Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (DVD, 2008): Katharina Wagner, Sebastian Weigle, Michael Volle, Franz Hawlata, Klaus Florian Vogt, Norbert Ernst, Michaela Kaune
Conductor Sebastian Weigle
Stage director Katharina
Wagner
Hans
Sachs Franz Hawlata
Veit Pogner Artur Korn
Kunz Vogelgesang Charles Reid
Konrad Nachtigall Rainer Zaun
Sixtus Beckmesser Michael Volle
Fritz Kothner Markus Eiche
Balthasar Zorn Edward Randall
Ulrich Eisslinger Hans-Jürgen Lazar
Augustin Moser Stefan Heibach
Hermann Ortel Martin Snell
Hans Schwarz Andreas Macco
Hans Foltz Diógenes Randes
Walther von Stolzing Klaus Florian Vogt
David Norbert Ernst
Eva Michaela Kaune
Magdalene Carola Guber
Ein Nachtwächter Friedemann Röhlig
Stage design Tilo Steffens
Costumes Michaela Barth / Tilo Steffens
Dramaturgy Robert Sollich
Chorus Director Eberhard Friedrich
NB! Subtitles only for the documentary.
The DVD includes a Making of documentary. Another and more extensive documentary is available separately.
The DVD doesn't seem to have international distribution, but is available from Amazon.de and the Bayreuth Festival's Online Shop.
Some Fragmentary Notes on Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - a Bayreuth Festival production by Katharina Wagner
Katharina Wagner's production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festival in 2007. The following year it was filmed for DVD release, transmitted live for public viewing on a big screen in Bayreuth and to the Internet public. A DVD documentary of the production was released in 2008. Now Katharina Wagner's Meistersinger has been released on DVD. Although it is tainted with several artistic weaknesses, it is an important production.
The most important aspect of this production is Katharina Wagner's re-reading of the plot. She undresses the nationalism of Hans Sachs, Germany - and her great-grandfather. The production is disturbing and dark. Katharina Wagner unveils the dark side of the drama instead of the no sense feelgood surface on display earlier at Bayreuth - culminating with the most grotesque cover-up ever in Wagnerian production history: the re-establishing of cordial relations between Sachs and Beckmesser at the end.
These fragmentary thoughts on Katharina Wagner's Meistersinger are based on the DVD, the Internet broadcast and a live performance on 7 August 2008.
Even if you are favourable to this production, you are more likely to find it interesting than to find you are loving it. On several occasions it is on the verge of tipping over into a writing desk product. The robot-like behaviour of the congregation and the Lehrbuben is an idea that makes sense at the writing desk since it fits into the motive of the de-humanized mass versus the creative individual, but on stage it just doesn't create compelling music theatre.
The Nuremberg copycats: no individuality, no creativity. |
David (a very good Norbert Ernst) by the copy machine. |
If this production had just a little bit of charm (or at least humour) and better Personenregie, it could reach a lot more people with the message.
Hier gilt's der Kunst. But nothing is created, only restored or copied. Restoration work is going on at the Academy that serves as playground for Act 1.
Instead of a church the first act takes place in room that looks like some kind of an academy hall. Hier gilt's der Kunst. But it is a sterile, copying art, cemented by generations worshipping the Masters and not viewing them with a fresh look, not asking questions.
Katharina Wagner's greatest achievement is that she forces the audience to re-think their view on this music drama.
During the choral, boys and girls (Lehrbuben etc.) are performing some kind of quasi catholic ritual. It is later revealed that the sticks they are robotically placing side by side in "candle sticks" are used for the Meistersinger tables. This is one of the scenes you really do not understand at first; the second is the kidnapping of Hans Sachs. With scenes like these Katharina Wagner makes us experience Meistersinger in a new way, I will not say revelatory, but new it certainly is. She challenges our expectations, and doing so in this manner at Bayreuth is very brave. She didn't do it unpunished: Both the first and the second year her appearance before t he curtain was met with a wall of boos. You get a feeling of the negative reactions on the DVD after Act 3 (but Katharina's curtain call is not included). For those who have never been to Bayreuth (or come from a country where the singers are always hailed no matter how bad they are), listening to the reactions on this DVD is rather interesting. The reactions vary from massive bravos for Klaus Florian Vogt to spontaneous loud boos for the production.
In Act 1 the two outsiders Sachs and Walther are characterized by "creative vandalism" (Walther) and chain smoking (Sachs). Especially the use of cigarette smoking to characterize Sachs as the creative oppositional anarchic artist, as opposed to the other narrow-minded masters is not very successful.
During the street fight in Act 2, some of the creativity Walther had in Act 1 is released in Beckmesser, and he starts painting/writing on his T-shirt. Walther, on the other hand, is confused, if not shocked by what has happened. Walther begins removing paint from the statue. This is the start of a transformation for both of them. And suddenly Sachs, the creative anarchist, starts frenetically removing paint from the Reclam books. He too has started on a mental journey, unfortunately for the worse.
When Sachs is kidnapped in his own home and forced to watch a performance that among other things consists of explicit nudity, so fashionable in the 60's, he turns into a monster. His first action is to burn the directors behind the performance. Katharina Wagner draws a parallell to the Nazis surpressing art they called "entartet" (degenerate). The ideological line from Wagner to Hitler is disturbing, as is the bond between Bayreuth and the Nazis, effectively concealed zum Beispiel at the Richard-Wagner-Museum at Villa Wahnfried as if this is not worth mentioning. One is still waiting for the truth to enter Wahnfried.
Katharina Wagner's affection for robot-like behaviour occurs also when Beckmesser sings his angry song against Sachs after having found the love poem he thinks Sachs has written. Both Beckmesser and Sachs walks around as if they were figures in a town clock machinery. I fail to see the point.
Sixtus Beckmesser's transformation from the rule driven jerk to the performance artist in Act 3 is one of the highlights of this production. In fact, some might say that Michael Volle's superb performance as Beckmesser is what makes this production live. Michael Volle was one of the great highlights for me at last year's Festival. (His Beckmesser is much better in this production than in the Zürich Meistersinger, also available on DVD.)
Besides Volle, there is only one singer who really stands out, and that is Klaus Florian Vogt as Walther von Stolzing. The Bayreuth audience adores him. His warm, melancholic, lyric voice would probably suite a production with a different concept better, a more romantic production. But his singing in this production is a reason good enough for buying the DVD, even if you don't like the concept. He is a fantastic Walther.
Franz Hawlata is very comfortable in this production, and acts convincingly. Especially the chemistry between him and Michaela Kaune has some electrifying moments. Unfortunately his voice is almost constantly strained and pushed to the limit.
Of the mastersingers, it is impossible not to mention the hilarious (!) Kothner of Markus Eiche. Katharina Wagner has made Kothner an hyper-active cartoon character, brilliantly played by Eiche.
In the theatre last summer the conductor Sebastian Weigle was a huge disappointment. His reading was heavy, uninspired, lacking detail, characterized by odd balance between instrument groups, not to mention that the orchestra played far too loud. It seemed that he just didn't master the Bayreuth acoustics. Since the conductor at Bayreuth has to rely on his assistants, one wonders if he had chosen a good enough team to help him. The sound technicians has done a great job, but even with the adjustments, the reading is still dry and uninspired.
Walther wins 10.000 Euro for his kitschy prize song, but refuses to become a mastersinger. Sachs sings his "Verachtet mir die Meister nicht" monologue in darkness and light from below. Sachs ends up as a villain, not the warmhearted humanist granddad in traditional productions. Beckmesser watches Sachs in disbelief. How could it go so far? How could Sachs end up like this authoritarian and brutal defender of German art?
The DVD release is much improved over the Internet broadcast due to very good editing. The use of odd camera angles is minimized and not obtrusive. The DVD version also has a lot of different cuts from rehearsals that were filmed.
The production company made a big mistake that can cost them dearly: There are no subtitles. I hope they don't do that mistake again. German and English subtitles are, in my opinion, a minimum.
The DVD is available from Amazon.de and the Bayreuth Festival's Online Shop.