, and the wound will not heal. Gurnemanz asks the lead Knight for news of the King's health. The Knight says the King has suffered during the night and is going early to bathe in the holy lake. The squires ask Gurnemanz to explain how the King's injury can be healed, but he evades their question and a wild woman – Kundry – bursts in. She gives Gurnemanz a vial of balsam, brought from Arabia, to ease the King's pain and then collapses, exhausted.


title: Parsifal

text: Amfortas arrives, borne on a stretcher by Knights of the Grail. He calls out for the knight Gawain, whose attempt at relieving the King's pain had failed. He is told that Gawain has left again, seeking a better remedy. Raising himself somewhat, the King says that going off without leave ("Ohn' Urlaub?") is the sort of impulsiveness which led him into Klingsor's realm and to his downfall. He accepts the potion from Gurnemanz and tries to thank Kundry, but she answers abruptly that thanks will not help and urges him onward to his bath.


title: Parsifal

text: The procession leaves. The squires eye Kundry with mistrust and question her. After a brief retort, she falls silent. Gurnemanz tells them Kundry has often helped the Grail Knights but that she comes and goes unpredictably. When he asks directly why she does not stay to help, she answers that she never helps. The squires think she is a witch and sneer that if she does so much, why will she not find the Holy Spear for them? Gurnemanz reveals that this deed is destined for someone else. He says Amfortas was given guardianship of the Spear, but lost it as he was seduced by an irresistibly attractive woman in Klingsor's domain. Klingsor grabbed the Spear and stabbed Amfortas. The wound causes Amfortas both suffering and shame, and will never heal on its own.


title: Parsifal

text: Squires returning from the King's bath tell Gurnemanz that the balsam has eased the King's suffering. Gurnemanz's own squires ask how it is that he knew Klingsor. He solemnly tells them how both the Holy Spear, which pierced the side of the Redeemer on the Cross, and the Holy Grail, which caught the flowing blood, had come to Monsalvat to be guarded by the Knights of the Grail under the rule of Titurel, father of Amfortas ("Titurel, der fromme Held"). Klingsor had yearned to become one of the Knights but, unable to stifle sinful desires in his mind, resorted to self-mutilation, for which offense Titurel refused to allow him to join the Order. Klingsor then set himself up in opposition to the Knights, learning dark arts, claiming the valley domain to the south of the mountainous realm of the Grail and filling it with beautiful Flowermaidens to seduce and enthrall wayward Grail Knights. It was here that Amfortas lost the Holy Spear, kept by Klingsor as he schemes to get hold of the Grail. Gurnemanz tells how Amfortas later had a holy vision which told him to wait for a "pure fool, enlightened by compassion" ("Durch Mitleid wissend, der reine Tor") who will finally heal the wound.


title: Parsifal

text: At this moment, cries are heard from the Knights: a flying swan has been shot, and a young man is brought forth, a bow in his hand and a quiver of matching arrows. Gurnemanz speaks sternly to the lad, saying this is a holy place. He asks him outright if he shot the swan, and the lad boasts that if it flies, he can hit it ("Im Fluge treff' ich, was fliegt!") Gurnemanz tells him that the swan is a holy animal, and asks what harm the swan had done him, and shows the youth its lifeless body. Now remorseful, the young man breaks his bow and casts it aside. Gurnemanz asks him why he is here, who his father is, how he found this place and, lastly, his name. To each question the lad replies that he doesn't know the answer. The elder Knight sends his squires away to help the King and now asks the boy to tell what he "does" know. The young man says he has a mother, Herzeleide (literally meaning Heart's Sorrow) and that he made the bow himself. Kundry has been listening and now tells them that this boy's father was Gamuret, a Knight killed in battle, and also how the lad's mother had forbidden her son to use a sword, fearing that he would meet the same fate as his father. The youth now recalls that upon seeing Knights pass through his forest, he had left his home and mother to follow them. Kundry laughs and tells the young man that, as she rode by, she saw Herzeleide die of grief. Hearing this, the lad first lunges at Kundry but then collapses in grief. Kundry herself is now weary for sleep, but cries out that she must not sleep and wishes that she might never again waken. She disappears into the undergrowth.


title: Parsifal

text: Gurnemanz knows that the Grail draws only the pure of heart to Monsalvat and invites the boy to observe the Grail rite in the hope that perhaps he might be the pure fool of the prophecy revealed to Amfortas. The youth does not know what the Grail is, but remarks that as they approach the ascending mountain path leading through rocky walls to the Castle of the Grail it seems to him he scarcely moves, yet feels as if he had already traveled far. Gurnemanz answers him mysteriously that here time becomes space ("Zum Raum wird hier die Zeit").


title: Parsifal

text: Parsifal and Gurnemanz arrive at the Sanctuary of the Grail inside the Castle, where its Knights are just assembling to receive Holy Communion ("Zum letzten Liebesmahle"). A proccession of squires brings the Holy Grail itself in a reliquary to the centre of the hall, while an other proccession brings Amfortas on his litter to perform the ritual. The voice of the retired king Titurel then resounds from a vaulted nook in the background, as if from a tomb, telling his son Amfortas to uncover the Grail and serve his kingly office ("Mein Sohn Amfortas, bist du am Amt?"). Only through the life-giving power of the sacred chalice and the Saviour's blood contained therein may Titurel himself, now aged and very feeble, live on. Upon hearing his father's pleas to reveal the Grail, Amfortas is overcome with shame and suffering ("Wehvolles Erbe, dem ich verfallen"). He, the chosen guardian of the holiest of relics, has succumbed to sin and lost the Holy Spear, suffering an ever-bleeding wound in the process, a wound inflicted by that very selfsame Speer whose protection had been bestowed upon him, a wound condemning his existence to a one of unending torment. Declaring himself unworthy of his kingship, Amfortas cries out for forgiveness ("Erbarmen! Erbarmen!"), begging the Saviour to end his anguish and give him the only grace capable of putting an end to his misery, the peace of death, but hears only again the same promise once given to him repeated by the Knights and squires: he will one day be redeemed by a pure fool.


title: Parsifal

text: On hearing Amfortas' cry of pain, Parsifal appears to suffer with him, clutching convulsively at his heart. The Knights and Titurel urge Amfortas to reveal the Grail ("Enthüllet den Gral!"), and he finally does. The dark hall is illuminated by its radiant light and the Knights eat. Gurnemanz motions to Parsifal to participate, but he seems entranced and does not. Amfortas also does not share in taking communion and, as the ceremony ends, again collapses in agony and is carried away. Slowly all the Knights and squires disapper, leaving Parsifal and Gurnemanz alone. Gurnemanz asks the youth if he has understood what he has seen. As Parsifal is unable to answer the question, Gurnemanz dismisses him as just a fool after all and angrilly sends him out with a warning to leave the swans in the Grail Kingdom alone. A voice from high above repeats the promise: "The pure fool, made knowing by compassion".


title: Parsifal

text: Klingsor's magic castle. Klingsor conjures up Kundry, waking her from her sleep. He calls her by many names: First Sorceress (), Hell's Rose (), Herodias, Gundryggia and, lastly, Kundry. She is now transformed into an incredibly alluring woman, as when she once seduced Amfortas. She mocks Klingsor's mutilated condition by sarcastically inquiring if he is chaste (), but she cannot resist his power. Klingsor observes that Parsifal is approaching and summons his enchanted knights to fight the youth. Klingsor watches as Parsifal overcomes his knights, and they flee. Klingsor wishes destruction on their whole kin. Seeing the young man stray into his Flowermaiden garden Klingsor calls to Kundry to seek the boy out and seduce him, but when he turns, he sees that Kundry has already left on her mission.


title: Parsifal

text: The triumphant youth finds himself in a wondrous garden, surrounded by beautiful and seductive Flowermaidens. They call to him and entwine themselves about him while chiding him for wounding their lovers (). They soon fight and bicker among themselves to win his devotion, to the point that he is about to flee, but a different voice suddenly calls out "Parsifal!". He now recalls this name is what his mother called him when she appeared in his dreams. The Flowermaidens back away from him and call him a fool as they leave him and Kundry alone.


title: Parsifal

text: Parsifal wonders if the Garden is a dream and asks how it is that Kundry knows his name. Kundry tells him she learned it from his mother (), who had loved him and tried to shield him from his father's fate, the mother he had abandoned and who had finally died of grief. She reveals many parts of Parsifal's history to him and he is stricken with remorse, blaming himself for his mother's death. He thinks himself very stupid to have forgotten her. Kundry says this realization is a first sign of understanding and that, with a kiss, she can help him understand his mother's love. As they kiss Parsifal suddenly recoils in pain and cries out Amfortas' name: he feels the wounded king's pain burning in his own side and now understands Amfortas' passion during the Grail Ceremony (). Filled with this compassion, Parsifal rejects Kundry's advances.


title: Parsifal

text: Furious that her ploy has failed, Kundry tells Parsifal that if he can feel compassion for Amfortas, then he should also be able to feel it for her. She has been cursed for centuries, unable to rest, because she saw Christ on the cross and laughed at His pains. Now she can never weep, only jeer diabolically, and she is enslaved to Klingsor. Parsifal rejects her again but then asks her to lead him to Amfortas. She begs him to stay with her for just one hour, and then she will take him to Amfortas. When he still refuses, she curses him to wander without ever finding the Kingdom of the Grail, and finally calls on her master Klingsor to help her.


title: Parsifal

text: Klingsor appears on the castle rampart and hurls the Spear at Parsifal to destroy him, but it miraculously stops in midair, above his head. Parsifal seizes the Spear in his hand and makes with it the sign of the Cross, banishing Klingsor's magic. The whole castle with Klingsor suddenly sinks as if by an earthquake and the enchanted garden withers. As Parsifal leaves, he tells Kundry that she knows where she can find him.


title: Parsifal

text: The scene is the same as that of the opening of the opera, in the domain of the Grail, but many years later. Gurnemanz is now aged and bent, living alone as a hermit. It is Good Friday. He hears moaning near his hut and finds Kundry lying unconscious in the brush, similarly as he had many years before ("Sie! Wieder da!"). He revives her using water from the Holy Spring, but she will only speak the word "serve" ("Dienen"). Gurnemanz wonders if there is any higher significance to her reappearance on this special day. Looking into the forest, he sees a figure approaching, armed and in full armour. The stranger wears a helmet and the hermit cannot see who he is. Gurnemanz admonishes him firmly for being armed on a hallowed ground of the Kingdom of the Grail and all the more so on a day when the Saviour himself, bereft of all arms, had offered his own blood as a sacrifice to redeem the fallen world, but gets no response. Finally, the apparition removes the helmet and Gurnemanz recognizes the lad who shot the swan; to his amazement the Knight also bears the Holy Spear.


title: Parsifal

text: Parsifal tells of his desire to bring healing to Amfortas (). He relates his seemingly unending arduous wandering, how he strayed again and again, unable to find a way back to the Grail. He was forced to resist and fight countless enemies to guard the Spear, suffering all manner of harms in the process, but has never desecrated the relic by wielding it in battle, preserving the purity of its holiness. Gurnemanz tells Parsifal that the evil curse preventing him from finding the right path has now been lifted, since he finds himself in the Grail's domain. However, in his absence Amfortas has never unveiled the Grail, and lack of its sustaining powers has caused the death of Titurel. Parsifal is overcome with pity, blaming himself for this state of affairs, and almost faints with exhaustion. Gurnemanz tells him that today is the day of Titurel's funeral, and that Parsifal has a great duty to perform. Kundry washes Parsifal's feet and Gurnemanz anoints him with water from the Holy Spring, recognizing him as the pure fool, now enlightened by compassion and freed from guilt, and proclaims him the foretold new King of the Knights of the Grail.


title: Parsifal

text: Parsifal looks about and comments on the beauty of the meadow. Gurnemanz explains that today is Good Friday, when all the world is renewed. Kundry silently weeps with remorse and is baptised by Parsifal, who gently kisses her on the forehead and tells her to believe in the Redeemer. Tolling bells are heard in the distance. Gurnemanz says "Midday: the hour has come. My lord, permit your servant to guide you!" () – and all three set off for the castle of the Grail. A dark orchestral interlude leads into the solemn gathering of the Knights.


title: Parsifal

text: Orchestral interlude – Verwandlungsmusik (Transformation music) – Titurels Totenfeier (Titurel's Funeral)


title: Parsifal

text: Within the Castle of the Grail, Titurel's funeral is to take place. Mourning processions of Knights bring the deceased Titurel in a coffin and the Grail in its shrine, as well as Amfortas on his litter, to the Grail hall (). Expected to perform the ritual, Amfortas begs his deceased father, whose demise he acknowledges as his further guilt, to plead by the Redeemer to grant him the unique mercy of death, which alone would finally deliver him from all his pain. (). The Knights desperately urge Amfortas to keep his promise and at least once more, for the very last time uncover the Grail again, but Amfortas, in a frenzy, says he will never again show the Grail, as doing so would just prolong his unbearable torment. Instead, he commands the Knights to kill him and end with his suffering also the shame he has brought on the brotherhood. At this moment, Parsifal appears and declares only one weapon can help here: only the same Spear that inflicted the wound can now close it (). He touches Amfortas' side with the Holy Spear and both heals the wound and absolves him from sin. Extolling the virtue of compassion that made a pure fool knowing, Parsifal replaces Amfortas in his kingly office and orders to unveil the Grail. As the Grail glows ever brighter with light and a white dove descends from the top of the dome and hovers over Parsifal's head, all Knights praise the miracle of salvation () and proclaim the redemption of the Redeemer (). Kundry, also at the very last released from her curse and redeemed, slowly sinks lifeless to the ground with her gaze resting on Parsifal, who raises the Grail in blessing over the worshipping Knighthood.


title: Parsifal

text: Since "Parsifal" could initially only be seen at the Bayreuth Festival, the first presentation in 1882 was attended by many notable figures. Reaction was varied. Some thought that "Parsifal" marked a weakening of Wagner's abilities, many others saw the work as a crowning achievement. The famous critic and Wagner's theoretical opponent Eduard Hanslick gave his opinion that "The Third act may be counted the most unified and the most atmospheric. It is not the richest musically," going on to note "And Wagner's creative powers? For a man of his age and his method they are astounding ... [but] It would be foolishness to declare that Wagner's fantasy, and specifically his musical invention, has retained the freshness and facility of yore. One cannot help but discern sterility and prosaicism, together with increasing longwindedness."


title: Parsifal

text: On the other hand the conductor Felix Weingartner found that: "The Flowermaidens' costumes showed extraordinary lack of taste, but the singing was incomparable... When the curtain had been rung down on the final scene and we were walking down the hill, I seemed to hear the words of Goethe 'and you can say you were present'. The "Parsifal" performances of 1882 were artistic events of supreme interest and it is my pride and joy that I participated in them." Many contemporary composers shared Weingartner's opinion. Hugo Wolf was a student at the time of the 1882 Festival, yet still managed to find money for tickets to see "Parsifal" twice. He emerged overwhelmed: "Colossal – Wagner's most inspired, sublimest creation." He reiterated this view in a postcard from Bayreuth in 1883: ""Parsifal" is without doubt by far the most beautiful and sublime work in the whole field of Art." Gustav Mahler was also present in 1883 and he wrote to a friend; "I can hardly describe my present state to you. When I came out of the Festspielhaus, completely spellbound, I understood that the greatest and most painful revelation had just been made to me, and that I would carry it unspoiled for the rest of my life." Max Reger simply noted that "When I first heard "Parsifal" at Bayreuth I was fifteen. I cried for two weeks and then became a musician." Alban Berg described "Parsifal" in 1909 as "magnificent, overwhelming," and Jean Sibelius, visiting the Festival in 1894 said: "Nothing in the world has made so overwhelming an impression on me. All my innermost heart-strings throbbed... I cannot begin to tell you how "Parsifal" has transported me. Everything I do seems so cold and feeble by its side. "That" is really something." Claude Debussy thought the characters and plot ludicrous, but nevertheless in 1903 wrote that musically it was: "Incomparable and bewildering, splendid and strong. "Parsifal" is one of the loveliest monuments of sound ever raised to the serene glory of music." He was later to write to Ernest Chausson that he had deleted a scene he had just written for his own opera "Pelléas et Melisande" because he had discovered in the music for it "the ghost of old Klingsor, alias R. Wagner".


title: Parsifal

text: However, some notable guests of the Festival took a more acerbic view of the experience. Mark Twain visited Bayreuth in 1891: "I was not able to detect in the vocal parts of "Parsifal" anything that might with confidence be called rhythm or tune or melody... Singing! It does seem the wrong name to apply to it... In "Parsifal" there is a hermit named Gurnemanz who stands on the stage in one spot and practices by the hour, while first one and then another of the cast endures what he can of it and then retires to die." Performance standards may have contributed to such reactions; George Bernard Shaw, a committed Wagnerite, commented in 1894 that: "The opening performance of "Parsifal" this season was, from the purely musical point of view, as far as the principal singers were concerned, simply an abomination. The bass howled, the tenor bawled, the baritone sang flat and the soprano, when she condescended to sing at all and did not merely shout her words, screamed..."


title: Parsifal

text: During a break from composing "The Rite of Spring", Igor Stravinsky also traveled to the Bayreuth Festival at the invitation of Sergei Diaghilev to see the work. Stravinsky was repulsed by the "quasi-religious atmosphere" of the festival. Stravinsky's repulsion is speculated to be due to his agnosticism.


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner's last work, "Parsifal" has been both influential and controversial. The use of Christian symbols in "Parsifal" (the Grail, the Spear, references to the Redeemer) together with its restriction to Bayreuth for almost 30 years sometimes led to performances being regarded almost as a religious rite. However, Wagner never actually refers to Jesus Christ by name in the opera, only to "The Redeemer". In his essay "Religion and Art", Wagner described the use of Christian imagery thus:


title: Parsifal

text: The critic Eduard Hanslick objected to the religious air surrounding "Parsifal" even at the premiere: "The question of whether "Parsifal" should really be withheld from all theatres and limited to... Bayreuth was naturally on all tongues... I must state here that the church scenes in "Parsifal" did not make the offensive impression on me that others and I had been led to expect from reading the libretto. They are religious situations – but for all their earnest dignity they are not in the style of the church, but completely in the style of the opera. "Parsifal" is an opera, call it a 'stage festival' or 'consecrational stage festival' if you will."


title: Parsifal

text: Wagner had been greatly impressed with his reading of Arthur Schopenhauer in 1854, and this deeply affected his thoughts and practice on music and art. Most writers (e.g. Bryan Magee) see "Parsifal" as Wagner's last great espousal of Schopenhauerian philosophy. Parsifal can heal Amfortas and redeem Kundry because he shows compassion, which Schopenhauer saw as the highest form of human morality. Moreover, he displays compassion in the face of sexual temptation (Act 3, scene 2). Schopenhauerian philosophy also suggests that the only escape from the ever-present temptations of human life is through negation of the Will, and overcoming sexual temptation is in particular a strong form of negation of the Will. When viewed in this light, "Parsifal", with its emphasis on "Mitleid" ("compassion") is a natural follow-on to "Tristan und Isolde", where Schopenhauer's influence is perhaps more obvious, with its focus on "Sehnen" ("yearning"). Indeed, Wagner originally considered including Parsifal as a character in Act 3 of "Tristan", but later rejected the idea.


title: Parsifal

text: Friedrich Nietzsche, who was originally one of Wagner's champions, chose to use "Parsifal" as the grounds for his breach with Wagner; an extended critique of "Parsifal" opens the third essay ("What Is the Meaning of Ascetic Ideals?") of "On the Genealogy of Morality". In "Nietzsche contra Wagner" he wrote:


title: Parsifal

text: Despite this attack on the subject matter, he also admitted that the music was sublime: "Moreover, apart from all irrelevant questions (as to what the use of this music can or ought to be) and on purely aesthetic grounds; has Wagner ever done anything better?" (Letter to Peter Gast, 1887).


title: Parsifal

text: Some writers see in the opera a promotion of racism or anti-semitism. One line of argument suggests that "Parsifal" was written in support of the ideas of the French diplomat and racial theorist Count Arthur de Gobineau, expressed most extensively in his "Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races". Parsifal is proposed as the "pure-blooded" (i.e. Aryan) hero who overcomes Klingsor, who is perceived as a Jewish stereotype, particularly since he opposes the quasi-Christian Knights of the Grail. Such claims remain heavily debated, since there is nothing explicit in the libretto to support them. Wagner never mentions such ideas in his many writings, and Cosima Wagner's diaries, which relate in great detail Wagner's thoughts over the last 14 years of his life (including the period covering the composition and first performance of "Parsifal") never mention any such intention. Having met Gobineau for the first time very briefly in 1876, it was nonetheless only in 1880 that Wagner read Gobineau's essay. However, the libretto for "Parsifal" had already been completed by 1877, and the original drafts of the story even date back to 1857. Despite this chronological evidence, Gobineau is sometimes cited as a major inspiration for "Parsifal".


title: Parsifal

text: The related question of whether the opera contains a specifically anti-Semitic message is also debated. Some of Wagner's contemporaries and commentators (e.g. Hans von Wolzogen and Ernest Newman) who analysed "Parsifal" at length, make no mention of any anti-Semitic interpretations. However the critics Paul Lindau and Max Nordbeck, present at the world premiere, noted in their reviews how the work accorded with Wagner's anti-Jewish sentiments. More recent commentators continue to highlight the perceived anti-Semitic nature of the opera, and find correspondences with anti-Semitic passages found in Wagner's writings and articles of the period.


title: Parsifal

text: The conductor of the premiere was Hermann Levi, the court conductor at the Munich Opera. Since King Ludwig was sponsoring the production, much of the orchestra was drawn from the ranks of the Munich Opera, including the conductor. Wagner objected to "Parsifal" being conducted by a Jew (Levi's father was in fact a rabbi). Wagner first suggested that Levi should convert to Christianity, which Levi declined to do. Wagner then wrote to King Ludwig that he had decided to accept Levi despite the fact that (he alleged) he had received complaints that "of all pieces, this most Christian of works" should be conducted by a Jew. When the King expressed his satisfaction at this, replying that "human beings are basically all brothers", Wagner wrote to the King that he "regard[ed] the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure humanity and everything noble about it". Seventy-one years later, the Jewish bass-baritone George London performed in the role of Amfortas at "Neu Bayreuth", causing some controversy.


title: Parsifal

text: It has been claimed that "Parsifal" was denounced as being "ideologically unacceptable" in Nazi Germany, and that the Nazis placed a de facto ban on "Parsifal". In fact there were 26 performances at the Bayreuth Festival between 1934 and 1939 and 23 performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin between 1939 and 1942. However "Parsifal" was not performed at the Bayreuth Festival during World War II.


title: Parsifal

text: A "leitmotif" is a recurring musical theme within a particular piece of music, associated with a particular character, object, event or emotion. Wagner is the composer most often associated with leitmotifs, and "Parsifal" makes liberal use of them. Wagner did not specifically identify or name leitmotifs in the score of "Parsifal" (any more than he did in any other of his scores), although his wife Cosima mentions statements he made about some of them in her diary. However, Wagner's followers (notably Hans von Wolzogen whose guide to "Parsifal" was published in 1882) named, wrote about and made references to these motifs, and they were highlighted in piano arrangements of the score. Wagner's own reaction to such naming of motifs in the score was one of disgust: "In the end people believe that such nonsense happens by my suggestion."


title: Parsifal

text: The opening prelude introduces two important leitmotifs, generally referred to as the "Communion" theme and the theme of the "Grail". These two, and Parsifal's own motif, are repeated during the course of the opera. Other characters, especially Klingsor, Amfortas, and "The Voice", which sings the so-called "Tormotif" ("Fool's motive"), have their own particular leitmotifs. Wagner uses the Dresden amen to represent the Grail, this motif being a sequence of notes he would have known since his childhood in Dresden.


title: Parsifal

text: Many music theorists have used "Parsifal" to explore difficulties in analyzing the chromaticism of late 19th century music. Theorists such as David Lewin and Richard Cohn have explored the importance of certain pitches and harmonic progressions both in structuring and symbolizing the work. The unusual harmonic progressions in the leitmotifs which structure the piece, as well as the heavy chromaticism of Act 2, make it a difficult work to parse musically.


title: Parsifal

text: As is common in mature Wagner operas, "Parsifal" was composed such that each act was a continuous flow of music; hence there are no free-standing arias in the work. However, a number of orchestral excerpts from the opera were arranged by Wagner himself, and remain in the concert repertory. The prelude to Act 1 is frequently performed either alone or in conjunction with an arrangement of the "Good Friday" music which accompanies the second half of Act 3, Scene 1. Kundry's long solo in Act 2 ("") is occasionally performed in concert, as is Amfortas' lament from Act 1 ("").


title: Parsifal

text: The score for "Parsifal" calls for three flutes, three oboes, one English horn, three clarinets in B-flat and A, one bass clarinet in B-flat and A, three bassoons, one contrabassoon; four horns in F, three trumpets in F, three trombones, one tuba, 6 onstage trumpets in F, 6 onstage trombones; a percussion section that includes four timpani (requiring two players), tenor drums, 4 onstage church bells, one onstage thunder machine; two harps and strings. "Parsifal" is one of only two works by Wagner in which he used the contrabassoon. (The other is the "Symphony in C".)


title: Parsifal

text: The bells that draw the knights to the Grail ceremony at Monsalvat in acts 1 and 3 have often proved problematic to stage. For the earlier performances of "Parsifal" in Bayreuth, Wagner had the Parsifal bell, a piano frame with four strings, constructed as a substitute for church bells. For the first performances, the bells were combined with tam-tam and gongs. However, the bell was used with the tuba, four tam-tams tuned to the pitch of the four chime notes and another tam-tam on which a roll is executed by using a drumstick. In modern-day performances, the Parsifal bell has been replaced with tubular bells or synthesizers to produce the desired notes. The thunder machine is used in the moment of the destruction of Klingsor's castle.


title: Parsifal

text: "Parsifal" was expressly composed for the stage at Bayreuth and many of the most famous recordings of the opera come from live performances on that stage. In the pre-LP era, Karl Muck conducted excerpts from the opera at Bayreuth. These are still considered some of the best performances of the opera on disc. They also contain the only sound evidence of the bells constructed for the work's premiere, which were melted down for scrap during World War II.


title: Parsifal

text: Hans Knappertsbusch was the conductor most closely associated with "Parsifal" at Bayreuth in the post-war years, and the performances under his baton in 1951 marked the re-opening of the Bayreuth Festival after World War II. These historic performances were recorded and are available on the Teldec label in mono sound. Knappertsbusch recorded the opera again for Philips in 1962 in stereo, and this release is often considered to be the classic "Parsifal" recording. There are also many "unofficial" live recordings from Bayreuth, capturing virtually every "Parsifal" cast ever conducted by Knappertsbusch. Pierre Boulez (1971) and James Levine (1985) have also made recordings of the opera at Bayreuth that were released on Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. The Boulez recording is one of the fastest on record, and the Levine one of the slowest.


title: Parsifal

text: Amongst other recordings, those conducted by Georg Solti, James Levine (with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Herbert von Karajan, and Daniel Barenboim (the latter two both conducting the Berlin Philharmonic) have been widely praised. The Karajan recording was voted "Record of the Year" in the 1981 Gramophone Awards. Also highly regarded is a recording of "Parsifal" under the baton of Rafael Kubelík originally made for Deutsche Grammophon, now reissued on Arts & Archives.


title: Parsifal

text: On the 14 December 2013 broadcast of BBC Radio 3's CD Review – Building a Library, music critic David Nice surveyed recordings of "Parsifal" and recommended the recording by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik (conductor), as the best available choice.


title: Parsifal

text: In addition to a number of staged performances available on DVD, "Parsifal" was adapted for the screen by Daniel Mangrané in 1951 and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg in 1982. There is also a 1998 documentary directed by Tony Palmer titled: "Parsifal – The Search for the Grail". It was recorded in various European theaters, including the Mariinsky Theatre, the Ravello Festival in Siena, and the Bayreuth Festival. It contains extracts from Palmer's stage production of "Parsifal" starring Plácido Domingo, Violeta Urmana, Matti Salminen, , and Anna Netrebko. In also includes interviews with Domingo, Wolfgang Wagner, writers Robert Gutman and Karen Armstrong. The film exists in two versions: (1) a complete version running 116 minutes and officially approved by Domingo, and (2) an 88-minute version, with cuts of passages regarded by the German distributor as being too "political", "uncomfortable", and "irrelevant".


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Peter Mattias Forsberg (; born 20 July 1973) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player and former assistant general manager of Modo Hockey. Nicknamed "Peter the Great" and "Foppa", Forsberg was known for his on-ice vision and physical play, and is considered one of the greatest players of all time. Although his career was shortened by persistent injuries, , he stands ninth all-time in career points-per-game and fifth all-time in career assists-per-game in the NHL, only behind Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, and Connor McDavid. In 2017 Forsberg was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: His 19-year professional career includes 13 years in the National Hockey League (NHL), where he won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche, as well as several individual honors including the Hart Memorial Trophy in 2003. As of the end of the 2017–18 season, he is the seventh-highest all-time Swedish point scorer in the NHL regular season. Before his short-lived comeback season in 2011, Forsberg never had a negative plus-minus rating, giving him an overall career rating of +238.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Representing Sweden in international play, Forsberg competed in four Winter Olympics, two World Cups and five World Championships, as well as one European Junior Championship and two World Junior Championships, where he holds a scoring record of 31 points in seven games that some say may never be broken. He won four gold medals with Sweden in his career, winning titles at the 1992 and 1998 World Championships and the 1994 and 2006 Winter Olympics. Combined with his two Stanley Cup championships in NHL play, he is a member of the Triple Gold Club and the only Swede who has won each of the three competitions twice. In 2013, he was inducted to the IIHF Hall of Fame, and in 2014, he was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Peter Forsberg was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, the son of Kent Forsberg, a former coach of Modo Hockey and the Swedish national team. Forsberg was coached by his father for a significant part of his career: the two teamed up from 1991 to 1994 with Modo and later for the national team in the 1996 World Cup, 1998 Olympics and 1998 World Championship, which Sweden won.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg played minor hockey alongside boyhood friend Markus Näslund, who was also born in Örnsköldsvik. Born ten days apart, the two were well-acquainted while playing on separate youth teams before joining on the regional Ångermanland all-star team for the under-16 TV-pucken national championship in 1988. They went on to compete alongside each other at the junior and men's level for both Modo Hockey and the Swedish national team. Forsberg and Näslund also attended high school together and had summer jobs at the age of 18 with the same electrical company that employed both Näslund's mother and Forsberg's father.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg debuted in 1990 with the junior squad of Modo Hockey, the club in his hometown Örnsköldsvik. During the course of the season, he debuted with the senior team in the Elitserien, the highest-level professional ice hockey league in Sweden, and scored an assist in his only game. In 1990–91, he scored 102 points in 39 games with the junior team and 17 points in 23 games with the senior team.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: At the end of the season, Forsberg was drafted sixth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, the first European player taken that year. The draft pick was surprising because Forsberg was expected to be selected later in the draft. "The Hockey News" had ranked Forsberg as the 25th best draft prospect in its 1991 draft preview, saying he was "a solid second rounder who could move into the first." The pick was criticized by the Philadelphia media, prompting Flyers' General Manager Russ Farwell and the team's chief European scout Inge Hammarström to reply that time would prove them right.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Eric Lindros was the main attraction of the draft. He was drafted first overall by the Quebec Nordiques but refused to sign a contract and, on advice from his mother, began a holdout that lasted over a year. Forsberg was included in a deal that sent five players, two first-round draft picks, and US$15 million to the Quebec Nordiques in exchange for Lindros. In hindsight, the Lindros trade is seen as one of the most one-sided deals in sports history, and the deal became a major foundation for the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise's success over the next decade.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg remained in Sweden, playing for Modo for the following three years. In 1993, the team was eliminated in the playoffs quarterfinals against Malmö, but Forsberg won the Guldpucken for Player of the Year and the Guldhjälmen for Most Valuable Player of the Elitserien, an award decided by the players. He won both prizes again in 1994 when, after barely making the playoffs, he led his team to their first final since winning the Elitserien playoffs in 1979. In a five-game series, again against Malmö, Forsberg scored in overtime in Game 2 to put his team one win away from the title. However, he suffered from the flu (influenza v) and Modo lost the remaining games of the series and the title. By this point, Forsberg was thought to be the best player in the world outside the NHL. After losing the deciding game 3–1, Forsberg expressed his frustration on the ice, first by breaking his stick and then in an interview where he criticised the game's referee, Börje Johansson, for giving Malmö many power plays, resulting in their first two goals, and then increasing the tolerance level. Forsberg's words that he wanted to give Börje a hit has become popular in Swedish ice hockey areas. Börje later denied calling the game in favor of Malmö and stated that Forsberg hadn't given him a hit.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: During the summer of 1994, Forsberg decided to play in the NHL after previously signing a contract with the Quebec Nordiques in October 1993. It was a four-year deal worth $6.5 million, including $4.275 million given as a signing bonus. However, a lockout delayed his NHL debut until 1995, and Forsberg returned to Modo to play 11 more games before going back to North America.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: After the lockout ended, the 1994–95 NHL season began on January 21, 1995. That day, Forsberg made his NHL debut against the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that drafted him, and recorded his first NHL assist. His first NHL goal came six days later against the Buffalo Sabres. His rookie season in the NHL was impressive—Forsberg was able to combine a good offensive performance with responsibility on defence as well as physical play. He scored 50 points (15 goals and 35 assists) in 47 games, including a 14-game run in which he scored 26 points, and was second in scoring on the Nordiques, behind Joe Sakic. He missed only one game, due to the flu. The Nordiques won the Northeast Division and had the second-best record in the league in the regular season, but lost in the first playoff round against the New York Rangers. At the end of the season, Forsberg won the Calder Memorial Trophy for best rookie in the league and was selected to the NHL All-Rookie Team.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: On July 1, 1995, it became official that the Nordiques' owner Marcel Aubut had sold the team to the COMSAT Entertainment Group, which moved the franchise to Denver, Colorado. The franchise was presented as the Colorado Avalanche on 10 August 1995. It turned out Forsberg had scored the last goal in Nordiques history in Game 6 against the Rangers.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg was on a team that included center and captain Joe Sakic, defenceman Adam Foote and, in the near future, Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Patrick Roy. In its first year in Denver, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup after finishing the regular season with the second-best league record and winning the Pacific Division. Forsberg scored 116 points in the regular season (30 goals, 86 assists) and 21 more in the playoffs (10 goals, 11 assists). Forsberg finished second in points on the team and fifth overall in the league in the regular and post-season. During Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers, Forsberg became the sixth player in NHL history to score three goals in one period. Not only was the 1995–96 NHL season Forsberg's highest-scoring year, but it would also be the only NHL season in which he played in all his team's games.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: In the 1996–97 season, Forsberg played in only 65 regular-season games and 14 of Colorado's 17 playoff games due to a bruised thigh. But he recorded 86 points (28 goals, 58 assists) as Colorado earned its first Presidents' Trophy and the third consecutive division title for the franchise. On March 16, 1997, Forsberg participated in the only fight of his NHL career against Detroit Red Wings winger Martin Lapointe. The fight occurred 10 days before the famous Red Wings–Avalanche brawl. In the playoffs, Colorado lost in the Conference Finals against Detroit; Forsberg scored 17 points (five goals, 12 assists).


title: Peter Forsberg

text: In 2001, the Avalanche won their second Stanley Cup. After the Avalanche defeated the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the playoffs, Forsberg had to have his spleen removed and could not play again in the playoffs. Based on doctors' advice and his overall deteriorated health, he decided to take the following season off to recuperate. He returned for the playoffs, though, and he again led the playoffs in scoring with 27 points, but his team lost to the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference finals.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: 2002–03 was a banner year for Forsberg. He centered the highly productive "AMP line" (i.e. Alex, Milan, Peter) with wingers Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk as part of the Colorado Avalanche's "one-two punch" offensive plan led by centers Forsberg and Joe Sakic. Much healthier and more rested than he had been in the previous few years, he went on to lead the league with 106 points, for which he was awarded the Art Ross Trophy, as well as the Hart Memorial Trophy for league MVP. The Avalanche lost to the Minnesota Wild in the playoffs.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Peter Forsberg returned to Modo Hockey during the 2004–05 NHL lockout. He had signed a one-year contract even before the 2004–05 NHL season was confirmed cancelled. Coached by his father and teammates with NHL players Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Markus Näslund, Forsberg played only 33 of Modo's 50 regular season games because of surgery after dislocating his left wrist and breaking a bone in his hand. He scored 39 points (13 goals and 26 assists) and tied for eighth in the league scoring race. Modo finished sixth in the regular season and lost in the first round of the playoffs against Färjestad BK in a six-game series in which Forsberg only played one game.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: After the end of the season and with the return of the NHL, Forsberg returned to North America. The implementation of a salary cap was a blow to the Colorado Avalanche, one of the highest spenders in the league, and they were forced to let go of Forsberg and Adam Foote to save room in the cap for Joe Sakic and Rob Blake. He refused a four-year, $13.5 million offer from the Avalanche before signing a two-year, $11.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that drafted Forsberg 14 years earlier.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Before the season started, he had surgery to remove a bursa sac from his right ankle. He debuted with the Flyers on October 5 against the New York Rangers. He registered two assists in his first game and 12 in his first six. Despite only playing 60 games, mostly because of a groin injury, he scored 75 points (19 goals and 56 assists). The Flyers lost in the first round of the playoffs against the Buffalo Sabres.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: After the season, he had surgery on his right ankle and foot to correct deformities because of an abnormal arch that caused him to stretch his ankle tendons. He was expected to have the same surgery done on his left foot and to be sidelined until January, but a doctor decided he did not need it and he was ready to play by the start of the 2006–07 NHL season. On 14 September 2006, Forsberg became the 15th captain in Flyers history, replacing Derian Hatcher (the interim captain after Keith Primeau retired). The season was troubled for him: while the Flyers were having their worst season ever, Forsberg had not fully recovered from his right foot problems and had doubts about his future.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: With his contract over at the end of the season and with no commitment on Forsberg's part to signing a new contract or to retire, on February 15, shortly before the trade deadline, the Flyers traded him to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Ryan Parent, Scottie Upshall and Nashville's first- and third-round 2007 picks to boost Nashville's playoff run. The Predators' last regular season game was at Colorado, and Forsberg returned to Denver for the first time since leaving the Avalanche. The Predators won and Colorado missed the playoffs as a result. This was the first time the Avalanche had failed to make the playoffs since moving to Colorado. The Predators lost in the first round of the playoffs against the San Jose Sharks, with Forsberg scoring four points in the five-game series. Forsberg had an average of less than one point per game in the regular season for the first time in his career and for the second time in the playoffs.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: For most of the 2007–08 season, Forsberg was an unrestricted free agent and said that he would not return to the NHL. He had surgery on his foot and was waiting to see if he was in condition to play. He said that in Europe, he would only play for Modo Hockey, and in the NHL he would probably play for one of his former three clubs. On 25 February 2008, Forsberg signed a contract with the Colorado Avalanche for the rest of the 2007–08 season.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg's first game back with the Avalanche was on 4 March 2008, home at the Pepsi Center against the Vancouver Canucks. However, he was sidelined after just three games due to a groin injury. He was listed by the club as day-to-day. On April 1, against Vancouver, he scored his first goal of the season in Colorado's penultimate regular-season game.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: After coming back from a 10-month break Forsberg was first among all NHL players in points-per-game (PPG) during the 2007–08 regular season. His average of 1.56 PPG in nine games put him ahead of the league's top scorer, Alexander Ovechkin, who posted 1.37 PPG, although Ovechkin played all 82 games.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg played two seasons with Modo from 2008 to 2010, being joined by countryman Markus Näslund in the second year. On 14 August 2010, Forsberg announced he was not optimistic about returning to hockey, hinting he may retire.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: On 21 January 2011, it was announced that Forsberg had begun training with the Colorado Avalanche in an attempt to make a comeback in the NHL.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: On 6 February, the Avalanche announced that they had come to terms on a contract with Forsberg worth $1 million for the remainder of the 2010–11 season. Forsberg played his first game back with the Avalanche in Nationwide Arena against the Columbus Blue Jackets on 11 February. He was in the starting lineup at left wing, a departure from his natural center, with 2001 Stanley Cup-winning teammate Milan Hejduk, as well as Matt Duchene. In the two road games he played in, Forsberg was on the ice for 17 minutes and 38 seconds, with zero points and a −4 plus-minus rating. The Avalanche lost both games. After the latter game, Avalanche Head Coach Joe Sacco stated Forsberg was the best player on the ice.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: The Avalanche, in the midst of a losing season, heavily advertised tickets for Forsberg's first home game back as a member of the team. However, on 14 February 2011, hours before he was scheduled to play in front of the Avalanche's home fans at the Pepsi Center, Forsberg announced his retirement from hockey. The Avalanche's official website stated that Forsberg would hold a press conference later that day, formally announcing his retirement. In the press conference, Forsberg cited an "inability to defend (himself)" on the ice, with foot problems also playing a role in his decision.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: On 20 April 2011, nearly two weeks after a dramatic but successful end of the 2011 Kvalserien for Modo Hockey, Forsberg was named an assistant general manager of the Modo organization, working under long-time friend Markus Näslund.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: On 8 October 2011, Forsberg had his jersey number retired prior to the Avalanche's 2011–12 season opener at the Pepsi Center. On 26 February 2015, Forsberg had his number officially retired prior to a Modo game at the Fjällräven Center in his native Örnsköldsvik.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg is involved with many business endeavors. He was an early investor in Crocs, and is a partial owner in the airline Nextjet. Forsberg and his father own a Swedish development company named Forspro Company. The company co-funded the Modo Hockey team's new Swedbank Arena in Örnsköldsvik. Independently of his father, Forsberg also owned Pforce AB, a company that imported and marketed Crocs shoes in his native Sweden since 2005. On 14 July 2010, he announced he was closing Pforce after taking heavy losses in the previous two years. Forsberg is also interested in harness racing, and owns or has owned a few racing horses during the years, including "Tsar d' Inverne" and "Adrian Chip". He has also invested money in a golf course named Veckefjärdens Golf Club in his native Örnsköldsvik.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg competed with Sweden's under-18 team at the 1991 European Junior Championships. He led the tournament in scoring with 17 points over six games as Sweden failed to defend their gold medal from the previous year. Moving on to Sweden's national under-20 team, he played in his first of two World Junior Championships in 1992. He scored 11 points in seven games as Sweden won the silver medal. Several months later, Forsberg debuted with the Swedish men's team at the 1992 World Championships. He recorded a goal and an assist over eight games, helping Sweden to a gold medal.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: The following year, he made his second appearance at the 1993 World Junior Championships. Forsberg set a tournament record 24 assists and 31 points over seven games. He earned nearly a third of his points with a ten-point performance against Japan, which set a single-game tournament record. Due to his record-breaking performances at the World Junior Hockey Championship, Forsberg was deemed the best player in World Junior history by TSN. Topping players the likes of Pavel Bure, Viacheslav Fetisov, Wayne Gretzky, and Jordan Eberle, who were among the top five players in the vote. In 1994, he led the Swedes to a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, scoring the winning goal of the penalty shootout that decided the gold medal game. Forsberg's "one hand, slide in" goal, a move which he borrowed from retired Swedish ice hockey player Kent Nilsson, has become popular in today's NHL. An image of Forsberg scoring this goal was later placed on a Swedish postage stamp, making him the first hockey player to be placed on a Swedish stamp. Forsberg's famous move on Canadian goaltender Corey Hirsch (who refused to allow his name to be shown on the stamp) has become so iconic in hockey that efforts to reproduce it inevitably draw references to Forsberg from hockey commentators.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Following his second year in the NHL, Forsberg competed in the 1996 World Cup. The competition marked Forsberg's first time in best-on-best international play. With five points in four games, Forsberg helped Sweden to a bronze medal.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: In October 1997, it was announced that Forsberg would be playing for the Swedish national team in the Karjala Cup, though he was forced to withdraw from the team after just one practice session after experiencing continued problems with his foot. The following year, he competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, in the first Olympic competition including NHL players. Forsberg recorded five points over four games as Sweden finished without a medal at fifth place. Several months later, competing in the 1998 World Championships, Sweden won a gold medal. Forsberg had recorded 11 points over seven games.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: In November 1999, Forsberg played for Sweden in the Karjala Cup, a tournament that included his 100th game for the Swedish national team against Russia on 7 November. Nearly five years later, he made his fourth World Championships appearance in 2003. He scored nine points in eight games to help Sweden to a silver medal. The following year, he helped Sweden to another silver medal at the 2004 tournament, recording an assist in two games.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Returning to best-on-best competition at the 2004 World Cup, Forsberg recorded three points in four games. Sweden finished in fifth place. Two years later, he won his second Olympic gold, helping Sweden to a championship at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. As part of a subsequent interview about the championship over five years later, Forsberg was interpreted to insinuate that Sweden lost their preliminary round game against Slovakia on purpose, so as to draw Switzerland as their quarterfinal opponent, rather than Canada or Russia. Swedish forward Henrik Sedin, who played alongside Forsberg on the 2006 team denied the notion while adding that Forsberg's comments in the interview were misconstrued. Forsberg's next appearance in international competition came at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was named Sweden's flag bearer for the opening ceremonies. Two years removed from NHL competition (Forsberg had been playing in the Elitserien while attempting an NHL comeback), Forsberg played a lesser role with the Swedish team and recorded an assist over four games. Sweden finished in fifth place, failing to defend their 2006 gold medal.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Peter Forsberg was a superstar forward, with "outstanding" playmaking skills and "great vision" who "possesses an excellent combination of skill and physical play". In the prime of his career, he was considered by many as the best two-way player in the world. Capable of combining physical play and hitting with skill, he was also acclaimed for being responsible offensively and defensively. Said to have a "Wayne Gretzky-like" passing touch, he has been complimented by journalists and players for making the players around him better. Because of his physicality on the ice, he has been credited with helping to change the perception that Swedish hockey players were not tough.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Forsberg's style of play led him to deal with several severe injuries. It has been said in the press that he was injury-prone because he did not soften his game as he got older. In his 14 seasons as an NHL player, Forsberg missed an entire regular season and played in less than 90% of regular-season games in eight other seasons.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: The first season in which he missed a significant part was 1996–97. Due to a bruised thigh, Forsberg was out on 14 regular season games and three playoff games. In the off season before the 1999–2000 season, Forsberg underwent shoulder surgery and missed the first 23 games of the season. He missed an extra 10 games due to shoulder injuries, a concussion and a hip pointer. After missing eight games due to a rib injury in the 2000–01 regular season, Forsberg suffered a severe injury in the playoffs. After the last game of the conference semifinal against the Los Angeles Kings on 9 May 2001, he underwent surgery to remove a ruptured spleen and it was announced that he would not play until the following season. In the beginning of the 2001–02 season, he took a leave of absence to heal his injuries. In January 2002, the Colorado Avalanche held a press conference but instead of announcing the expected return of Forsberg, announced that he had been submitted to reconstructive surgery on the peroneal tendons of his left foot (Forsberg would return for the playoffs that season, but foot problems would plague Forsberg for the rest of his career and eventually end it). In 2003–04 season, he missed 43 games: 19 with a groin and abdominal injury


title: Peter Forsberg

text: During the lockout, while playing for Modo Hockey, Forsberg had surgery after dislocating his left wrist and breaking a bone in his hand, and because of a bursa sac removal.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: Philanthropically, Forsberg and childhood friend Markus Näslund founded Icebreakers, an organization that brings together professional ice hockey players for exhibition games to raise money for charities.


title: Peter Forsberg

text: In June 2012, the couple had their first child, a son. In September 2014, their second child, a daughter, was born. In May 2016 they had their third child. The family is since 2018 residing in Zug, Switzerland.


title: Kojiki

text: The , also sometimes read as ' or ', is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperial line. It is claimed in its preface to have been composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei in the early 8th century (711–712), and thus is usually considered to be the oldest extant literary work in Japan.


title: Kojiki

text: The myths contained in the as well as the are part of the inspiration behind many practices. Later, they were incorporated into Shinto practices such as the purification ritual.


title: Kojiki

text: It is believed that the compilation of various genealogical and anecdotal histories of the imperial (Yamato) court and prominent clans began during the reigns of Emperors Keitai and Kinmei in the 6th century, with the first concerted effort at historical compilation of which we have record being the one made in 620 under the auspices of Prince Shotoku and Soga no Umako. According to the "Nihon Shoki", the documents compiled under their initiative were the "Tennōki" (, also "Sumera-mikoto no fumi") or the "Record of the Emperors", the "Kokki" (, also "Kunitsufumi") or the "National Record", and other "fundamental records" (, "hongi" or "mototsufumi") pertaining to influential clans and free subjects. Out of these texts, only the "Kokki" survived the burning of Soga no Emishi's estate (where these documents were kept) during the Isshi incident of 645, and was itself apparently lost soon after.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" preface indicates that leading families also kept their own historical and genealogical records; indeed, one of the reasons it gives for the compilation of the "Kojiki" is the correction of errors that had supposedly crept into these documents. According to the preface, Emperor Tenmu (reigned 673–686) ordered the review and emendation of clan documents and commissioned a certain court attendant ("toneri") of exceptional memory named Hieda no Are to memorize records and oral traditions concerning the imperial lineage. Beyond this memorization, nothing occurred until the reign of Empress Genmei (reigned 707–715), who on the 18th of the 9th month of 711 (Wadō 4) ordered the courtier Ō no Yasumaro to record what had been learned by Hieda no Are. He finished and presented his work to Empress Genmei on the 28th of the 1st month of 712 (Wadō 5).


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" is a collation of different traditions woven into a single "official" mythology, made in an attempt to justify the rule of the imperial Yamato polity and at the same time to subsume different interest groups under its wing by giving them a place and an interest in the national genealogy-mythology. Apart from furthering the imperial agenda, an increased interest in the nation's origins in reaction to the influx of foreign culture and the need for an authoritative genealogical account by which to consider the claims of noble families and to reorganize them into a new system of ranks and titles are also possible factors for its compilation.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" narrative establishes the Yamato line's right to rule via myth and legend, portraying it as the progeny of heavenly deities and the rightful heir to the land of Japan. A good part of the latter portion of the text is spent recounting various genealogies which served not only to give the imperial family an air of antiquity (which may not necessarily reflect historical reality), but also served to tie, whether true or not, many existing clans' genealogies to their own. Regardless of the work's original intent, it finalized and possibly even formulated the framework by which Japanese history was examined in terms of the reign of emperors.


title: Kojiki

text: In contrast to the "Nihon Shoki" (compiled 720), the first of six histories commissioned by the imperial court, which was modeled on Chinese dynastic histories and was intended to be a national chronicle that could be shown with pride to foreign envoys, the "Kojiki" is inward looking, concerned mainly with the ruling family and prominent clans, and is apparently intended for internal consumption. Whereas the "Nihon Shoki" uses a variety of source documents (including Chinese texts), the "Kojiki" is apparently based on sources handed down within the court.


title: Kojiki

text: Whereas the "Nihon Shoki", owing to its status as one of the six imperial histories, was widely read and studied during the Heian period (794–1185), the "Kojiki" was mostly treated as an ancillary text. Indeed, a work known as the "Sendai Kuji Hongi" (also known as the "Kujiki"), claimed to have been authored by Prince Shōtoku and Soga no Umako, was considered to be earlier and more reliable than the "Kojiki". (Modern scholarly consensus holds the "Kuji Hongi" to be a Heian period forgery based on both the "Kojiki" and the "Shoki", although certain portions may indeed preserve genuine early traditions and sources.) By the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the work languished in obscurity such that very few people had access to the text, particularly that of the middle (second) volume. It is due to this neglect that the "Kojiki" is available only in comparatively late manuscripts, the earliest of which dates to the late 14th century.


title: Kojiki

text: It was with the advent of printing in the early modern period that the "Kojiki" first reached a wide audience. The earliest printed edition of the text was the "Kan'ei Kojiki" (), published in Kyoto in 1644 (Kan'ei 21). A second edition, the "Gōtō Kojiki" (, ""Kojiki" with Marginal Notes") was printed by , a priest at Ise Shrine, in 1687 (Jōkyō 4).


title: Kojiki

text: The birth of nativist studies ("kokugaku") and nationalist sentiment during the Edo period saw a reappraisal of the "Kojiki". "Kokugaku" scholars saw Japan's earliest writings as the repository of a uniquely superior Japanese identity that could be revived by recovering the ancient language they were written in; the "Kojiki", by virtue of its antiquity, gained the status of a sacred text. The "Kojiki" came to be highly regarded that scholars such as Kada no Azumamaro and Kamo no Mabuchi – himself a student of Azumamaro – produced annotated versions of it.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" received its most serious study and exposition in the hands of Motoori Norinaga, who obtained a copy of the Kan'ei printed edition in 1754. After meeting Mabuchi in 1763, Norinaga began to devote his efforts to an in-depth scholarly study of the text. A monumental 44-volume study of the "Kojiki" called , composed over a 34-year period (1764–1798), was the fruit of his labor. With Norinaga, the "Kojiki" assumed an importance equal to the "Nihon Shoki"; in fact, in his view the "Kojiki" was a more trustworthy source for ancient Japanese traditions than was the "Shoki" precisely because it was free of "Chinese mentality". He viewed the "Kojiki" as a true account of actual events that when read correctly, could reveal Japan in its pristine, ideal state as a community where the "kami", the emperor and the people lived in harmony. Norinaga's work was carried on in different directions by his disciple Hirata Atsutane and his rivals Fujitani Mitsue (1781–1849) and Tachibana Moribe (1768–1823), who each produced commentaries and treatises on the text.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" became once more the object of scholarly focus and discussion in the Meiji period with the introduction of Western academic disciplines such as philology and comparative mythology. The importance of the text as a work of literary value was recognized, and scholars realized that its accounts were comparable in many ways to ancient Greek and Roman myths. At the same time, however, the "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki" achieved a sort of scriptural status under State Shintō, which viewed the stories contained therein as orthodox national history. Official ideology upheld as unquestionable fact the belief in the emperor's divinity and the idea of Japan as a racially superior "national body" ("kokutai"), with scholars who questioned their veracity facing the threat of censorship, forced resignation, or even trial in court.


title: Kojiki

text: In 1913, argued in a study that the "Kojiki", particularly in its earlier sections, was neither history nor myth but a document created to legitimize the rule of the imperial line. While his conclusions led to considerable controversy, his influence remains in subsequent studies of the text (particularly in post-World War II scholarship), which amounts largely to development and correction of the line of thought originally proposed by him. In reaction to Tsuda, Watsuji Tetsurō (1920) argued for a literary appreciation of the Kojiki, claiming that this gave it inner coherence. (1927) took it a step further, proposing that the "Kojiki" may best be compared with Western epic literature and regarded as a national epic like "Beowulf" is in the English-speaking world. During the 1920s and 30s, linguist Hashimoto Shinkichi studied the phonology of the Old Japanese language, and his conclusions were applied by scholars to the study of the text.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" continued to attract the attention of academics and other specialists in the post-war period, which saw the appearance of numerous editions, translations and commentaries on the text by authors such as Kurano Kenji, Takeda Yūkichi, , and .


title: Kojiki

text: There are two major branches of "Kojiki" manuscripts: Ise and Urabe. The extant Urabe branch consists of 36 existing manuscripts all based on the 1522 copies by Urabe Kanenaga. The Ise branch may be subdivided into the manuscript of 1371–1372 and the manuscripts. The Dōka sub-branch consists of:


title: Kojiki

text: The Shinpukuji-bon manuscript (1371–1372) is the oldest existing manuscript. While divided into the Ise branch, it is actually a mixture of the two branches. The monk Ken'yu based his copy on Ōnakatomi Sadayo's copy. In 1266, Sadayo copied volumes one and three but did not have access to the second volume. Finally, in 1282, he obtained access to the second volume through a Urabe-branch manuscript that he used to transcribe.


title: Kojiki

text: The "Kojiki" contains various songs and poems. While the historical records and myths are written in a form of Chinese with a heavy mixture of Japanese elements, the songs are written with Chinese characters, though only used phonetically. This special use of Chinese characters is called "Man'yōgana", a knowledge of which is critical to understanding these songs, which are written in Old Japanese.


title: Kojiki

text: What follows is a condensed summary of the contents of the text, including many of the names of gods, emperors, and locations as well as events which took place in association with them. The original Japanese is included in parentheses where appropriate.


title: Kojiki

text: Ō no Yasumaro's preface, in the form of a dedicatory address to Empress Genmei, begins with a poem summarizing the main contents of the work. He then relates how Emperor Tenmu commissioned Hieda no Are to memorize the genealogies and records of the imperial house years earlier, and how Genmei in turn ordered Yasumaro to compile a written record of what Are had learned. He finally concludes the preface with a brief explanation of the Chinese characters used to transcribe native Japanese words in the text and the division of the work into three volumes.


The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Currently, it is a group of 24 top officials who oversee the CCP and headed by the general secretary. Unlike politburos of other Communist parties, power within the Chinese politburo is further centralized in the Politburo Standing Committee, a group of 7 individuals from among the larger Politburo.


title: Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party

text: The Politburo is nominally elected by the Central Committee. In practice, however, scholars of Chinese elite politics believe that the Politburo is a self-perpetuating body, with new members of both the Politburo and its Standing Committee chosen through a series of deliberations by current Politburo members and retired Politburo Standing Committee members. The current and former Politburo members conduct a series of informal straw polls to determine the group's level of support for each new candidate's membership in the Politburo. The process for selecting the new Politburo begins with a closed door meeting by the incumbent Politburo Standing Committee in Beidaihe in the summer before the National Congress of the CCP convenes.


text: The power of the Politburo resides largely in the fact that its members generally simultaneously hold positions within the People's Republic of China state positions and with the control over personnel appointments that the Politburo and Secretariat have. In addition, some Politburo members hold powerful regional positions. How the Politburo works internally is unclear, but it appears that the full Politburo meets once a month and the standing committee meets weekly. This is believed to be much more infrequent than the former Soviet Politburo had met. The agenda for the meetings is controlled by the CCP general secretary and decisions are made by consensus rather than by majority vote.


text: The Politburo was eclipsed by the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1980s under Hu Yaobang, but has re-emerged as a dominant force after Hu's ousting in 1987.


text: Since the 1990s, Politburo members concurrently held posts in the party apparatus, in state posts, and as regional party chiefs. In addition, members serving in the military and security sectors have been limited to 3 posts; in contrast, most members in the 1980s had a military command background. In 2017, for the 19th Central Committee Politburo, aside from the heads of the four main institutional hierarchies—the CCP, the National People's Congress, the State Council and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, there were six members each holding posts in the party, the national government, the regional governments, and three in the military. The average age of the 2017 Politburo’s members was 62, which was similar to those in recent decades. Before that, the Party under Deng Xiaoping deliberately encouraged turnover by imposing term limits and retirement ages.


text: In October 2017, at the First Plenary Session of the 19th CCP Central Committee, it was decided that all Politburo members shall make an annual written presentation to the Central Committee and the General Secretary. In March 2018, all Standing Committee members and members of the Politburo made their first written presentation to the Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping.


text: Since the 17th National Congress, the official way of electing the Politburo was through a process called "democratic recommendation" () where the CCP conducted a straw poll of 200 candidates to the Politburo, which were factored into the final list of candidates presented at the National Congress of the CCP. However, this was abolished in the 19th National Congress under Xi, which denounced the "vote buying" and the "voting based on personal connections and favors" of this method, particularly in connection to politicians who fell after the anti-corruption campaign under Xi. The process was officially replaced with a method of "face-to-face interviews, investigation and study".


text: The 20th Politburo was elected at the first plenary session of the 20th Central Committee in October 2022.


title: Counting Cars

text: Counting Cars is an American reality television series shown on History and produced by Leftfield Pictures. The series, which is the third spinoff of "Pawn Stars", is filmed in Las Vegas, where it chronicles the daily activities at Count's Kustoms, an automobile restoration and customization company owned and operated by Danny Koker a.k.a. The Count, who previously appeared as a recurring expert on "Pawn Stars". In a format similar to another "Pawn Stars" spinoff, "American Restoration", the series follows Koker and his staff as they restore and modify classic automobiles and motorcycles. "Counting Cars" debuted on August 13, 2012.


title: Counting Cars

text: "Counting Cars" is an American reality-television series, shown on History, and produced by Leftfield Pictures. The series is the third spinoff of the TV series "Pawn Stars", following "American Restoration" and "Cajun Pawn Stars". It is filmed in Las Vegas, where it chronicles the daily activities at Count's Kustoms, an automobile restoration and customization company owned and operated by legendary Danny Koker, who previously appeared as a recurring expert on "Pawn Stars". In a format similar to "American Restoration", the series follows Koker and his staff as they restore and modify classic automobiles and motorcycles, and documents the occasional conflict among the cast members.


title: Counting Cars

text: The series debuted August 13, 2012, after "Pawn Stars" before assuming its regular Tuesday time slot the following day.


title: Counting Cars

text: The show's initial executive producers were History's Zachary Behr and Julian Hobbs, and Leftfield Pictures' Brent Montgomery, David George, and Shawn Witt. The series was created by co-executive producer Joel Patterson. By mid-2014, Behr and Ed de Rivaz were History's executive producers on the show, with Tom Romita and Jonathan Wyche joining the three Leftfield executive producers as co-executive producers. In early 2015, Simon Thomas had joined as a fourth Leftfield executive producer, and Sean Moran had succeeded Romita as a co-executive producer.