By Dave
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noJI-A9BHKc
Available until: Sunday 6 September, 5pm
They’ve done it to me again! I always get landed with the performance
the kids don’t want to review. Still, I can understand if they’re daunted by
Wagner. Wagner is… a commitment. Der fliegende Hollander isn’t so bad as
it’s fairly short but even with Das Rheingold, you know there are three
parts more to go and you’re not even a quarter of the way through because they
get longer and longer! I did once listen to the entire Ring Cycle in a
day (when I was in my 20s, I never could resist a dare) and I actually ended up
liking it more as it went on but would I ever do that again? No. One at a time?
Definitely.
Wagner is also known informally in my family as Headache Music. It’s a metaphorical headache making sense of it all and it’s a literal headache listening to such powerful voice for four hours. If I’m putting you off, I can’t really blame you. But don’t go anywhere just yet.
Wagner is challenging. It’s scary. There’s even a book about
not being scared of Wagner which was bought for Gerald Finley – one of the stars
of this production– by his wife. Wagner operas are long and full of motifs.
Though with the Ring Cycle, my brain usually got stuck on “Hold on…
aren’t you two brother and sister?”
It’s okay to be a bit worried by Wagner, but if you enjoy
opera, if you enjoy music, it would be a shame not to give it a try. The music
is great and if you enjoy comedy, then Meistersinger is hilarious.
I think Meistersinger is actually less of an ordeal
than many Wagner operas. It’s basically The X Factor, only with much louder
voices. There’s no million pound recording contract on offer here but you could
win a wife. It’s not the best way of going about things – you’ve got to imagine
what Alastair Miles’ rich-voiced Veit Pogner thought he was doing - but it
gives the situation an extra urgency. There’s more at stake here than who’s the
best singer, though at least the potential wife can say no.
David McVicar’s production really brings out the humour in
the opera and if you’re into art and design, Vicki Mortimer’s set is really
something. There’s so much detail in it and the result is just beautiful. It
looks so real you could almost believe the production was filmed on location.
Watching a stage production is a magical experience but so is watching
something and feeling you’re right there with the characters.
A lot of people believe opera is elitist. I disagree. When I
first started going to opera, I could get in to all productions for under £10,
in some cases I paid as little as £2. Inflation has obviously caused these
prices to rise in the last fifteen years but although the front row is crazily
expensive you can get good seats for quite reasonable prices. It usually works
out cheaper than a day out at the football (though of course it depends on who
you support). And the Meistersinger themselves are all working men. The
celebrated Hans Sachs is a shoemaker. The real-life Meistersinger were mostly
craftsmen.
The performances are all great. Eva is a bit of a silly girl
in some ways, falling in love with one guy and then offering herself to
another, but Anna Gabler gives her a really earnest sincerity and her voice is
truly beautiful – and not as hard on inexperienced ears as many Wagnerian
sopranos. Marco Jentzsch also has a great voice and really brings something
special to Walther’s competition music – there’s no doubt he would be a worthy
competition winner… if only he could stick to the rules.
Gerald Finley has always been one of my favourite singers
and he does a great job here as Hans Sachs. He puts so much meaning into the
music and his comic timing is faultless. He is also a skilled actor – the
facial expressions he makes throughout a hilarious one minute and almost
heartbreaking the next. I’m not completely sure I’d have turned him down in
Eva’s place!
The sarcastic Sixtus Beckmesser is another great character
who is so cleverly judged by Johannes Martin Kranzle. The character is
ridiculous but he never goes over the top and becomes a caricature. All the
Meistersinger gave really strong performances – Kunz Vogelsang (Colin Judson)
was very well named (Vogelsang means birdsong) as are Konrad Nachtigall the
nightingale (Andrew Slater). There were also great contributions from Topi
Lehtipuu and Michaela Selinger as David and Magdalene.
I really enjoyed it – and if 4 hours, 44 minutes sounds
daunting, the opera is available till Sunday so you don’t have to watch it all
in one go. Youtube even keeps your place for you.
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