Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (DVD): Wolfgang Wagner, Daniel Barenboim, Robert Holl, Andreas Schmidt, Emily Magee, Matthias Hölle
Conductor: Daniel
Barenboim
Hans Sachs (Schuster) Robert Holl
Veit Pogner (Goldschmied) Matthias Hölle
Kunz Vogelgesang (Kürschner) Bernhard Schneider
Konrad Nachtigall (Spengler) Roman Trekel
Sixtus Beckmesser (Stadtschreiber) Andreas Schmidt
Fritz Kothner (Bäcker) Hans-Joachim Ketelsen
Balthasar Zorn (Zinngiesser) Torsten Kerl
Ulrich Eisslinger (Würzkrämer) Peter Maus
Augustin Moser (Schneider) Helmut Pampuch
Hermann Ortel (Siefensieder) Sándor Sólyom-Nagy
Hans Schwartz (Strumpfwirker) Alfred Reiter
Hans Foltz (Kupferschmied) Jyrki Korhonen
Walther von Stolzing (Ein junger Ritter aus Franken) Peter Seiffert
David (Sachsens Lehrbube) Endrik Wottrich
Eva (Pogners Tochter) Emily Magee
Magdalene (Evas Amme) Birgitta Svendén
Ein Nachtwächter Kwangchul Youn
Lehrbuben: Sybylla Claire, Sabine Dieckmann, Evelyn Meier, Jennifer Westwood, Gabriele Neugebauer, Alice Rath, Sabine Wehlte, Lisa Westermann, Juri Bogdanov, Uwe Glöckner, Olli Rantaseppä, Tadeusz Zlowiak, Thomas Gleichauf, Torsten Schäpan, Peter Smith, Hans-Jürgen Tübinger
Regieassistenz: Thomas Weiler, Katharina Wagner
Chor der Bayreuther Festspiele
Sonderchor der Bayreuther Festspiele
Chorus master: Norbert Balatsch
Tanzgruppe der Bayreuther Festspiele
Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele
Wolfgang Wagner, stage director, set design
Jorge Jara, costume design
Iván Markó, choreographer
Recorded live at the Festspielhaus, Bayreuth, 21-30 June 1999
Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 274 mins
No. of DVDs: 2 (DVD 9)
Daniel
Barenboim conducting Wolfgang Wagner's production of Meistersinger in
Bayreuth 1999
Reviews
But even in its seeming straightforwardness the production is not a great success. For while the reader who does not want to consider any nationalist, let alone racist, connotations, may well find this set a relief and comfort, he or she is hardly likely to find it a thrill or profound experience.
[...]
Of particular interest is Andreas Schmidt's assured town clerk. It's an exceptional performance which does not shirk the essential pedantry, even periodic nastiness, of the man. And here we land on one of the intrinsic problems with Meistersinger. Of course Wolfgamng Wagner wants nothing to do with the Jew in the Thorn Bush business, which should suggest that a close look at Beckmesser will encourage us to unpick an anti-Semitic subtext.
[...] he [Wolfgang Wagner] reminds us that the all-inclusive happy end is a fraud, imposed on the work by our own conventional desire for a tear in the eye, a song in the heart, and apple pie all around. But it is not Wagner; at least it's not Richard Wagner.
Barry Emslie in The Wagner Journal
“The staging is the undoubtedly loving work of a cultured man who knows the piece inside out and wishes to represent it faithfully but whose other duties have prevented his developing any especially distinctive style of his own. The wonderful women, Mesdames Magee and Svendén, however, get there on their own and their dignity and detail are worth watching. Apart from them, and the sexy aeroplane choreography of the "girls from Fürth"... the main attractions of the release lie in Daniel Barenboim's beautifully limned and paced account of the score.”
Gramophone, 2008 Awards Issue
This is in fact fact one of Wolfgang Wagner´s better productions, though not exactly placing him among the great Wagnerian directors of history. The main problem is that Wolfgang Wagner is a very static director. Índividual direction of the singers and exploring the personal relations of the characters does not seem to interest him, and they all seem left to their own devices. That approach rarely makes for enticing theater. What makes this production vastly better than his preceeding Meistersinger production is the sets: Conservative, but aesthetic and very elegant, stripped of all superfluities. Almost exclusively white. Being modern, according to Wolfgang Wagner, means dressing Peter Seiffert in a combination of pink and red..No doubt that Wolfgang Wagner´s knowledge of his grandfather´s works is immense and vastly exceeds that of virtually any other living director. However, transmitting this knowledge to the audience as engaging theater he unfortunately has never been able to do.
Mostly Opera
See also
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
on CD
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
on DVD
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