Wer über sieben Fehler verlor, Hat versungen und ganz verthan! Spring 2007 –Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Volume 4, Number 2 From the Editor Wagneriana in Color he Boston Wagner Society is pleased to offer you the newsletter in color, starting with this issue. Last spring our print shop ran an issue of Wagneriana in color by mistake, and we realized how T much better the photos (and the newsletter in general) looked. At its annual meeting this year, the Board of Directors decided to purchase a color printer so we can do our own printing, which will be very economical in the long run. Having our own printer will also enable us to print color flyers and posters. Survey of Favorite CDs and DVDs/Videos Thanks to all who sent in their surveys on favorite CDs and DVDs or videos. About 5 percent of the membership responded. To see the results, please see page 12. The Wagner Journal Is Launched Barry Millington and Stewart Spencer, two British Wagnerian scholars, have launched a new publication titled The Wagner Journal, which will be issued three times a year (March, July, and November) . Barry Millington is the author/editor of seven books on Wagner, including The Wagner Compendium ; he also wrote the entries on Wagner and his operas for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the New Grove Dictionary of Opera . Stewart Spencer is a translator. The first issue of The Wagner Journal , which just came out, contains an article with the following: an “intriguing unpublished Wagner letter to a Milanese couturier adding fuel to the theory that Wagner may have exhibited cross-dressing tendencies.” This copiously annotated article has already received considerable media attention in the U.K.’s Guardian and the New York Times. The author, Stewart Spencer, suggests that some of the sartorial items (namely, a few dresses) Wagner ordered as presents for Cosima from his milliner, Charlotte Chaillon, may in fact have been for his own use! This statement is pure speculation. It is true that Wagner loved luxurious fabrics, but there is not a shred of evidence to indicate that he was also a cross-dresser. We can only conclude that the purpose of this pseudo-scholarly article is to titillate readers. An annual subscription to The Wagner Journal costs $95 for the print edition only, $58 for the on-line version only, and $104 for both. For more information, go to www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk . A New Wagner Society Is Born Another Wagner society has been added to our list of societies in the United States: the Wagner Society of Ohio. This group is sponsoring a symposium on May 11–13, 2007, featuring Wagnerian experts such as Jeffrey Buller, Laurie Lashbrook, and Gottfried Semper. For more information, go to www.wagnersocietyofohio.org . –Dalia Geffen Die Meistersinger at the Metropolitan Opera: Two Views Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Metropolitan Opera, cond. James Levine; production: Otto Schenk; Hans Sachs: James Morris; Walther von Stolzing: Johan Botha; Eva: Hei-Kyung Hong; David: Matthew Polenzani; Veit Pogner: Evgeny Nikitin; Beckmesser: Hans-Joachim Ketelsen; Magdalene: Maria Zifchak; Night Watchman: John Relyea Act 2 of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo by Beth Bergman. In its only Wagner offering this season, New York’s Metropolitan Opera has revived its 1993 production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. This is the same glorious Otto Schenk production with traditional set designs by Günther Schneider-Siemssen that is available for viewing on the Met’s Deutsche Grammophon DVD (which, as here, also features James Morris as the wise poet-cobbler, Hans Sachs). We were fortunate to obtain tickets for this sold-out run for Monday March 5. They were a birthday present to me from my wife, Suki, who back in September presented me with a scroll, complete with photograph, announcing that we would go to New York in March to hear Die Meistersinger. She could not have chosen a better gift, as I had not attended a performance of this work since 1976, when I saw the Met’s 1962 Nathaniel Merrill production, which also featured realistic set designs, that time by Robert O’Hearn. For me, hearing Die Meistersinger also brought back happy memories of this past summer when I had the opportunity to see the new Bayreuth Ring—my first Bayreuth experience. My first stop was Nürnberg, where I had a chance to explore this city on foot, learn something of its storied history, and sample its famous bratwurst. Walking around the restored medieval Altstadt, it was easy to imagine life in the mid-16 th century, when the events depicted in the opera take place. One can visit the Albrecht Dürer House (Eva mentions him in the opera), the Kaiserberg (realistically depicted at the Met with its tall towers in the background in the final scene), and the ruins of St. Katherine’s Church, site of the actual Meistersinger singing school, in which the opera opens. Alas, the building itself, a former Dominican convent, was completely gutted by fire in 1945. Fortunately, Nürnberg’s most famous churches, St. Sebalduskirche (13 th c.), the Frauenkirche at the end of the main square (14 th c.), and the Lorenzenkirche 2 (13–15 th c.), all survive and can be visited. Thus, it was a pleasure for me to see the Met’s realistic set designs and period costumes, for Die Meistersinger evokes the city and the era so well. In contrast to most of Wagner’s great works, Die Meistersinger is a comic opera. Deryck Cooke states unequivocally that it is “one of the great comic operas of all time” and reminds us that its completion fell between Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried . According to Cooke (who cites Wagner’s autobiography, Mein Leben ), Wagner wrote the scenario for Die Meistersinger in a single day in 1845, when he had just finished the full score for Tannhäuser and was contemplating writing Lohengrin. He then laid it aside for many years, returning to it only in 1861. Although Wagner conceived of it as, among other things, a “practical” work, by the time it was finished six years later it was over five hours long. The first performance took place in Munich on June 21, 1868, led by Hans von Bülow, who, as David Hamilton points out in his excellent program notes to the current Met production, was to lose his wife, Cosima, permanently to Wagner just six months later. To my ears (I am neither a music critic nor a musicologist!) the quality of the singing on our evening at the Met was excellent overall. Of course, James Morris steals the show as Hans Sachs. His portrayal of the character as a kindly, enlightened elder had some wonderful touches. One example is in the preliminary trial-song scene. As Walther sings his song of spring and love—and breaks all of the traditional rules of master singing—the Meistersingers react with visible horror at what is transpiring. In contrast, Morris as Hans Sachs sits quietly at the end of the row, leaning forward to listen attentively and clearly contemplating the impact of what he is hearing. Of course, Sachs’s meditations in Act 3 (“Wahn! Wahn! Überall Wahn” [Mad! Mad! All the world’s mad!]) were marvelous in both the singing and the acting. Morris’s voice began to give out after his lengthy part near the end of Act 3, Scene 1, and there were moments of hoarseness; however, he recovered admirably in time for Scene 2 and especially the paean to German art at the very end! He received the loudest and longest ovation at the end and clearly deserved it. Johan Botha, who hails from South Africa, sang Walther splendidly, although his size and stature made it hard to imagine him as a “young knight.” He looked closer to Sachs in age than to the object of his affection, Eva. As the goldsmith Veit Pogner, Evgeny Nikitin sang well but looked almost too young to be Eva’s father. As always, James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra were magnificent. Maestro Levine clearly loves Wagner’s music. With his able handling of Wagner’s lengthy works, he has definitively answered anyone who is still worried about the state of his health The Kaiserberg, Nürnberg. Photo by Miguel de or his stamina! Bragança One final practical note: The Met’s Die Meistersinger begins at 6 p.m. for the evening performances and goes until midnight, with two intermissions. This presents the usual problem of what to do about dinner, especially in our case, as we cannot stand the idea of eating dinner at 5 p.m. or earlier and don’t really want to start a big dinner after midnight. Our solution: the Met’s Grand Tier Restaurant. The staff have it down to an exact science. I made a reservation in advance, and they in turn faxed us a menu and order form, which we dutifully filled out. We chose to have our appetizer and main course during the first intermission, and dessert and coffee during the second intermission. (One can also have part of the meal before the start of the opera and 3 finish during the first intermission.) This does require jumping out of one’s seat the moment the curtain comes down. Once you get to the restaurant, a phalanx of servers with lists show you to your seats where your food is waiting. (The main course is kept warm while you eat your appetizer.) We were amazed at how relaxing the whole experience was. We never felt rushed or that we had to wolf down our food to get back to our seats in time.