What Wieland Wagner accomplished was a revolution and a revelation. His stage design completely shattered preconceived artistic notions and over one hundred years of traditional staging orthodoxy. After this groundbreaking production, Wagner's works would never again be presented in the same manner. His brilliant concept completely did away with Wagner's stage directions and scenic suggestions, and instead presented Parsifal as a stark, symbolic piece with costumes that reminded audiences more of Hellenic Greece than Teutonic medieval myth. The sets paid homage to the early twentieth century scenic experiments of visionary designer Adolphe Appia. As a result of this bold achievement, the unfortunate series of events that had linked Wagner's work to the Third Reich were completely destroyed. The 1951 Parsifal would become one of the most important opera productions in the twentieth century .

As the first production of "New Bayreuth," as the style came to be known, this Parsifal originated many of the stylistic trademarks that would come to define Wieland's work. There was the inventive and effective use of light and darkness, the stark simplification of costumes, the reduction of setting to a minimalist level, the transformation of the characters into symbolic manifestations of themselves, and finally, and perhaps most important of all for 1951, the "denazification" of the operas by removing anything "German" in the visual plane of the work.