Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921). L.A.S., April 30, 1919; 1 page and a half in-4 in his cypher. On Richard Wagner's Parsifal [long reserved for Bayreuth, Wagner's opera was first performed at the Paris Opéra on January 4, 1914]. You endured Parsifal without boredom! I'm not that strong, and you must have a special temperament [...] You were sustained, moreover, by the complete incomprehensibility of the text: when you understand it, you realize that it is incomprehensible... Then he mentions his correspondent's booklet on Joan of Arc, which seems a very fine subject; however, all the attempts made so far in this direction have been mediocre successes. Perhaps I'd still try if I were twenty years younger; but I'm 83, my career is over. He returns to Parsifal: this Kundry who rolls around on the floor shouting, who laughs in many different ways, who somehow passes from the knights to the enchanter... This Parsifal, armed only with a little shirt, overcomes a regiment, and when Kundry kisses him is seized with violent stomach cramps; this Grail, which Amfortas cannot discover without reopening his wound, [...] this caricature of Catholic rites, how can anyone take it all seriously?... Amusing madness can sometimes pass, but boring madness... oh no... With the exception of a few magnificent flashes, Parsifal's music is far inferior to its predecessors. And the system, pushed to perfection, of never making the voices sing! The exception is the chorus, and one wonders why...