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Abigail Dyer's translation of Richard Wagner's own libretto for his opera Lohengrin is now available on the website here. An historian of Renaissance and Baroque Europe and a classical singer, Abigail Dyer is also an experienced translator of poetic German operas and art songs.

The plot of Wagner's opera is derived from Medieval German romance, in particular the last section of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, and an anonymous High German development of the tale of the Swan Knight written in the thirteenth century.

Wagner, dissatisfied with the Medieval treatment of the theme, but inspired by its possibilities, developed the tale still further, exploiting Grail material from Parzival as well as material from the rambling anonymous Lohengrin sequel, which he had been made aware of via Ludwig Bechstein's anthology of legends, and the proceedings of the Konisberg Germanic Society.

Our translation of Parzival can be found on the website here.