Richard Wagner (181 –188) Library The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Photo Music drama in three acts Arts & Libretto by the composer, English translation by Frederick Jameson, Music revised by Norman Feasey and Gordon Kember agner Hans Sachs, cobbler Norman Bailey bass-baritone Lebrecht © Veit Pogner, goldsmith Noel Mangin bass W Kunz Vogelgesang, furrier David Kane tenor Konrad Nachtigal, tinsmith Julian Moyle bass Sixtus Beckmesser, town clerk Derek Hammond-Stroud baritone Fritz Kothner, baker David Bowman bass Balthasar Zorn, pewterer John Brecknock tenor Ulrich Eisslinger, grocer David Morton-Gray tenor Augustin Moser, tailor Mastersingers Dino Pardi tenor Hermann Ortel, soapmaker James Singleton bass CHARD Hans Schwarz, stocking weaver Gerwyn Morgan bass Hans Foltz, coppersmith Eric Stannard bass RI Walther von Stolzing, a young knight from Franconia Alberto Remedios tenor David, Sachs’ apprentice Gregory Dempsey tenor Eva, Pogner’s daughter Margaret Curphey soprano Magdalene, Eva’s nurse Ann Robson mezzo-soprano Nightwatchman Stafford Dean bass Sadler’s Wells Opera Chorus Sadler’s Wells Opera Orchestra Leonard Hancock assistant conductor Reginald Goodall COmpacT DISC ONE Time Page Time Page 1 Prelude 10: �p ��� ��� 11 ‘By silent hearth, one winter’s day’ 9:01 �p 91� Walther, Sachs, Beckmesser, Kothner, Vogelgesang, Nachtigal Act I 12 ‘To make your footsteps safe and sure’ :22 �p 99�� 2 ‘As to thee our Saviour came’ :00 �p ��� ��� Kothner, Walther, Beckmesser Congregation TT 74:34 3 ‘Oh stay! A word! one single word!’ 9:� �p ��� ��� Walther, Eva, Magdalene, David COmpacT DISC TWO 4 ‘David, come on, lend a hand!’ 2:12 �p 80� Apprentices, David, Walther 1 ‘“Now begin!” So cried the sun with the land!’ :� �p 99�� Walther 5 My Lord! The Mastersinger’s way’ �:0 �p 81� David, Walther, Apprentices 2 ‘Then have you finished?’ 2: �p 99�� Beckmesser, Walther, Pogner, Mastersingers, Kothner, Ortel, Moser, Foltz, 6 ‘What’s this that you’ve done? :8 �p 88�� David, Apprentices Nachtigal, Vogelgesang, Zorn 3 ‘Stay, Masters! Why so much haste?’ 8:18 �p 99�� 7 ‘Be well assured of my good favour’ :08 �p 88�� Pogner, Beckmesser, Walther, Sachs, Vogelgesang, Nachtigal Sachs, Beckmesser, Nachtigal, Kothner, Pogner, Mastersingers, Walther, Apprentices 8 ‘Now to a trial, as summoned hither’ :0 �p 88�� Act II Kothner, Pogner, Vogelgesang, Ortel, Zorn, Nachtigal, Moser, Apprentice, David, 4 Prelude 0: �p 98� Sachs, Beckmesser, Eisslinger, Foltz, Schwartz 5 ‘Midsummer day! Midsummer day!’ :21 �p 99� 9 ‘The feast of John, Midsummer day’ 1:22 �p 8�� Apprentices, David, Magdalene, Sachs Pogner, Mastersingers, Apprentices, Vogelgesang, Sachs, Kothner, Pogner, 6 ‘We’ll see if Master Sachs is there’ �:08 ������p100� Beckmesser, Nachtigal Pogner, Eva, Magdalene 10 ‘(Just as i thought!)’ 2: �p 90� 7 ‘A pretty secret, that!’ 1:02 ������p102� Beckmesser, Mastersingers, Kothner, Pogner, Nachtigal, Sachs Eva, Sachs, David Time Page Time Page 8 ‘The elder’s scent, how tender’ �:0 ������p102� 3 ‘Fools! Fools! Ev’rywhere fools’ 8:00 ������p12�� Sachs Sachs 9 ‘Good evening, Master!’ 12:1 ������p10�� 4 ‘My friend, good morning!’ :� ������p12�� Eva, Sachs, Magdalene, Pogner 5 ‘My friend, in joyful days of youth’ :20 �����p12�� 10 ‘He’s here now!’ 9:09 ������p108� Sachs, Walther Eva, Magdalene, Walther, Nightwatchman, Sachs 6 ‘“Warm in the sunlight, at dawning of day”’ 12:11 �����p12�� 11 ‘What? Sachs? He too?’ 1:1� ������p110� Walther, Sachs Walther, Eva, Sachs 7 Interlude : ������p129� 12 ‘Jerum! Jerum! Hal-la-hal-lo-he! o-ho!’ 12:1� ������p111� 8 ‘A Trial Song by Sachs! is it true?’ :2 ������p129� Sachs, Beckmesser, Walther, Eva Beckmesser, Sachs 13 ‘“i see now dawning daylight”’ :8 �����p11�� 9 ‘It was here, the paper!’ 8: ������p11� Beckmesser, Sachs, David, Kothner, Neighbours Sachs, Beckmesser 14 ‘The devil take your song, accursed rogue!’ : ������p118� 10 ‘Here’s Eva! i had wondered where she was!’ :8 ������p1�� David, Magdalene, Beckmesser, Neighbours, Journeymen, Sachs, Eva Apprentices, Women, Pogner, Walther, Sachs, Nightwatchman 11 ‘“Lured from their dances, the stars glided down”’ :00 ������p1�� TT 79:54 Walther, Sachs 12 ‘The life of a cobbler’s nothing but woe!’ 1: �����p1���� COmpacT DISC THREE Sachs Act III 13 ‘o Sachs! My friend! So kind thou art!’ :0 �����p1���� 1 Prelude �:0 ������p122� Eva, Sachs 2 ‘Here, master, here!’ �:� ������p122� TT 76:50 David, Sachs � � Time Page Time Page COmpacT DISC FOUR 11 ‘“Warm in the sunlight, at dawning of day”’ �:29 ������p1�� 1 ‘A child has been created’ :0 �����p1���� Walther, Mastersingers, People, Sachs, Pogner, Eva Sachs 12 ‘The witness has been duly tried’ 2:09 �����p1���� 2 ‘Radiant as the dawning that enchants my sight’ :2� �����p1���� Sachs, People, Mastersingers, Pogner, Walther Eva, Walther, Sachs, Magdalene, David 13 ‘Do not disdain our Masters thus’ 8:0 �����p1���� 3 ‘Now, Walther come! You must be brave!’ 2:2 ������p19� Sachs, People Sachs TT 61:26 4 ‘Saint Crispin, Saint Crispin!’ :08 ������p19� Shoemakers, Tailors, Bakers, Apprentices 5 ‘You dance? Look out if the Masters see you!’ 2:0 ������p10� David, Apprentices, Journeymen 6 Entrance of the Mastersingers – ‘“Silentium! Silentium!”’ :0 ������p10� Apprentices, People 7 ‘Awake! The dawn of day draws near’ :8 ������p10� People 8 ‘Words light to you’ 8:1 ������p11� Sachs, Pogner, Beckmesser, Kothner, People, Apprentices 9 ‘“Bathing in sunlight at dawning of day”’ :0 ������p1�� Beckmesser, Mastersingers, People, Kotner, Nachtigal, Vogelgesang, Ortel, Foltz 10 ‘The song, in truth, is not by me’ : ������p1�� Sachs, Mastersingers, People, Apprentices 8 9 It was the resounding success of reggie Goodall’s Mastersingers that led to his conducting an ‘English’ Ring at the London Coliseum in the 19�0s that Ring moved me so intensely that i decided the performance must not be allowed to fade into the past, and sent me knocking on doors to preserve it on record So i am thrilled that we have been able to add The Mastersingers to our opera in English catalogue, alongside reggie’s superb Ring Sir Peter Moores, CBE, dL July 2008 Sir Peter Moores with a portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott, acquired for Compton Verney © Lyndon Parker 10 11 for the translations of this English language Shaw (production), Edward renton (music The Mastersingers of Sadler’s Wells company. Tracey had belonged to a small administration) and John Snape (finance), to group of influential critics, which included entrust Goodall with the greater assignment of On the day before the premiere of Sadler’s Wells ensemble was the sum of two companies, Andrew Porter, david Cairns and Peter the company’s first post-war production of The Opera’s new production of The Mastersingers the Sadler’s and the Wells. Together they Heyworth, who espoused the cause of Mastersingers of Nuremberg. of Nuremberg, its Managing Director Stephen were responsible for the majority of opera Reginald Goodall as a pre-eminent conductor Crucially, what they provided was time. That Arlen gave a talk to the first ever Arts Council- touring in England Welsh National opera of Wagner, largely on the evidence of four meant not only the concentrated production sponsored Arts Administration Course at still had an amateur chorus and no resident legendary performances of Die Walküre on the rehearsal time made available in december the London Polytechnic in Mortimer Street orchestra Another decade would pass before Covent Garden opera’s tour in 19 Goodall 19�� and January 19�8 when the companies For him, I suspect, it was a matter of duty the founding of opera North So, the equally had joined Sadler’s Wells opera during World were not engaged in touring, but the vital and, though open and engaging, he appeared resourced Sadler’s and Wells companies, led by War Two and had conducted the premiere of preliminary musical coaching where Goodall’s apprehensive. As one of that initial 1967/�8 separate Musical directors Bryan Balkwill and Peter Grimes for the reopening of the theatre knowledge and understanding and persistence intake of students, I asked him what we might Mario Bernardi, alternated between London in 1945, but soon after he had moved to were supreme With the exception of Hans expect of his new Mastersingers. He replied: and the regions Covent Garden as a staff conductor. He was Sachs, for which they engaged Norman Bailey, ‘Either it will be a catastrophe, or it will be the During and after the Christmas holiday ill-attuned to routine revivals of the Italian and an experienced British singer then working greatest success in the history of Sadler’s Wells’ period each year, most of the suitable receiving French repertory, and by the end of the 190s in Germany, the cast belonged to the existing The following evening, 31 January 19�8, theatres were occupied with pantomime; and his conducting assignments had dwindled, ensemble and were singing their roles for another of the students, Brian McMaster, and in 19��/�8 the familiar winter visit to the though he remained valued as a singers’ coach the first time So, they could be available to I stood next to each other for over five hours in Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford Even so, he led occasional performances of work on them over an extended period of the five shilling (25 pence in new money) Upper became no longer possible So Arlen and his The Mastersingers at Covent Garden as late time, with sympathetic music staff led by a Circle Slips and witnessed history being made directors decided to bring together the divided as 19�0, but his method suffered from the conductor who had inhabited the music for Sadler’s Wells Theatre in those days was companies for a major joint project, taking patchy casting and lack of rehearsal time then half a lifetime. That was the key secret which the home of a substantial opera company advantage of the relatively generous rehearsal prevalent.