thu 28/03/2024

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Glyndebourne Festival Opera | reviews, news & interviews

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Classy Wagner from the great Sussex house, but the shoe doesn't fit all singers

Nuremberg's beloved Hans Sachs (Gerald Finley) addresses the midsummer crowdsAll images by Alastair Muir

So the world didn't end yesterday as predicted, and Wagner's divine comedy about the meaning of art has weathered the ironic apocalypse following Hitler’s misappropriation. Bayreuth reels, but we Brits are lucky to have two stagings in under a year which take the humanism at face value. Scaling it down for Glyndebourne's intimate summer paradise, given director David McVicar’s knack of finding a plausible historical setting, should have offered a viable alternative to Richard Jones's hallucinogenically wonderful Welsh National Opera production. Often it did. The problem was that several singers were a size or two too small, one way or another, for the shoes cobbled by master craftsman Wagner.

So the world didn't end yesterday as predicted, and Wagner's divine comedy about the meaning of art has weathered the ironic apocalypse following Hitler’s misappropriation. Bayreuth reels, but we Brits are lucky to have two stagings in under a year which take the humanism at face value. Scaling it down for Glyndebourne's intimate summer paradise, given director David McVicar’s knack of finding a plausible historical setting, should have offered a viable alternative to Richard Jones's hallucinogenically wonderful Welsh National Opera production. Often it did. The problem was that several singers were a size or two too small, one way or another, for the shoes cobbled by master craftsman Wagner.

Kränzle's Beckmesser is a riveting interpretation, pure Malvolio in the trajectory of humourless self-importance brought low

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Comments

He thoughtfully took off his big hair bow during the performance, so you would not have been inconvenienced had you been sitting behind him. Agree with you about Walther, and I thought he was particularly unconvincing in Act 1and why so scruffy in the first act? However, I think Wagner won out and by the end I felt pretty rapturous.

I WAS sitting behind GP and can confirm that he did indeed take off his head bow before each Act started. Otherwise, an interesting review, and why the surprise at Finley's performance?

So chuffed to hear that about Grayson Perry; in every word and deed he has so far proved the gent, and so it was here.

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