Release Date: 28 February 2003
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 4
Barcode: 636943187227
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: WAGNER, R.
Description
RIchard WAGNER (1813-1883)Die Meistersinger von NürnbergThe only comedy among Richard Wagner’s mature works, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg dwarfed all previous comedic operas when it was given its first complete performance in Munich in 1868; and only Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier has since come near it in length, scope and richness of detail. Wagner conceived the scheme in 1845 and at that stage clearly saw it as a counterpart to Tannhäuser, the theme of a singing context being common to both. As so often happened with Wagner, however, he was deflected by other projects; and by the time he got round to working seriously on Die Meistersinger, he was a different composer with Tristan und Isolde and much of The Ring already behind him. He was fascinated by the idea that sixteenth-century Nuremberg had boasted, among its many guilds, a Guild of Mastersingers. He took the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, a historical figure who lived from 1494 to 1576 and whose music has survived, as his central character, and researched every available source in his mission to bring old Nuremberg to life. Curiously he had an autobiographical occurrence to draw on: the finale of Act 2, with its fugal brawl, is based on an evening Wagner and some friends spent in Nuremberg in 1835 when they witnessed just such a fight. Wagner wrote two treatments, one in Marienbad in 1845 and one in Vienna in 1861, before producing his libretto around the turn of the year in 1861-2. In the interim his concept altered and became much more complex. In particular the central rôle of Sachs, which ended up as the longest singing part in all opera, developed from a rather sardonic character into the fully rounded portrait we now know. While retaining a wit with a certain edge, Sachs became much more genial and philosophical; the idea of bringing him into an ‘eternal triangle’ with the young hero and heroine was a late addition. We should not complain if the other characters tend to be ‘types’ rather than believable people like Sachs — after all, most other operatic comedies are very stylized. The Mastersingers emerge as distinct personalities, craftsmen who are proud of their competence in their part-time craft, music. Wagner had some fun with the marker, Sixtus Beckmesser, the only overtly comic character in the piece. He even toyed with the idea of calling him Hans Lick, or Veit Hanslich, as a way of getting back at the great Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, a constant thorn in his side. Whether Hanslick knew anything of this or not, he was the sole dissenting voice when the first performance took place in 1868 at the Court Theatre, Munich, on 21st June - Midsummer Day, as in the opera - under the baton of Hans von Bülow. This première was the greatest success Wagner had in his entire career. Even in Wagner’s day, doubts were raised about the rampant chauvinism of Sachs’s final panegyric to German art, alth
Tracklisting
Various Artists
Various
Various
Various
Tullio Serafin
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
Soloists
