Nürnbergvision Song Contest
Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Met Encore in HD, Phoenix
Picturehouse, Oxford, 16 November 2014.
Richard
Wagner’s three great stage works outside the Ring Cycle, Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, deal
with three different aspects of humanity, divine love and ritual, all-consuming
passion and romantic love intruding on a closed society of a Singers’ Guild in
16th century Nuremberg. Everyone has their own favourite, hotly
defended; mine is Tristan which I
know best. Parsifal I am getting to
grips with and would not miss an opportunity to see. Meistersinger I hardly know at all, this being only the second time
I have seen it, the other occasion in the Royal Opera House long- lived
production directed by Graham Vick, only seen by chance due to a strike
cancelled weekend trip to Paris (and costing more). This review must be read
with these circumstances in mind.
Die Meistersinger is referred to as Wagner’s only comic opera but it is very German comedy and with its nationalist associations has had to outlive a Nazi adoption. Walther von Stolzing, a young knight, has arrived in Nuremburg the day before Midsummer’s Eve to stay in the family of Pogner, a goldsmith, with whose daughter Eva he has fallen instantly in love. He learns, however, that to win her hand he has to triumph in a song competition organised by the local Guild of Mastersingers, formed from a group of tradespeople and citizens. To be allowed to compete he has to write and perform a song to the exacting standards and rules of the Guild. The reward on this occasion is Eva’s hand. He fails this test, marked by his chief rival Beckmesser, the town clerk. Following the advice of Hans Sachs, a cobbler and prominent member of the Guild, using fair means and foul, deceiving Beckmesser into stealing a rubbish poem. Walther wins the competition on midsummer-day and a willing Eva and all ends happily for them. The widowered Sachs supresses his own more than avuncular affection for Eva and Beckmesser is humiliated but resilient.
Music competitions have been common ever since the 16th century, particularly today. It is perhaps not surprising that the plot sounds like a mixture of a Lieder Festival and the X Factor, though in this day of political correctness and anti-male-chauvinism it is unlikely the prize would be the same, nor all the mastersingers male. As for complex rules, no one could win the Eurovision Song Contest without sticking strictly to the conventions of previous winners though this is far from the aim of preserving the purity and structure of the German language. It is impossible not to refer also to Strictly Come Dancing with its continuing debate on what weight one gives to the opinion of the experts against that of the populace at large (also discussed in the opera).
Die Meistersinger Is based on real people though not necessarily with the same names or the same occupations. Based on history, Ernest Newman (Wagner Nights) narrows it down to about 1560, when the real Hans Sachs, born in 1494, was sixty-six, having been widowered a year before; he died in 1576.
An advantage of attending the Tuesday afternoon encore rather than the direct transmission of the Saturday matinée, here in the evening, are that one feels more at home with the scruffy appearance of the afternoon Met audience but, more importantly, there is the opportunity to listen to the Live from the Met radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3 to hear the music in preparation for the performance. On this occasion the conductor was James Levine clearly restored to full health and stamina. From the first notes of the Prelude to the conclusion six hours later this held the attention with an exceptionally clear reading of the score, bringing out the inner voices. This is particularly astonishing since this opera is an illustration of the old adage: ‘There is nothing you can do with a good tune other than play it again louder’.
The production, originally directed by Otto Schenk, dates from 1993 and has received over forty performances since then. This was the first to be transmitted to cinemas. It was a revelation. After the curtain goes up, one forgets it to be a staged production and sits back to watch it as a movie, brilliantly directed by Live in HD Director Mathew Diamond. (At last after a long campaign credited in the hand-out.) This is Ciné Opera par excellence and I am prepared to argue, with one proviso, a more rewarding experience than in the opera house. The use of close-up of individuals and groups, medium shot and distance, combined with subtitles on eye-level made it possible to follow in detail the discussions and the action without distracting from the music and the singing. The only proviso, and a serious one was the quality of the sound in the cinema. It was immediately noticeable that the bass was very weak, even compared to that on my home PC. I hope that is remediable in future.
The twelve Mastersingers were individually characterised and comfortable in their roles. After all, they were playing themselves as they could have been four and a half centuries ago! Among them, notable were Michael Volle as Sachs, Johannes Martin Kränzle as Beckmesser and Hans-Peter König as Pogner. Anette Dasch was a beautiful demure Eva and the other love interest, Eva’s nurse Lena and her toyboy David, Sach’s apprentice, were sympathetically played by Karen Cargill and Paul Appleby. Matthew Rose gave a straightforward performance as the Night Watchman, oblivious to all the emotional undercurrents of what was going on around him. Last but far from least was the burly Johan Botha in magnificent form as Walther, reminding us that this was Opera where a great voice still comes first and overrides all else, even though he did not at all resemble Eva’s pin-up and ideal, the biblical David of Albrecht Dürer.
This was a rewarding experience revealing a humanist side to Wagner which I had not previously appreciated, each character and their interrelations carefully crafted. Even the humiliation of Beckmesser lacked the cruelty of that of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
But I still prefer Tristan und Isolde.
19 December 2014
Die Meistersinger is referred to as Wagner’s only comic opera but it is very German comedy and with its nationalist associations has had to outlive a Nazi adoption. Walther von Stolzing, a young knight, has arrived in Nuremburg the day before Midsummer’s Eve to stay in the family of Pogner, a goldsmith, with whose daughter Eva he has fallen instantly in love. He learns, however, that to win her hand he has to triumph in a song competition organised by the local Guild of Mastersingers, formed from a group of tradespeople and citizens. To be allowed to compete he has to write and perform a song to the exacting standards and rules of the Guild. The reward on this occasion is Eva’s hand. He fails this test, marked by his chief rival Beckmesser, the town clerk. Following the advice of Hans Sachs, a cobbler and prominent member of the Guild, using fair means and foul, deceiving Beckmesser into stealing a rubbish poem. Walther wins the competition on midsummer-day and a willing Eva and all ends happily for them. The widowered Sachs supresses his own more than avuncular affection for Eva and Beckmesser is humiliated but resilient.
Music competitions have been common ever since the 16th century, particularly today. It is perhaps not surprising that the plot sounds like a mixture of a Lieder Festival and the X Factor, though in this day of political correctness and anti-male-chauvinism it is unlikely the prize would be the same, nor all the mastersingers male. As for complex rules, no one could win the Eurovision Song Contest without sticking strictly to the conventions of previous winners though this is far from the aim of preserving the purity and structure of the German language. It is impossible not to refer also to Strictly Come Dancing with its continuing debate on what weight one gives to the opinion of the experts against that of the populace at large (also discussed in the opera).
Die Meistersinger Is based on real people though not necessarily with the same names or the same occupations. Based on history, Ernest Newman (Wagner Nights) narrows it down to about 1560, when the real Hans Sachs, born in 1494, was sixty-six, having been widowered a year before; he died in 1576.
An advantage of attending the Tuesday afternoon encore rather than the direct transmission of the Saturday matinée, here in the evening, are that one feels more at home with the scruffy appearance of the afternoon Met audience but, more importantly, there is the opportunity to listen to the Live from the Met radio broadcast on BBC Radio 3 to hear the music in preparation for the performance. On this occasion the conductor was James Levine clearly restored to full health and stamina. From the first notes of the Prelude to the conclusion six hours later this held the attention with an exceptionally clear reading of the score, bringing out the inner voices. This is particularly astonishing since this opera is an illustration of the old adage: ‘There is nothing you can do with a good tune other than play it again louder’.
The production, originally directed by Otto Schenk, dates from 1993 and has received over forty performances since then. This was the first to be transmitted to cinemas. It was a revelation. After the curtain goes up, one forgets it to be a staged production and sits back to watch it as a movie, brilliantly directed by Live in HD Director Mathew Diamond. (At last after a long campaign credited in the hand-out.) This is Ciné Opera par excellence and I am prepared to argue, with one proviso, a more rewarding experience than in the opera house. The use of close-up of individuals and groups, medium shot and distance, combined with subtitles on eye-level made it possible to follow in detail the discussions and the action without distracting from the music and the singing. The only proviso, and a serious one was the quality of the sound in the cinema. It was immediately noticeable that the bass was very weak, even compared to that on my home PC. I hope that is remediable in future.
The twelve Mastersingers were individually characterised and comfortable in their roles. After all, they were playing themselves as they could have been four and a half centuries ago! Among them, notable were Michael Volle as Sachs, Johannes Martin Kränzle as Beckmesser and Hans-Peter König as Pogner. Anette Dasch was a beautiful demure Eva and the other love interest, Eva’s nurse Lena and her toyboy David, Sach’s apprentice, were sympathetically played by Karen Cargill and Paul Appleby. Matthew Rose gave a straightforward performance as the Night Watchman, oblivious to all the emotional undercurrents of what was going on around him. Last but far from least was the burly Johan Botha in magnificent form as Walther, reminding us that this was Opera where a great voice still comes first and overrides all else, even though he did not at all resemble Eva’s pin-up and ideal, the biblical David of Albrecht Dürer.
This was a rewarding experience revealing a humanist side to Wagner which I had not previously appreciated, each character and their interrelations carefully crafted. Even the humiliation of Beckmesser lacked the cruelty of that of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
But I still prefer Tristan und Isolde.
19 December 2014