Opera on 3 Meistersinger 14 - 9 - 2013 18.00hrs

[Guest]

-Wagner's comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was performed at this summer's Salzburg Festival in a new production by Stefan Herheim.

Eva ..... Anna Gabler (soprano)
Magdalene ..... Monika Bohinec (mezzo-soprano)
Hans Sachs ..... Michael Volle (bass-baritone)
Walther von Stolzing ..... Roberto Saccà (tenor)
Veit Pogner ..... Georg Zeppenfeld (bass)
Sixtus Beckmesser ..... Markus Werba (baritone)
David ..... Peter Sonn (tenor)
Kunz Vogelgesang ..... Thomas Ebenstein (tenor)
Konrad Nachtigall ..... Guido Jentjens (bass)
Fritz Kothner ..... Oliver Zwarg (baritone)
Balthasar Zorn ..... Benedikt Kobel (tenor)
Ulrich Eisslinger ..... Franz Supper (tenor)
Augustin Moser ..... Thorsten Scharnke (tenor)
Hermann Ortel ..... Karl Huml (bass)
Hans Schwarz ..... Dirk Aleschus (bass)
Hans Foltz ..... Roman Astakhov (bass)
Nightwatchman ..... Tobias Kehrer (bass)

Vienna State Opera Chorus Concert Association
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Daniele Gatti.

It is to be regretted that the BBC have decided to broadcast the sound only as this was a live television transmission.
Not being one for most of today's modern ideas on staging, I have to say that this is an engrossing take on the opera.
There is no point in describing it as it must stand or fall on audio alone for the BBC listeners.
Maybe the Beeb will find space for it on BBC4 at midnight on a winter's night.
Musically it is a bit of a curate's egg, Gatti's conducting is very wayward at the beginning, I 'm not sure that the orchestra were the same personnel as were at the general rehearsal, but it improves. The singing is also a mixed bag, with Pogner(Zeppenfeld) a standout, and the Sachs(Volle) and Werba as Beckmesser having a grand time tussling with one another. David and Magdalene sing well. The Eva and Walther are a little strident and are probably the weakest part of the casting, especially as with audio only, there is nowhere to hide.
All in all, not bad, but it should be seen, especially for the large set pieces with a grand chorus, and also to see how Herheim solves the vastness of the Salzburg stage.
Believe it or not the whole opera is on Youtube (video) at the moment - link for Act 1 -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3sta_LOXwk

[Bert Coules]

I had a look at this on Youtube after several people praised it on humanities.music.composers.wagner (and they're very hard to please where modern stagings are concerned). This is part of what I posted there:

Flicking through act one, I think Mike's description of "genial" is pretty much spot on, with overtones of panto
(Walther's "Fanget an!" is so forceful it flattens his onlookers). It does seem that the whole thing is in Sach's imagination (but then why is he so angry at the act one curtain?) and he projects himself into the action, sometimes invisibly, sometimes not.

I don't think the initial setting is a studio, though: surely it's Sach's home, the crib and toys carefuly preserved relics of the days when "I once had a wife and children enough" and the portrait either of that wife or his
own attempt at Eva.

Some lovely touches, and it's good to see that the female-voiced apprentices are actually portrayed as girls: nothing puts a damper on a good Meistersinger faster than seeing mature ladies of the chorus prancing around
pretending to be teenage boys.

It's sounding pretty good on R3 tonight, but yes, it deserves to be seen.

Bert

[DublinJimbo]

I watched part of the first act on YouTube and am currently catching up on Radio 3's audio broadcast on iPlayer. Apart from the opera itself (my favourite of all operas), what struck me immediately was the excellence of Jonathan Swain's introduction. There's a nicely self-effacing element to his delivery which brings back blissful memories of the days when radio personnel were anonymous — oh to be back then, without today's proliferation of 'presenters'!

Anyway, time to return to Salzburg …