In Association With

overture opera guides

in association with We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Overture Publishing on this series of opera guides and to build on the work English National Opera did over twenty years ago on the Calder Opera Guide Series. As well as reworking and updat- ing existing titles, Overture and ENO have commissioned new titles for the series and all of the guides will be published to coincide with repertoire being staged by the company at the London Coliseum.

We hope that these guides will prove an invaluable resource now and for years to come, and that by delving deeper into the history of an opera, the poetry of the libretto and the nuances of the score, readers’ understanding and appreciation of the opera and the art form in general will be enhanced.

John Berry, CBE Artistic Director, ENO The publisher John Calder began the Opera Guides series under the editorship of the late Nicholas John in association with English National Opera in 1980. It ran until 1994 and eventually included forty-eight titles, covering fifty-eight operas. The books in the series were intended to be companions to the works that make up the core of the operatic repertory. They contained articles, illustrations, musical examples and a complete libretto and singing translation of each opera in the series, as well as bibliographies and discographies.

The aim of the present relaunched series is to make available again the guides already published in a redesigned format with new illustrations, some newly commissioned articles, updated reference sections and a literal translation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the meaning of the origi- nal. New guides of operas not already covered will be published alongside the redesigned ones from the old series.

Gary Kahn Series Editor Sponsors of the Overture Opera Guides

for the 2014/15 Season at ENO

Eric Adler Frank and Lorna Dunphy Richard Everall Ali Khan Andrew Medlicott Ralph Wells Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Richard Wagner

Overture Opera Guides Series Editor Gary Kahn

Editorial Consultant Philip Reed

OVERTURE overture opera guides in association with

Overture Publishing an imprint of alma classics London House 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road Richmond Surrey TW9 2LL United Kingdom

Article by Arnold Whittall, first published by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd, 1981, revised 2015 © the author, 2015

Articles by John Deathridge, Tim Blanning, Hans Rudolf Vaget and Áine Sheil first published in this volume © the authors, 2015

This Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Opera Guide first published by Overture Publishing, an imprint of Alma Classics Ltd, 2015

Translation of libretto © Peter Branscombe

Printed in United Kingdom by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY isbn: 978-1-84749-558-7

All the pictures in this volume are reprinted with permission or presumed to be in the public domain. Every effort has been made to ascertain and acknowl- edge their copyright status, but should there have been any unwitting oversight on our part, we would be happy to rectify the error in subsequent printings.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher. Contents

List of Illustrations 8 Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 9 John Deathridge The Music: A Commentary 26 Arnold Whittall Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller 40 Tim Blanning The Beckmesser Problem 47 Hans Rudolf Vaget The Performance Legacy of Die Meistersinger 55 Áine Sheil Thematic Guide 73 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Libretto 79 Act One 83 Act Two 159 Act Three 241 Select Discography 324 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD 328 Select Bibliography 331 Wagner Websites 334 Note on the Contributors 335 Acknowledgements 336 List of Illustrations

1. Richard Wagner in 1868 2. Nuremberg at the end of the fifteenth century 3. The Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich in the 1860s 4. The Meistersingerschrein from Nuremberg’s St Catherine’s Church (Gemälde- und Skulpturensammlung, Nuremberg) 5. National Choral Festival in Nuremberg, 1861 (Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg) 6. Playbill for the 1868 Munich premiere 7. Wagner in the royal box at the Munich premiere 8. Set design by Max and Gotthold Brückner for the first Bayreuth production 9. Karl Scheidemantel 10. Fritz Friedrichs 11. Cast for Act Three, Scene One at Glyndebourne 12. Liebig card of Eva, Sachs and Walther 13. Winifred Wagner with Hitler at the Stadttheater, Nuremberg 14. Wilhelm Rode’s production at the Deutsches Opernhaus, Berlin 15. Playbill for the 1935 Berlin production 16. Rudolf Hartmann’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1951 (Fritz Ramme) 17. Wieland Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1956 (Siegfried Lauterwasser/ Festspielleitung Bayreuth) 18. Wieland Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1963 (Wilhelm Rauh/Fest- spielleitung Bayreuth) 19. Wolfgang Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1968 (Siegfried Lauterwasser/ Festspielleitung Bayreuth) 20. Norman Bailey and Derek Hammond-Stroud (Reg Wilson) 21. Hans Neuenfels’s production at Oper Stuttgart (Mara Eggert) 22. Graham Vick’s production at the Royal Opera House (Clive Barda) 23. Kurt Horres’s production at La Monnaie (Johan Jacobs) 24. Katharina Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival (Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH/Jochen Quast) 25. Raymond Very and Bryn Terfel at WNO (Catherine Ashmore) 26. Andreas Homiki’s production at the Komische Oper Berlin (Monika Rittershaus) 27. Johannes Martin Kränzle and Gerald Finley (Alastair Muir) 28. David Alden’s production at the Netherlands Opera (Monika Rittershaus) 29. Stefan Herheim’s production at the Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele/Forster) Thematic Guide

Themes from the opera have been identified by the numbers in square brackets in the article on the music, pp. 26–39. These are also printed at corresponding points in the libretto, so that the words can be related to the musical themes.

[1a]

               

[1b] x                                         [1c]                                     x  [2]

x                       

[3]

                      

[4]

                  

73 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Music Drama in Three Acts by Richard Wagner Libretto by the composer English translation by Peter Branscombe

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater, Munich, on 21st June 1868. It was first performed in Britain at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 30th May 1882.The first performance in the United States was at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on 4th January1886. The German libretto has been laid out in accordance with the one printed in volume 7 of Wagner’s Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (Collected Writings) prepared under the composer’s supervision and first printed in Leipzig. The English translation follows the same layout.

THE CHARACTERS Hans Sachs, shoemaker bass Veit Pogner, goldsmith bass Kurz Vogelgesang, furrier tenor Konrad Nachtigall, tinsmith bass Sixtus Beckmesser, town clerk bass Fritz Kothner, baker bass Mastersingers Balthasar Zorn, pewterer tenor Ulrich Eisslinger, grocer tenor Augustin Moser, tailor tenor Hermann Ortel, soap-boiler bass Hans Schwartz, stocking-weaver bass Hans Foltz, coppersmith } bass Walther von Stolzing, a young knight from Franconia tenor David, Sachs’s apprentice tenor Eva, Pogner’s daughter soprano Magdalene, Eva’s nurse soprano A Nightwatchman bass

Burghers and wives of all the guilds, journeymen. apprentices, girls, people Nuremberg around the middle of the sixteenth century Vorspiel [1a–6]

ERSTER AUFZUG

Erste Szene Die Bühne stellt das Innere der Katharinenkirche in schrägem Durchschnitt dar; von dem Hauptschiff, welches links ab, dem Hintergrunde zu, sich ausdehnend anzunehmen ist, sind nur noch die letzten Reihen der Kirchenstühlbänke sichtbar: den Vordergrund nimmt der freie Raum vor dem Chor ein; dieser wird später durch einen schwarzen Vorhang gegen das Schiff zu gänzlich geschlossen. In der letzten Reihe der Kirchenstühle sitzen Eva und Magdalene; Walther von Stolzing steht, in einiger Entfernung, zur Seite an eine Säule gelehnt, die Blicke auf Eva heftend, die sich mit stummem Gebärdenspiel wiederholt zu ihm umkehrt. CHORAL DER GEMEINDE Da zu dir der Heiland kam, [8] (Walther drückt durch Gebärde eine schmachtende Frage an Eva aus.) willig seine Taufe nahm, (Evas Blick und Gebärde sucht zu antworten; doch beschämt schlägt sie das Auge wieder nieder) weihte sich dem Opfertod, (Walther zärtlich, dann dringender) gab er uns des Heils Gebot: (Eva Walthern schüchtern abweisend, aber schnell wieder seelenvoll zu ihm aufblickend) das wir durch sein’ Tauf’ uns weihn, (Walther, entzückt, höchste Beteuerungen, Hoffnung) seines Opfers wert zu sein. (Eva, selig lächelnd, dann beschämt die Augen senkend)

82 Prelude [1a–6]

ACT ONE

Scene One The scene represents the interior of the church of St Catherine in diagonal section; the nave is supposed to extend towards the back of the stage, to the left; only the last few rows of pews are visible. In front is the open space of the choir, which is later completely shut off from the nave by a black curtain. Eva and Magdalene are sitting in the last row of pews. Standing to one side by a pillar is Walther von Stolzing, at some distance from the women, gazing at Eva. Eva repeatedly turns round towards the knight. CONGREGATION When the Saviour came to thee, [8] (Walther signals to Eva that he has an ardent question for her.) willingly accepted His baptism, (Eva would like to respond with a glance and gesture, but bashfully lowers her gaze) dedicated Himself to a sacrificial death, (Walther tenderly, then with more urgency) He gave the covenant for our salvation: (Eva rejecting Walther shyly, but then quickly looking up again, giving him a soulful look) that we might be consecrated through His baptism (Walther, enraptured, solemn assertions, hope) so as to be worthy of His sacrifice. (Eva, smiling blissfully, then bashfully lowering her eyes)

83 Note on the Contributors

Tim Blanning was Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and remains a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1990. His most recent publications include The Triumph of Music (Faber Books, 2008) and The Romantic Revolution (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010).

Peter Branscombe held the chair of Austrian Studies at the University of St Andrews. His publications include the Cambridge University Handbook to Die Zauberflöte and translations of works by Heinrich Heine and Otto Erich Deutsch’s Mozart: A Documentary Biography.

John Deathridge is Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King’s College London. His recent publications include a new co-edited critical edition of Lohengrin (Eulenburg, 2007), Wagner Beyond Good and Evil (University of California Press, 2008) and the essay ‘Waiting for Wagner’ in Opera Quarterly (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Áine Sheil is a Lecturer in Music at the University of York. She has published articles and chapters on the production and reception history of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, contemporary opera practice and opera-related arts policy.

Hans Rudolf Vaget is Professor Emeritus of German Studies at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts), having taught there from 1967 to 2004. His publications have chiefly been on Goethe, Wagner and Thomas Mann, most recently Thomas Mann der Amerikaner (S. Fischer Verlag, 2011). He was a member of the editorial board of wagnerspectrum, 2005–13.

Arnold Whittall is Emeritus Professor of Music Theory and Analysis at King’s College London. His recent writings on Wagner include contribu- tions to The Cambridge Companion to Wagner and The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia. His book of collected essays, The Wagner Style, will be published by Plumbago Press in 2015.

335 Acknowledgements

We would like to thank John Allison and Erica Jeal of Opera, Charles Johnston and Mike Ashman for their assistance and advice in the preparation of this guide and Robin Gordon-Powell for his setting of the music examples in the Thematic Guide.