Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

The first performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) was on 21 June 1868. It is Wagner's only mature comedy, set in Nürnberg in the 16th century.

In medieval Nuremberg, young knight Walther falls in love with Eva, daughter of goldsmith Pogner. But Eva’s hand will go to the winner of a Mastersingers’ song contest, and Walther, unfamiliar with their rigid rules, fails his trial with an instinctive, rule-breaking song — provoking scorn from the pedantic Beckmesser and curiosity from the wise cobbler-poet Hans Sachs.

That night, Walther plans to elope with Eva, but Sachs intervenes, disrupting Beckmesser’s bungled serenade with loud cobbling — and sparking a chaotic street brawl.

The next day, Sachs, moved by Walther’s talent, helps him shape his dream-inspired song into a masterpiece. Beckmesser, hoping for an advantage, steals the song but mangles it at the contest, becoming a laughingstock.

Walther’s genuine performance wins the crowd — and Eva’s heart. Though Walther first rejects the Mastersingers’ traditions, Sachs persuades him of their worth. In the end, innovation and tradition unite, and Sachs is hailed by the people.

The Mastersingers (Meistersinger) were a guild of singers, consisting of amateur poets and musicians, often master craftsmen in their main professions.

“In my view, to misuse Die Meistersinger as a prop for complacent, arrogant nationalism is to betray the grossest ignorance of its true nature. One would have to be deaf, blind, and utterly unperceptive to take this sublime depiction of human gaiety, with its utopian potential, and read a pogrom or a Party rally into it. Any attempt to force the work into an ideological mould is bound to be a distortion.”
(Wolfgang Wagner in his autobiography Acts)

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was produced in the following cities the first years after the world premiere in München on 21 June 1868

The titles of Richard Wagner's operas in different languages

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Vorspiel

Klaus Tennstedt, London Philharmonic (Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan)

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act 1 Vorspiel

Sources: Jonathan Brown (Great Wagner Conductors), Per-Erik Skramstad

“Wagner says that the Meistersinger prelude will without exception be taken too slowly. It should be a strong march tempo.” (Felix Mottl, Diary, 26.5.1876)