Richard Wagner's Parsifal is an epic work that is notoriously difficult to stage. A dense, thought-provoking rumination on art, religion and the dilemma of human existence, the benchmark for productions of the work until recently had been Wieland Wagner's early-Fifties Bayreuth version. At ENO in 1999 however, his former assistant and respected opera director in his own right, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, produced the work, to rave reviews and a subsequent successful revival in San Fransisco.

Since then, audiences had clamoured for a modern German version, and eventually, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus took up the challenge in 2004, featuring a cast which included Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier and Chris Ventris, as the eponymous hero. This is a behind-the scenes documentary of a monumental production that was a long time coming...