The story deals with the dual relationship of the hero, Parsifal, in his service to the Holy Grail (guarded by Titurel and Amfortas), and in his contact with the temptations of the world, as exemplified by Klingsor, with his magic charms, and Kundry, his most beautiful and ravishing assistant. Parsifal maintains his spotless innocence, spite of all temptation, and eventually opens up a way of salvation to the fallen Amfortas, and to all the knights of the Grail whose faith had languished and faded. The music throughout is of intensely devotional feeling and of a religious fervour, varied only by the strains that accompany Kundry and the Flower Girls: the use of the guiding-theme is less prominent and important in this work than in the case of the _Ring_ operas, nor are the principles of its composer so closely followed out. Its sincerity, poetry, and depth always command our admiration and attention, even if the charm be not always so apparent as in some of the earlier operas. [Sidenote: =Wagner’s Continued Development=] Betwixt first and last in Wagner is a great gulf fixed: his was a nature that was content to go on only from strength to strength. Unlike Meyerbeer or Rossini, who were mostly content to write opera after opera upon the same general outline, the same broad pattern, Wagner always presses on towards a closer realization of an ideal form of work which he has set himself for achievement. Hence the cumulative power displayed in the wondrous series of music dramas of which we have attempted to give some slight account in this chapter. CHAPTER XII. MODERN OPERA SINCE WAGNER’S REFORMS. Wagner’s influence—No mere copying—Modern “Melos”—Use of the orchestra—His harmony —Men of a younger generation—The Slavs. The last of the revolutionists has left an indelible mark upon operatic history. As we have before said, there has been nothing since the time of Wagner which can lay claim to having advanced the art of opera, nothing new has been done, and it is not easy to see on what lines anything fresh can be attempted. [Sidenote: =Wagner’s Influence=] But composers have not been slow to take advantage of the new methods introduced by that Colossus among opera writers, whose innovations have altered the whole aspect of things, both in stage management, in the wedding of suitable music to a really dramatic libretto, in the use of the _leit-motif_, and in the writing of _melos_, accompanied by characteristic and definitive use of the orchestra. [Sidenote: =No mere Copying=]