Although the production – which transposed the story to an early-nineties world of corporate boardrooms, German flags, and the kind of illuminated logos that one finds on high-rise buildings at the edge of the city – had no shortage of intriguing ideas, the presence of a strong central vision wasn’t always immediately apparent. This was not the route chosen by Andrea Moses, whose fearlessness was evident as she attempted to transform the opera into a fable of late twentieth-century Germany. Of course, the opera’s sixteenth-century setting has provided an easy out for directors unwilling to approach it from a post-war perspective (see, for example, Otto Schenk’s soon-to-be-retired Met production). Thus, nearly a century and a half later – on a day when Germany was celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its reunification – the Staatsoper Berlin marked not only the historic occasion, but also the beginning of their 2015/16 season with a new production of Meistersinger and true to form, the opera revealed itself to be just as relevant, troubling and ultimately triumphant as ever. And like the best works of art, it continues to reflect the times even after the times have changed.
It is not a work of nationalist art, or political art, or ‘holy German art’ … it is simply a work of art.
Although it is almost impossible for a modern audience not to view the opera through the lens of twentieth century history, Meistersinger’s appeal to a higher aesthetic principle has also allowed it to transcend the associations that have gathered around it. When Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was first performed in 1868, the reality of a unified German state was still three years away yet Wagner’s impassioned case for the importance of a national art – that is, an artistic lineage in which a unified nation might take some pride – was arguably more concerned with universal poetics than current events.
Cast: Wolfgang Koch (Hans Sachs), Kwangchul Youn (Veit Pogner), Graham Clark (Kunz Vogelgesang), Julia Kleiter (Eva), Klaus Florian Vogt (Walther von Stolzing), Anna Lapkovskaja (Magdalene), Stephan Rügamer (David), Gyula Orendt (Konrad Nachtigall), Markus Werba (Sixtus Beckmesser), Jürgen Linn (Fritz Kothner), Siegfried Jerusalem (Balthasar Zorn), Reiner Goldberg (Ulrich Eisslinger), Paul O’Neill (Augustin Moser), Arttu Kataja (Hermann Ortel), Franz Mazura (Hans Schwarz), Olaf Bär (Hans Foltz), and Jan Martiník (Night Watchman).
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