Intermezzo

Salzburg Festival Part 2 - Die Meistersinger

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Großes Festspielhaus, 12 August 2013

Having half-watched large chunks of the premiere on TV beforehand, Stefan Herheim's staging didn't come as a shock. But it's hardly a pearl-clutcher's special anyway. Some of Herheim's previous productions - like the she's-already-dead La bohème - might be hard to swallow for an audience slavering for muffs and bonnets.

His Meistersinger on the other hand, with its sumptuously lavish period costumes and lavishly sumptuous Biedermeier interiors and spectacular video-assisted set changes that shift the action from Hans Sachs's cobbler's shop to vastly oversized pieces of its furniture wouldn't puzzle any innocent who imagines the opera is all about a young knight who wins the hand of a pretty girl in a singing contest with the aid of a wily old cobbler. Should go down well at the Met. 

But there's more.

Toot toot! Watch Herheim's Salzburg Meistersinger online

Don't despair if you couldn't access the 3sat broadcast last night. It's now in their video archive, where you can watch ad infinitum.

 

Stefan Herheim's Salzburg Meistersinger - first photos

One of the Salzburg Festival's most hotly anticipated new productions opens on Friday night. Everyone is waiting to see what Stefan Herheim can do with Die Meistersinger.

The answer is - set the whole thing in Hans Sachs' cobbler's shop, but in Wagner's own time.

The opening night will be broadcast with a short delay on 3sat and Unitel Classica, beginning at 20.15 CET (7.15pm UK time). If you're in the UK, don't get too excited - it's unlikely to be available. But optimists may wish to try. 

Cast:
Michael Volle- Hans Sachs
Roberto Saccà- Walther von Stolzing
Markus Werba- Sixtus Beckmesser
Anna Gabler- Eva
Monika Bohinec- Magdalene
Georg Zeppenfeld- Veit Pogner
Peter Sonn- David

More photos:

Koch in for Terfel?

Houston, we have a rumour.

Is Bryn Terfel about to pull out of the Royal Opera's Meistersinger date in Birmingham on 11 January?

UPDATE 5.1.12 - Yes he is. It's now official - he apparently has a chest infection.

New Year, same old Meistersinger

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Royal Opera House, 1 January 2012

The stage-side lectern was ominous, the pre-show announcement no surprise. The brave little soldier turned out to be Simon O'Neill,  suffering from a severe cold.  Ironically, this was much his best performance so far, a few raspy notes here and there aside.

Die Meistersinger round 2

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Royal Opera House, 22 December 2011

As a penetrating symbol of a social order so decisively male-centred that a woman can be given away as a competition prize, the codpiece has much to commend it. But like bare bewbs and live animals, codpieces have a tendency to dominate any scene they're in - which in this production is pretty much all of them. I suppose the comedy has to start somewhere.