Here's my abbreviated take on Wagner's Die Meistersinger. You can hear this opera for free on Classical 101 live from the Metropolitan on Saturday, December 13 at noon, or watch it in HD in select movie theaters around town.
The full title of Richard Wagner's only comedy is Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. Comedy and Richard Wagner don't go together.
Yet this single work has been called a perfect expression of humanity. Selfless love of an older man who walks away from a young woman. Petty jealousies swept away in the name of art, music and culture.
There's a funny character called Beckmesser, modeled on a Viennese critic called Eduard Hanslick, who hated Wagner. The Third Reich appropriated Wagner, and especially Die Meistersinger for their own horrid ends, but Hans Sachs, the wise elder, ends this opera with a salute to German art. The Nazis had a field day.
Wagner was never interested in his own reputation, and Die Meistersinger is powerful enough and beautiful enough to outlast evil propaganda.
Critic Virgil Thomson said it best: "It is unique among Wagner's theatrical works in that none of the characters takes drugs or gets mixed up in magic....The hero merely gives a successful debut recital and marries the girl of his heart."
In this opera, we have a lovely setting in 16th century Nuremberg. The guild of the master singers is made up of cobblers, carpenters, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers (seriously).
There's a father who will award his daughter's hand to the winner of a song contest. There's a handsome young knight who takes singing lessons, and in the end sings a wonderful "Prize Song" in C Major, winning him the girl and the crowds. There's a secondary love story between a young apprentice and an older woman. There's music that is nearly miraculous.
Die Meistersinger is a long opera with a huge orchestra and a large cast. There really are no bad guys. There's a lot of sentiment and a thrilling choral finale.
P.S. Fr. M. Owen Lee is one of my heroes. He was very kind to me when I was younger. I saw my first Meistersinger with him! It was like sitting with Hans Sachs-but with more humor.
Don't miss Father Lee's book, Wagner and the Wonder of Art. I've always said I wanted to BE Father Lee when I grew up. As if.
