Editing Parsifal (section)

===Nietzsche===
[[Friedrich Nietzsche]], who was originally a champion of Wagner and Schopenhauer, chose later to use ''Parsifal'' as the ground for his breach with Wagner. Nietzsche took the work as an exemplar of the self-denying, life-denying, and otherworldly Christian [[Master–slave morality|slave morality]] motivated by the "will to nothingness," as opposed to the self-affirming and earthly master morality of pre-Christian ruling classes and the strong motivated by the "will to power."{{sfnp|Beckett|1981|pp=113–120}} 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:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25012 |title=Nietzsche contra Wagner |author=Nietzsche, Friedrich |publisher=Project Gutenberg |access-date=18 February 2010 }}</ref> {{blockquote|''Parsifal'' is a work of perfidy, of vindictiveness, of a secret attempt to poison the presuppositions of life – a bad work. The preaching of chastity remains an incitement to anti-nature: I despise everyone who does not experience ''Parsifal'' as an attempted assassination of basic ethics.}}
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 [[Heinrich Köselitz|Peter Gast]], 1887).<ref>[[Wikisource:Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche#Nietzsche To Peter Gast – January, 1887]]</ref>