Three Nurembergs

Wagner's one comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868), ends with a paean to "Holy German Art," widely understood to mean Aryan. The composer's grandson Wieland Wagner shocked audiences at his first Bayreuth production of the opera after the War by removing all the familiar half-timbered buildings of old Nuremberg. But his motivation was a good one: to purge the opera of the Germanic associations that had so appealed to Hitler, and let the music speak for itself. In her first production at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008, Wieland's niece Katharina Wagner went Opera Productions Old and New farther, turning that paean into a chilling oration at a Nuremberg rally. And to direct the opera in 2017, she went for the first time outside the family, and hired an Australian director, Barrie Kosky, who describes himself as a "gay Jewish kangaroo." Kosky ends with Nuremberg front and center, but it is neither a nostalgic symbol of Gemütlichkeit nor the scene of the Nazi rallies. It is the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, with the composer defending himself before the court of humanity.

Note: The excerpts played in class will come from one or other of the two more recent Bayreuth productions, labeled Katharina and Kosky respectively. There will also be some illustrations from the older production at the 8. Three Nurembergs Met, originally staged by Otto Schenk.

A. The Meistersinger Legacy

Die Meistersinger holds a unique position as Wagner’s only comedy, his only wholly original story, and his only opera tied to a specific place and time. Its Nuremberg myth also got annexed by the Nazis; Hitler was a frequent guest of the composer’s family at Bayreuth. We shall look at several postwar productions there (including the first by a non- family member) that have attempted to address these associations. — Schenk: Act II opening and ending 1 — Schenk: Plot synopsis (slide show) 3 B. Very Briefly, the Story Parsifal). But Wagner’s antipathy towards assimilated Jews comes In Act One, the knight Walther von Stoltzing falls in love with Eva through, even when the people are performing roles from the opera. Pogner, whom he has seen in church. Learning that her hand is to be — Kosky: Act I, Prelude (part) and opening scene 13½ given away as the prize for the singing contest the next day, and that he — Kosky: Act I ending 7½ needs to become a Mastersinger in order to even enter, he applies to the assembled Masters. The respected Hans Sachs, sensing that Walther — Kosky: Act II ending 9½ may have something new to offer, persuades his colleagues to grant him an audition. But he fails ignominiously, due to the arch-conservatism of D. Towards a New Music the Marker, Beckmesser, his rival for Eva’s hand. Kosky shows Wagner/Sachs in the court of the Nuremberg Trials. He Act Two takes place that night, Midsummer Eve. Both Eva and has no possible defense against the charge of anti-Semitism. But what Beckmesser try to enlist the help of Hans Sachs, who takes his cobbler’s he can offer is that he has created a totally new kind of music. bench out into the street in order to better watch how matters are developing. Overhearing Walther’s plan to elope with Eva, and forced to — Kosky: Act III, end of Sachs’ Wahn monologue 3½ listen to Beckmesser wooing Eva with a hopelessly old-fashioned song. — Kosky: Act III, Walther sings of his dream 2 Sachs deliberately makes a ruckus, triggering a riot, during which — Kosky: Act III, Beckmesser’s would-be Prize Song 3 Beckmesser gets beaten up, and Walter’s plans for escape are dashed. — Kosky: Act III, Walther’s Prize Song Act Three begins the next morning with Sachs meditating on the world 5½ and its folly. But when Walther tells him of his morning dream, he recognizes the seeds of a truly new Meisterlied, and takes it down at his E. Too New for Comfort? dictation. Even when he catches Beckmesser trying to steal it, he knows that he will be quite unable to do it justice. In the earlier Katharina Wagner production, the effect of the Act II riot has been to liberate Beckmesser and turn Sachs into a conservative— The Final Scene takes us to the festival meadow, where the trades guilds as she gleefully illustrates in her final scene which (like the rest of her are celebrating. After the ceremonial entrance of the masters, the production) owes much to happenings in the visual arts. competition can begin. Beckmesser is the first. But his inept attempt to sing Walther’s text to the music of an earlier age earns him only ridicule, — Katharina: Act III, Beckmesser’s would-be Prize Song 6 and he is laughed off the stage. Sachs calls on Walther to show how the — Katharina: Act III, Walther’s Prize Song 4 song should really be sung. His performance woos the listeners, he is unanimously accorded the prize, and Eva joyously gives him her hand. F. “Holy German Art” But Sachs has the final word, addressing the crowd in a paean to the sacred tradition of German Art. The last part of Sachs’s notorious paean to “Holy German Art” contrasted in the productions by Katharina Wagner and Barrie Kosky. C. Wagner and the Assimilated Jew — Katharina: Act III ending 4

The 2017 Bayreuth production by Barrie Kosky opens in the salon of — Kosky: Act III ending 3 Wagner’s Villa Wahnfried next door. Wagner is reading the new score to his wife Cosima and her father, Franz Liszt. Also present is the conductor Hermann Levi (who would later conduct the premiere of http://www.brunyate.com/opprodcolumbia/