shake those funky dreadlocks deutscher boy

From this 

to ~this~

Greeted by uniformly appalling reviews every year since it opened in 2007,  Katharina Wagner's Meistersinger production has been tarted up for this year's Bayreuth Festival.

The final act has been substantially revamped, the relationship between Sachs and Eva made more demonstrative, and for some reason Walther (Klaus Florian Vogt) now looks like Steffi Graf on a bad hair day.

Truly Dreadful.

More photos here.

 

Comments

[Tristan]

I attended the opening night of this production and saw it again the following year. Loved it both times.

It is a bit messy - and Katharina could've done with a few less ideas, but hardly "truly dreadful".

Dorst's Ring is truly dreadful, and a conversation killer, whilst Katharina's Mesitersinger does get everyone talking about what the piece is about, what Bayreuth is about and, ultimately, what Wagner is about.

And that can only be a good thing, surely?

Tristan, London

[inter mezzo]

the title of the post is Truly Dreadful too :)

[Chris Marquesas]

I fail to understand the widespread fad to stage operas in ways that contradict what they are about. It seems that destroying the visual experience is uber-cool. I would think this drives people away from going to see opera and into merely buying a CD and listening to it.