Performance date: December 13, 2014.
Conductor - James Levine. Walther von Stolzing - Johan Botha; Eva - Annette Dasch; Magdalene - Karen Cargill; David - Paul Appleby; Pogner - Hans-Peter Konig; Beckmesser - Johannes Martin Kranzle; Hans Sachs - Michael Volle.
We are heading to Bayreuth next month to see three operas: Meistersinger, Lohengrin, and Parsifal. As we did last year, we plan to watch these operas online beforehand so we won't get completely lost during the performances (in German, no surtitles of any kind).
We had only one prior encounter with this opera live, that was in December 23, 2014. In the performance we saw, the only major cast change was James Morris singing the role of Sachs. That was over 10 years ago, and the only things I remembered were (1) the guilds marching into town square; (2) Sachs had some extended passages that tested any singer's endurance; and (3) was their any historical basis to what unfolded in the opera?
The story itself was rather straightforward. It was easier to grasp compared to last time (or at least as described in my blog entry). In the last scene there had to be about 200 people on stage; I wonder if that was necessary. It's also interesting that this is the only opera Wagner wrote that was close to being realistic. I do worry, given how slow the story unfolds, if I will manage to stay with the plot when we see it live next month.
Many associate Beckmesser with having antisemitic overtones, I frankly didn't detect any. German cultural identify had a more prominent position.
As to my earlier perceptions: (1) I somehow remember maypoles showing different guilds being part of the set; only individual guild standards were brought out. Well, the tradition of maypoles dates back to the 16th century; this story is from a similar time. (2) while the role of Sachs is taxing, it didn't appear as impossible as last time; and (3) now that we have been to Nuremberg several times, I am certainly more interested in the background to the opera - at least to the extent I will read the Wikipedia article on it.
The opera is 4:30 hours in length, the last act is close to two hours.
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