Organization

Bayreuther Festspiele

Conductor

Horst Stein

Stage director

Wolfgang Wagner

Set designer

Costume designer

Reinhard Heinrich

Brian Large

Singer

Bass-baritone

Bernd Weikl

Hans Sachs

Tenor

Siegfried Jerusalem

Walther von Stolzing

Baritone

Hermann Prey

Sixtus Beckmesser

Graham Clark

David

Soprano

Mari-Anne Haeggander

András Molnár

Kunz Vogelgesang

Udo Holdorf

Balthasar Zorn

Peter Bause

Ulrich Eisslinger

Helmut Pampuch

Augustin Moser

Bass

Sándor Sólyom-Nagy

Herman Ortel

Heinz-Klaus Ecker

Hans Schwarz

Dieter Schweikart

Hans Foltz

Mezzo-soprano

Marga Schiml

Magdalena

Matthew Hill

Nightwatchman

Others

Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele

Orchestra

Bayreuther Festspielorchester

German

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg -  (The Master-Singers of Nuremberg)

Wuppertal

Germany

Gymnasium Bayreuther Straße

The young Franconian knight Walther von Stolzing came to Nuremberg and fell in love with Eva. The daughter of the rich goldsmith Veit Pogner, however, was chosen by her father to be the bride of the person who won the prize in the public Meistersinger competition on St. John's Day. Walther is determined to do so and therefore applies for admission to the Meistersinger. He is to perform a trial song, which will be judged by the strict town clerk and marker Sixtus Beckmesser. Since he is also interested in Eva, it is hardly surprising that Walther does not pass the exam. When the knight wants to flee with Eva that night, he is prevented from doing so by the shoemaker Hans Sachs. Sachs was the only one of the Meistersinger to recognize Walther's talent and decided to help the lovers. That same night, Beckmesser serenades Eva, whom he admires, which not only leads to all sorts of misunderstandings but also to a general fight. At the prize singing the following morning, with the help of Sachs, Beckmesser is ridiculed, and Walther wins Eva's hand and the master's degree with his song. When he wants to do without the latter, Sachs admonishes him in his famous final song "Don't despise the masters" before everyone celebrates the wise shoemaker and his clever words.

The novel conception of Wolfgang Wagner's internationally acclaimed production of "Meistersinger" at the Bayreuth Festival is most evident in the figure of Beckmesser. The director refrains from caricaturing the character and depicting Beckmesser as a simple fool or pedant, but rather lets him appear as a real poet with a melancholy, almost elegiac disposition. The production also eschews the usual clichés and exaggerated pathos that often make this opera seem all too German, and focuses specifically on the human aspect of the characters, which is often neglected in other productions. Hans Sachs is not a dignified old man, but a likeable middle-aged man, and Stolzing does not appear as a proud aristocrat, but as a sensitive, thoughtful individualist who feels drawn to the bourgeoisie. Wolfgang Wagner succeeded in freeing the work from the "Teutonic ballast" and giving it back its original brightness and colourfulness: he brought late medieval Nuremberg back to life.

"Just a decade after the arrival of the electronic camera on the Green Hill, these 'Meistersinger' testified to an impressive standard of TV art. Picture director Brian Large brought a luminous production to the screen, bright, transparent, calmly flowing, in the style of the Committed to music and the relaxed leadership of Wolfgang Wagner." (Frankfurter Rundschau)

Bayreuther Festspiele, 1984 Subtítulos en español y francés
Dir: Horst Stein

Hans Sachs: Bernd Weikl
Veit Pogner: Manfred Schenk
Kunz Vogelgesang: András Molnár
Konrad Nachtigall: Martin Egel
Sixtus Beckmesser: Hermann Prey
Fritz Kothner: Jef Vermeersch
Walther von Stolzing: Siegfried Jerusalem
David: Graham Clark
Eva: Mari Anne Häggander
Magdalene: Marga Schiml

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Wagner,Richard

Public

The Master-Singers of Nuremberg

Approved

The young Franconian knight Walther von Stolzing came to Nuremberg and fell in love with Eva. The daughter of the rich goldsmith Veit Pogner, however, was chosen by her father to be the bride of the person who won the prize in the public Meistersinger competition on St. John's Day. Walther is determined to do so and therefore applies for admission to the Meistersinger. He is to perform a trial song, which will be judged by the strict town clerk and marker Sixtus Beckmesser. Since he is also interested in Eva, it is hardly surprising that Walther does not pass the exam. When the knight wants to flee with Eva that night, he is prevented from doing so by the shoemaker Hans Sachs. Sachs was the only one of the Meistersinger to recognize Walther's talent and decided to help the lovers. That same night, Beckmesser serenades Eva, whom he admires, which not only leads to all sorts of misunderstandings but also to a general fight. At the prize singing the following morning, with the help of Sachs, Beckmesser is ridiculed, and Walther wins Eva's hand and the master's degree with his song. When he wants to do without the latter, Sachs admonishes him in his famous final song "Don't despise the masters" before everyone celebrates the wise shoemaker and his clever words.

English

The Master-Singers of Nuremberg by Wagner, Richard, From (1984/1984), Directed by Wolfgang Wagner, Brian Large,, Conductor Horst Stein, Gymnasium Bayreuther Straße, Wuppertal, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues