MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Richard WAGNER (1813 – 1883)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868)
Franz Hawlata (baritone) – Hans Sachs; Artur Korn (bass) – Veit Pogner; Charles Reid (tenor) – Kunz Vogelgesang; Rainer Zaun (bass) – Konrad Nachtigall; Michael Volle (baritone) – Sixtus Beckmesser; Markus Eiche (baritone) – Fritz Kothner; Edward Randall (tenor) – Balthasar Zorn; Hans-Jürgen Lazar (tenor) –Ulrich Eisslinger; Stefan Heibach (tenor) – Augustin Moser; Martin Snell (bass) – Hermann Ortel; Andreas Macco (bass) – Hans Schwarz; Iógenes Randes (bass) – Hans Foltz; Klaus Florian Vogt (tenor) – Walther Von Stolzing; Norbert Ernst (tenor) – David; Michaela Kaune (soprano) – Eva; Carola Guber (mezzo) – Magdalene; Friedemann Röhlig (bass-baritone) – Ein Wachtwächter
Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus/Sebastian Weigle
Production: Katharina Wagner; Stage Designer: Tilo Steffens; Costume Designers: Michaela Barth, Tilo Steffens; Lighting: Andreas Grüter; Dramaturge: Robert Sollich; Chorus Master: Eberhard Friedrich; Television Director: Andreas Morell
rec. live, Bayreuth Festival, 7 August 2008.
1080i High Definition/16.9; 2.0 LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS Digital Surround
OPUS ARTE OABD7078D [Opera 276:04; Documentary 29:16]

Experience Classicsonline

This is one of those opera performances that draw notice more for the production than for the musical goods. Not that the singing and orchestral playing are substandard — indeed, all in all, the performances from the singers, conductor, chorus and orchestra are reasonably good. It’s just that the happenings on stage are, shall I say, a bit radical, especially for Wagner. This 2008 Bayreuth Festival production was a repeat, with a slightly different cast, of the previous year’s effort that created a good measure of controversy, prompting many to question the intentions of the production director Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of the composer and now co-director of the festival.

To give you a capsule view of the production, let’s start with the characters. First, you have the cocky, rebellious pop artist, Walter von Stolzing, who by the opera’s end becomes a conformist. He dabbles at playing the piano and paints almost everything during the first half of the opera, including Eva’s dress. But when you see him enter in the Fourth Scene of Act III, you see a Wagnerian Babbitt, albeit a dashing one. Then there is the main character Hans Sachs, a cobbler who wears no shoes, smokes heavily and often sits at a typewriter hitting away at the keys, sometimes quite annoyingly. He will transform, too: he becomes a fascist symbol near the end, his new nature underscored by the appearance of Third Reich statues flanking him on stage. Beckmesser is a nerd whose pants are too short and whose comical manner works well. In accordance with the pattern here, he evolves into a hip, garishly dressed character in the final act. Because of the downward evolution of the other two, he becomes, by default, the hero. Eva and Magdalene may be the most conventionally portrayed characters: they are sort of pawns, not used to make any major statement but then not going against the grain either.

As for the treatment of Wagner’s story, there is so much symbolism employed throughout, it’s hard to catch it all. Much, however, can’t be overlooked because it isn’t particularly subtle: if the meanings behind the big cheque awarded to Walther near the end and the golden calf placed on stage immediately afterward don’t hit you over the head with their obviousness, then maybe the huge Warhol-esque Campbell’s soup cans that spew paint in the riot scene will. Historic German characters, presented as statue-like figures - Wagner himself is one of them - are used in the riot scene and elsewhere in the opera, and their presence is a rather too convenient way to make social or political commentary. By the way, there is one rather ribald scene near the end of the opera, when the historic figures parade on stage with a topless dancer and with phallic prostheses on view. And there is another scene later on with full frontal nudity.

By the end of the opera everybody, including the hip Beckmesser, seems robotic, taken over, controlled. Suffice to say, the overarching message here appears to be that radicalism on one end might produce reactionary radicalism on the other. Not exactly a new or profound idea, not exactly Wagner’s intentions either. Yet, the production, for all its warts, is quite intriguing at times, if a bit juvenile. And, personally, I think that if anyone can take an opera by Wagner — let’s face it, one of the most anti-Semitic artists ever — and allude to anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist sentiments, then one must acknowledge such an attempt as noble. In a sense, it’s a rather fitting irony, as Wagner’s art is turned against him. I will say this, however: if I were a composer who wrote an opera with some specific moral or political message, I don’t think I would feel comfortable if Katharina Wagner were in charge of the production.

Klaus Forian Vogt is excellent in the role of Walther and probably the strongest singer in this production. He has an attractive voice and sufficient power to stand out in heavily scored passages. His Morgenlich leuchtend in rosigem Schein is beautifully sung and he rarely disappoints elsewhere in the opera. Michaela Kaune as Eva is also fine, as is Carola Guber’s Magdalene. The David of Norbert Ernst is especially compelling, too, and Michael Volle as Beckmesser is also excellent: not only are his voice and diction outstanding, but his dramatic skills are fully convincing, both as nerd and hipster.

What of Hans Sachs? Franz Hawlata’s voice is attractive and powerful, and if he becomes a bit tired and a tad hoarse by the end of this 4-hour-plus opera, then we can understand, because the size of his role is gargantuan, and who gets through it unscathed? Anyway, he makes a good Hans Sachs overall.

Conductor Sebastian Weigle draws fine playing from the orchestra and splendid singing from the chorus. The sound is admirable and the camera-work imaginative. Sets and costuming are far less radical in their generally modest look than most everything else in the production. Also included is a half-hour documentary track about the making of the opera. There are some excellent Die Meistersingers available on DVD, and mostly more traditional ones, including the splendid Bayreuth production on Unitel led by Barenboim, with Robert Holl as Sachs, and the Vienna State Opera production also on Unitel (Medici Arts), led by Christian Thielemann, with Falk Struckmann as Sachs. You might want to stick with recordings like these, if the more radically modern approach of Katharina Wagner might turn you off. Otherwise, this production is probably worth your while.

Robert Cummings

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.