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ROH Meistersinger


Geoff

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This hasn't opened yet so no comments but on the strength of yesterday's dress rehearsal, I think it safe to post for those who might be worried about a new production. This is an intelligent and subtle blend of old and new. Nothing to frighten the horses and plenty to enjoy. Nuff said.

Edited by Geoff
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Meistersinger with added horses?

John, that reminds me of the famous story of perhaps the Zefirelli Don Carlos, where Phillip II entered with two borzois. The critic for "Horse and Hound" (not Hugh Grant in Love Actually) is reputed to have titled his review "No horse, two hounds".

 

I hope someone with a better memory can give a reference for this tale.

Edited by Geoff
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Huh?? This production features Bryn Terfel, yet there are over 100 seats online for the 15th? What's up?

I just checked and you are right. But a hundred or so of the unsold seats that night are priced at more than £200 each, which may have something to do with the speed of take up.

 

And speaking purely personally - and definitely not commenting on any dress rehearsal performance - I have been going steadily off Bryn's voice these last years: his voice has, imho, been getting overstretched (too much Wotan, perhaps?) and is no longer quite such a draw. Imho.

Edited by Geoff
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The first night was last night. Wasn't there myself but I have just read the Twitter comments. Mostly ecstatic, particularly for Sir Bryn and for the production. In fact one of the most active tweeters says he has criticised Kasper Holten for years but crashed the first night party to tell him personally how much he liked this.

Edited by Geoff
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Sir Bryn was in superb voice last night and no quibbles about the supporting cast and conducting, very high standard,  The production however had a number of oddities, funniest was Beckmesser referring to his lute and then sitting at a keyboard.  Not sure about making the mastersingers Freemasons either and Hans Sach's embroidered Masonic apron was the only apron he got to wear, there was little indication he was actually a cobbler.  I particularly disliked each singer standing apart in a spotlight in the quintet, surely this is about Has Sach's loneliness compered to the two loving couples, it can be incredibly moving but not here.

 

On the other hand I loved the chaotic melee of midsummers night and the final scene, though  we're still debating why Eva turned her back on Walter and flounced off at the end.  I'd award it a pass, but my hard core Wagnerite friends hated it.

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 we're still debating why Eva turned her back on Walter and flounced off at the end.

 

Didn't Wagner criticise Grand Opera of the Meyerbeer type as "effects without causes"? That was my thought at the ending. Nothing in the previous four hours or so led up to it or, in a sense, justified it. Not even in terms of Kasper Holten's own conceptual (or should it be "Konzeptual") interpretation of the text and characterisation of Eva. It just seemed glued on. Perhaps it's intended as his calling card for when he leaves Covent Garden and has to find work in the German theatres - but I'd have thought it's not extreme or controversial enough.

As a non-Wagnerian, there was much to enjoy musically and I'm glad I went, but felt pretty exhausted by the end and I wasn't even performing! The Sleeping Beauty seems like a little one-Act interlude in comparison.

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Last night's Newsnight (BBC2), apparently had Caspar Holten and the cast explaining the new production. This is Caspar Holten's parting shot to London and is amazingly a commentary on Brexit.   I was at the Barbican last night to hear Andreas Scholl, so I'm grateful to one of the friends I saw Meistersinger with emailing me this morning with this news.  I will paraphrase his comments.

Updated to London, the city is run by a cosy establishment of the ruling elite, who think they know better than the people. Hans Sachs becomes a kind of demagogue, a rabble rouser among the people. He forces a vote of the people rather than the ruling elite. The populist view prevails, which includes an outburst of booing of Beckmesser, reminiscent of the London audience's (perfectly valid in my view) reaction to the recent ROH William Tell production. Eva is so appalled by the populism of the contest that she rejects both the elite and the people, and leaves the city for a brave new world.

So now we know!

 

Hans Sachs as Nigel Farage, thank God Holten's  going.
 

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I was sitting quite close so the sound quality from where I was was very good,  It was a very good programme with the Vivaldi Stabat Mater at the end being the highlight.  Scholl was in excellent voice, though on a couple of low notes he appeared to slip down from the counter tenor range.

 

Scholl does little opera unfortunately and it is often difficult to get tickets for recital venues with small seating capacities such as the Sam Wannamaker so appearing at the Barbican makes sense.  I think his large number of recordings account for his huge following and his fans were clearly ecstatic on Tuesday evening.

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Here is a (positive) review from the Guardian of the Handel show currently at the ENO. I add it to this thread for the single and rather thought-provoking comment by a reader, which compares it with the ROH Meistersinger:-

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/16/partenope-review-handel-on-a-night-out-with-beardy-bohemians

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The difference between the two operas is that Meistersinger is very well known whereas Partenope is something of a rarity also Hans Sachs was a real person whereas Partenope is myth.   It is more difficult to talk about a composer's intentions when a work has a sketchy performance history.  I have a very good DVD of this opera with Andreas Scholl, but that is also modern dress. pretty daft story but with a couple of exceptions I watch Handel operas solely for the music. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I attended last Saturday's performance and have mixed feelings. I went for the music, which was sublime, but the production itself was - far from that. My heart bled for the poor nightwatchman, hobbling forward on cloven hooves to take his bow at the end. Who in God's name would employ a faun as a nightwatchman at all, let alone in an ultra-conservative gentlemen's club? The mind boggles. What were all those strange masks in the riot scene? Eva flouncing off at the end is all very well, but where is she going to go and what is she going to do, with no means of support and no resources to provide for herself? In a society where her behaviour would have been found unacceptable? She throws open the doors and lets the light in, what a meaningless, rhetorical gesture it seemed!

 

Still, it's a better ending than the latest Munich version which I watched in  a livestream. That ended with Beckmesser rushing onstage and shooting himself.

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  • 2 months later...

A recording of this can be heard on BBC Radio 3 for 24 more days (I only discovered it the other day thanks to a ROH post on Facebook.) If it's allowed, and anyone needs it, I can post the link.

Listening to the very informative commentary cleared up a mystery for me, apparently the entire riot scene, including Pan as the nightwatchman, was Hans Sachs' nightmare. This however raises further questions for me, why should Sachs be deploring all the Wahn when this was only in his own mind and not reality? I'm glad I was able to listen to the music without having to relive all the gimmicks of this production.

 

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