Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Text Richard Wagner
Opera in three acts


Cast

Musical direction
Philippe Jordan

Staging
Keith Warner

Stage
Boris Kudlička

Costumes
Kaspar Glarner

Light
John Bishop

Video
Akhila Krishnan

Choreography
Karl Alfred Schreiner

Co-director
Katharina Kastening

Hans Sachs, shoemaker
Georg Zeppenfeld

Veit Pogner, goldsmith
Günther Groissböck

Sixtus Beckmesser, scribe
Wolfgang Koch

Fritz Kothner, baker
Martin Häßler

Walther von Stolzing, a young knight from Franconia
David Butt Philip

David, Sachs's apprentice
Michael Laurenz

Eva, Pogner´s daughter
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller

Magdalene, Eva´s wet nurse
Christina Bock


Contents

The plot tells of the young knight Walther von Stolzing, who is courting the middle-class Eva Pogner and - in order to get her father's permission to marry - has to write a prize song that conforms to the rules of the Meistersinger. The fact that the two lovers, Eva and Walther, finally get together and that the young knight succeeds with his prize song is thanks to the (historically authenticated) shoemaker and master singer Hans Sachs.

Wagner's Meistersinger are tremendously demanding, tremendously successful and unsuccessful, tremendously effective. With this opera, Wagner turns for the first time back to the “real” theater of his time. Unlike the monumental Ring project, which was intended for a utopian stage of the future, unlike the Tristan, which has proved unperformable, Wagner unfolds the new work with regard to the theater culture of his time and leads it to an acclaimed premiere. And the time when Meistersinger was composed from 1861 to 1865 led to a turning point in Wagner's existence as a whole. The amnesty of 1862 made it possible for those who had been persecuted and fled to Switzerland to return to Germany. In the same year, Wagner finally separated from his first wife Minna and married Cosima Liszt-von Bülow. In 1864, the newly crowned 18-year-old King Ludwig II of Bavaria rescued him from extreme financial distress and became his most important patron, who made the world premieres of Meistersinger and Tristan possible and forced the completed Ring sections Rheingold and Walküre — against Wagner’s will and, despite many other quarrels, also saves the Bayreuth Festival company when public donations and Wagner's own funds threaten to dry up.


ACTION

1st act

Closing song of a service on the day before St. John's Festival. The knight Walther von Stolzing, who came from Franconia, manages to ask Eva, the daughter of his host Veit Pogner, if she is already a bride. Walther is instructed by Eva's nurse Magdalene: Eva's hand is promised to the winner of the forthcoming Meistersinger singing contest. Her father, the goldsmith Pogner, decided that. Eva, of course, is already attached to the Frankish knight. In order to win his lover, Walther decides to take part in the singing competition. During the preparations for a meeting of the masters, David, the apprentice of the shoemaker Hans Sachs, describes the difficulties of the tablature to the young knight. Stolzing is confused by the masters' complicated system of rules. Nevertheless, he dares to skip the prescribed steps to the master degree and still become a master on the same day. Pogner now announces to the masters that he has chosen his daughter and his fortune as the prize in the singing competition and recommends that the knight Stolzing be allowed to take part. Sachs's suggestion that the people should also have a say in the singing contest is rejected, including by the town clerk Beckmesser, who has hopes for Eva and initially suspects a rival in the popular Hans Sachs. However, his distrust soon turned to Walther von Stolzing. During the rehearsal song, which Beckmesser is allowed to sing, Beckmesser emphatically exercises his hidden office as a “marker” who blames mistakes. Walther performed his song, unconcerned about the master rule. So it is easy for Beckmesser to eliminate the presumed competitor: The Junker has "lost and squandered". Only Hans Sachs recognizes the artistic value of Walther's song, which was unusual for the masters.

2nd act

Magdalene learns from David, whom she has taken to her heart, that the knight Walther failed at the audition. Eva hears about this mishap from Magdalene. Hans Sachs decides to continue working in front of his house despite the evening hour. He reviews the events of the day. Eva wants to get advice and help from him. Probably in order to examine them, Sachs now sides with the Meistersinger in the Walther affair. She reacts angrily, and Sachs realizes her true affection. Perhaps he himself would have been welcome to Eva as a suitor, perhaps he too had once thought of asking Eva's hand in marriage. But that is over now.
Eva finds out from Magdalene that Beckmesser wants to serenade her, but under no circumstances wants to appear at the window. Magdalene is supposed to do this in Eva's clothes. Because she herself now has a tryst with Walther, who, outraged by the Meistersinger, persuades her lover to flee with him. Sachs overheard this plan. Since he is well-disposed towards the two young people, he plans to prevent their thoughtless escape. Then Beckmesser comes along and tries to serenade. However, he is severely disturbed by Sachs. Just as Beckmesser marked Walther von Stolzing's mistakes against the rule with chalk lines, Sachs, who soled Beckmesser's shoes outdoors, now notes the town clerk's mistakes by hitting them with a hammer. David recognizes Magdalene listening to this "serenade" in Eva's clothes. He jealously attacks Beckmesser, mistaking him for a rival. The noise attracts the neighborhood and a general brawl ensues, during which Sachs directs Eva to her father's house and takes the young knight into his own home.

3rd act

Sachs broods. He finds "madness" everywhere. David, who has a guilty conscience because of the nightly brawl, recites his verse on St. John's Day and congratulates the master on his name day. Walther von Stolzing tells of a wondrous dream and, on Saxony's advice, puts it into verse. Sachs takes down two stanzas of the poem and leaves the sheet on the table. Beckmesser, quite upset by last night's failure, secretly pocketed the sheet of paper on which he thought he recognized Saxony's competition entry for the Singing Prize. So that Beckmesser doesn't appear as a thief, Sachs gives him the paper and swears that he will never claim the authorship of the song. Beckmesser draws new hope for a success in singing awards. Eva comes to make sure. It is given to her by the third stanza of Walther's new song. Sachs christened Stolzing's song of praise "blessed Morgentraum-Deutweise" according to old Meistersinger custom. Then he makes David his journeyman, which makes Magdalene very happy.

Hans Sachs is received respectfully by the crowd. As spokesman for the Meistersinger, Sachs gave priority to the oldest applicant, Beckmesser, in the singing contest. However, the town clerk makes a fool of himself with the misunderstood, mutilated song of Walther. Angry, he names Hans Sachs as the originator. But he called the true poet and singer and gave Walther the opportunity to prove himself worthy of the prize. The people cheer Stolzing. But he initially rejects the price of the masters. Sachs enlightens him about the dignity and value, sense and meaning of art.



Subject to change.