Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

"Recording of the week: Kosky takes the bold step of putting Wagner himself literally centre-stage: we open in Wagner's home, Wahnfried, with the composer fussing extravagantly over silks and perfumes, his wife Cosima battling a migraine, and his father-in-law Liszt arriving to play through a piano-duet version of the Prelude ... Kosky invites us to warm to Wagner the craftsman at the same time as confronting his flaws as a human being ... The cast is a mixture of Bayreuth veterans and debutants, and both camps cover themselves in glory ... At the heart of it all is Michael Volle's towering interpretation of Sachs/Wagner: he inhabits both personae with tremendous authority ... It's an immensely thought-provoking and ultimately very moving take on this most conflicted of operas".

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"Seeing this on film, I realised why, much as the individual vocal performances are wonderful, the whole is vaguely unsatisfying ... Orchestrally, this is not one of the sharpest performances ... But to miss Preys Beckmesser and Weikls Sachs would be miss out on two critically important interpretations, both of whom add immeasurably to a greater understanding of this opera".

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"Préces of the production concept invariably highlight the controversial aspects, which is reasonable as this is a very radical reading ... For those who have issues with Katharina Wagner's conception of the work, the musical side of this performance could well be its redeeming feature. But I would urge even the sceptics to take this production seriously ... A complex and troubling but also consummate and satisfying experience: even on DVD it leaves a lasting impression".

"This Die Meistersinger is an excellent one and offers further evidence that Daniel Barenboim is a splendid Wagner conductor ... The production, by Wagner's grandson, Wolfgang Wagner, is visually stunning, at least by modern standards. The costumes are colorful and completely appropriate, rounding out what can be described as an excellent traditional staging of Die Meistersinger".

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"Préces of the production concept invariably highlight the controversial aspects, which is reasonable as this is a very radical reading ... For those who have issues with Katharina Wagner's conception of the work, the musical side of this performance could well be its redeeming feature. But I would urge even the sceptics to take this production seriously ... A complex and troubling but also consummate and satisfying experience: even on DVD it leaves a lasting impression".

"Han [Thielemann] får dybden og tyngden frem i musikken, men hans klangbillede er moderne let og gennemhørbart, forfinet ned i detaljerne, mens helheden er fortællende endda på flere planer. Wiener Philharmoniker elsker hørbart at spille under ham ... Sangerbesætningen er udmærket uden at være ekstraordinær ... Iscenesættelsen er koloristisk og fri for "moderne" ideer, men heller ikke støvet".

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"Når en operainstruktør bærer navnet Wolfgang Wagner, kan man med sindsro kaste sig ud på de store favne vand, som udgøres af en Wagner-opera ... Det er naturligvis Festspiel- Orchester og Chor, der i stærke sceniske tegninger lægger bund og grund til alt, hvad der ses og høres, og som er underkastet Horst Steins "pisk" af en taktstok".

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"Jurowski handles the score with seriousness and pomp ... Finley has the role of Hans Sachs massively in focus, both musically and dramatically. He is compulsively watchable throughout ... McVicar's production is best at one-to-one emotional confrontations but rather loud and messy in ensemble scenes ... It would be mealy-mouthed not to notice the commitment and enthusiasm steaming off the stage, while Finley's work has to be seen and heard".

"In certain ways, this is an old-fashioned staging. Yes, McVicar moves the setting from the Renaissance to the early nineteeth century ... In spots be forgiven for thinking you've falling into a new film adaption if a Jane Austen novel ... The star of the show, unsurprisingly, is Finley, a youngish, inquisitive, witty, often impish and extremely attractive Sachs ... in glorious voice ... It's a superbly effective reading ... Rarely have I seen an opera video that so effectively created the illusion that the camera was moving just as I would move my eyes were I in the theatre. All in all, a life-affirming triumph".

"Throughout, the musical values of the performance prove high, with Fiore showing an excellent grasp of the work's long paragraphs, pacing the score beautifully and proving alert - but never slave - to its bustling detail. The Deutsche Oper fields a fine ensemble cast, too. Johan Reuter might be a relatively light-voiced Sachs but sings the role persuasively".

"A DVD that would have made more sense on CD, performances aside ... the musical side of the issue ... has exceptional moments".

"Er [Kosky] verändert den Schauplatz, die Identität der Figuren und die Bedeutung dieser ach so deutschen Komödie ... Wir sind im Hause Wahnfried. Richard, Cosima, Franz Liszt, Hermann Levi - alle da. Das biografische Spiel mutiert schnell zum Surrealen ... Der junge Wagner entpuppt sich als tenortrompetender Klaus Florian Vogt ... Und der dritte Wagner ist der souveräne Michael Volle als Hans Sachs ... Da ist brillante Personenregie zu sehen ... Die folgenden Akte spielen im Saal der Nürnberger Prozesse. Beflissen wirkt das, obwohl es musikalisch weiterhin zauberhaft bleibt".

"In Barrie Kosky's spirited but uneven 2017 staging of Wagner's comedy there are splurges of ideas ... The performances of the cast are of a high standard dramatically and mostly musically. Volle now paces himself well and Lehmkuhl is a magical and unclichéd Magdalene".

"Mediocre Walther and Eva aside, this entire production is worth seeing and arguing about".

"Enhver operaproduktion med iscenesættelse af norske Stefan Herheim tilkalder sig opmærksomhed. Her ... skildrer han Wagners Mestersangerne som et eventyr, der tager udspring fra hovedpersonen Hans Sachs rodede skrivebord og undervejs bringer ny figurer som Snehvide og de syv små dværge og andre fra eventyrenes verden ind i billedet".

"Gatti seeks to match Herheim's production with initially chamber-like sonorities ... But he ends up with a much less coherent (and not so well-played) image of the opera than Toscanini and Thielemann".

"Leider lieferte Stefan Herheim als Regisseur eigentlich eine gewitzte, detailverliebte und trotzdem viel schaulust machende Spielernatur, lärmende Langweile auf der ganzen Linie! ... ... Dazu stand eine Besetzung auf der Breitwand, die nur bedingt festspielwürdig zu nennen ist".