With the enormous success of the first two recitals, hopes were high for the first opera of the festival, the June 29th premiere of a new Wagner: Meistersinger. Expectations on director Thomas Langhoff were huge and, traditionally, the first premiere drew a number of local and international personalities from politics, business and the arts. It had been announced, months in advance, as the big event of the festival, and media attention was accordingly. International newspapers sent their top reviewers, the web radio Bayern 4 Klassik broadcast the opera live all over the world and, simultaneously, international radio stations hooked into the live feed: National Public Radio/Washington, Radio Televisione Italiana/Rome, Societe Radio Canada/Montreal, Sveries Radio/Stockholm, Establissment des Grandes Radios/Luxembourg, Radio Portugesa/Lissabon, plus Australia, Netherlands, to mention a few. ...
Photo by: Wilfried Hoesl
“This comedy drama of Richard Wagner is closely connected to our house,” said Peter Jonas on Klassik 4 Radio before the premiere started. “It is an enormous event for any house to bring out a new Meistersinger. Here, it is even more exciting because Meistersinger is a Munich work, especially written for this particular opera house, and the world premiere took place here at the Staatsoper. Meistersinger is one of my five favourite operas. I am an absolute Meistersinger fan. I think I have watched the Meistersinger in my life well over 130 times.”
Michaela Kaune, singing Eva and being interviewed on BR Klassik pre-performance, said about her character: “She is a young girl who loves unconditionally and fights for that love. I think regardless of whether Stolzing had won the Meistersinger contest or not in the end, she’d have run off with him. Singing Eva is a challenge because of its many small parts. She always starts singing and then immediately stops again. The biggest challenge is the quintet in the 3rd act, which is exceptionally beautiful but very difficult to sing.”
Conductor Zubin Metha told BR Klassik before the premiere: “ I am in heaven. It is one of the most genial scores imaginable. What most fascinates me is that - aside the two monologues of Sachs and, of course, the quintet - there is no point in the opera where time stands still. It is always moving forward. People always talk, discuss, argue. And there are no bad people in it. No people who are only out for money or power, like in the Ring. Here, they are all simple people. Even Beckmesser is not a nasty guy; he does not want to kill Walther or anything. The most difficult challenge for the conductor is to bring out of your orchestra this classic ease. I especially feel drawn to the character of Walther because he comes along, falls in love, and says: okay, if you don’t want me, I will make my way. My favourite part is the quintet; it is a heavenly polyphony. On a premiere day like today, I take it easy. I stay at home with my wife. Unfortunately, I do not get to eat a lot, not because of nervousness but because of Wagner. It is nearly 5 hours. Afterwards, if all goes well, I am going to eat a lot.
Kansas-born Heldentenor Robert Dean Smith, singing Walther von Stolzing, was especially excited about the worldwide live broadcast. “It was a brilliant move by Bayern 4 to go worldwide with their broadcasts, via web-radio,” he said. “This allows my family and my friends in the United States to be with me, live, as I sing in this premiere.”
Lasting from 4:15 to 10:15 p.m., including two 40-minute breaks, the opera was a challenge not only for singers and orchestra members but for the audience’s staying power also. Toward the end, sporadic impatient clapping could be heard some 40 minutes before the performance ended. When it was all over, the audience agreed on one thing: Richard Dean Smith’s excellent Walther, and also the other singers received a good measure of applause, as did conductor Zubin Metha. But there were some pretty heavy duty boos for the entire production team, most of all for Thomas Langhoff and his single-set, of which only a few sections were changeable. In the end, putting the Meistersinger into the modern time, with a modern setting, is very difficult to sustain, especially in Munich, the “Meistersinger” city.
Page created: 2.Jul.2004 - Edit