Nationaltheater
 |
| Images: Wilfried Hösl Hans Sachs (Wolfgang Koch) |
Hans Sachs – Wolfgang Koch
Veit Pogner – Christof
FischesserKunz Vogelgsang – Kevin Conners
Konrad Nachtigall – Christian Rieger
Sixtus Beckmesser – Martin Gantner
Fritz Kothner – Michael Kupfer-Radecky
Balthasar Zorn – Ulrich Reß
Ulrich Eißlinger – Dean Power
Augustin Moser – Thorsten Scharnke
Hermann Ortel – Levente Páll
Hans Schwarz – Peter Lobert
Hans Foltz – Roman Astakhov
Walther von Stolzing – Daniel Kirch
David – Allan Clayton
Eva – Sara Jakubiak
Magdalena – Okka von der Damerau
Night Watchman – Milan Siljanov
David Bösch (director)
Patrick Bannwart (set designs)Meentje Nielsen (costumes)
Falko Herold (video)
Rainer Karlitschek (dramaturgy)
Theresa Schlichtherle (revival director)
Bavarian State Opera Chorus and
Extra Chorus (chorus master: Sören Eckhoff)
Bavarian State Orchestra
Kirill Petrenko (conductor)  |
| Beckmesser (Martin Gantner) and Sachs |
‘Es klang so neu und war doch
ein bißchen alt’? A little more than three years after first
seeing David Bösch’s (then new) production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, I looked forward to making its
reacquaintance. It struck me then as being, alongside Stefan Herheim’s staging
(seen in both Salzburg
and Paris),
one of the most significant additions to the repertory. There has not, frankly,
been much in the way of competition, offerings from Barrie
Kosky and Andrea
Moses in particular having proved well-nigh disastrous. How did Bösch’s
staging measure up now? In some ways, well. It is certainly more coherent than
either of the last too named. However, a good deal of what had made it
distinctive, and had decided me to include it in this
essay, had disappeared, presumably a casualty of the lack of
rehearsal for a brief festival revival. Two at least of its most distinguishing
characteristics, the violence at the heart of a reconstructed, provincial
‘community’, and a welcome feminist conception of Eva, had respectively been
toned down (more likely, perhaps, unknowingly omitted) and jettisoned. A great
pity, that, though perhaps not unlikely in the circumstances: a reminder, at
least, that what we see in June and July is not always so very close to what
was originally envisaged (and seen).
 |
| Walther (Daniel Kirch) and Eva (Sara Jakubiak) |
I shall try, though, not to
dwell unduly on what might have been, on what had been: anyone interested in
the 2016 first performances, including Jonas Kaufmann, may consult the
initial review. The importance of (multi-)media in transmission of music,
art more generally, and indeed life, such as it is, more generally, continues
to register, for instance in video footage of plans, instructions, flowcharts,
and sketches: there is a thin line, perhaps, between the nerd and the pedant. Press
coverage of the mastersong competition flicks through, also on video, when the
masters first enter, an important point the centenary 1868-1968 (the first
year, of course, the work’s premiere, the second year not an unimportant year
in the history of the Left), in which Veit Pogner had claimed the prize. That
generation has a great deal to answer for, many of us would argue; at least we
were spared the sight of Antony Charles Lynton Blair et al. strutting their wares ‘just
more one time’. At any rate, this contest for a bartered bride, as much sport
as art, and heavily sponsored by ‘Meister Bräu’’, sums things up nicely. Sport,
of course, always gets off lightly, entwining nationalism (and/or localism) and
toxic masculinity, as it does. No one dare accuse it, though, given the media
interests at stake. (Consider British liberals’ obsession with the appalling
2012 Olympics.) Contrast that with the laudable attempts at self-criticism of
most important artistic production since the Second World War. That contrast
certainly seems implicit here, although the shock violence initially
administered by Beckmesser as Marker to Walther now seems ‘mere’ entertainment:
a flashing of lights rather than electric shock. Perhaps, though, as everything
becomes more mediated, as Trump, Johnson, and other fascists star in their own
game show, impervious to political criticism and activity, there is something
to be said for such a degeneration too.
The moment of revolt – or is it
further repression – comes through more fitfully in the second act than
previously. Can one make a Marcusian case for the apprentices’ thuggery?
Probably. Should one? Difficult to say. (One might say the same for Andreas Baader,
after all, or the original, far more lethal, RAF.) But the chemistry between
Sachs and Eva, the plausibility of their romance, has struck earlier on a very
different note. What often seems dramaturgically unconvincing, even odd, here
seems quite natural, for want of a better word. Whether that were the case in
2016, I cannot remember, although the artists, Wolfgang Koch and Sara Jakubiak,
were the same. Their performances all round were outstanding. If the extremely powerful
moment of Eva’s rejection – of the contest – in the third act now seemed to be
missing, Jakubiak offered intelligent, vocally alluring singing, as well as
accomplished acting. So too did Koch, of course, with a wisdom born of
experience not only as Sachs but in many other roles.
 |
| Sachs and Beckmesser |
Let us return, however, to the production,
to the third act. Sachs’s neon-lit van having lost two of its letters, now
sighs, in Schopenhauerian style, ‘ACH’. More might have been made of that
implication, especially in light of loss of the provincial violence that
initially made this act so threatening, so disconcerting. There remain hints,
perhaps most notably in the apprentices’ behaviour towards David, homophobic
bullying still, I think, implicit. But they are only hints, and would perhaps
mostly be noticed by those who had seen the production before. Beckmesser’s
return at the very close, to shoot himself, makes far less sense in the absence
of such build-up. A pity, as I said, although perhaps there is something to be
salvaged in reflection upon continuing degeneration into entertainment.
 |
| Walther and Beckmesser |
Musically, standards remained
high: very high indeed in the case of Kirill Petrenko, the orchestra, and
chorus. Of Wagner’s works, this seems very much Petrenko’s best, at least in my
experience. Formidable technical challenges – simply marshalling those forces,
in a far from simple staging – never seemed to register, however great the art in
concealing that art (a Meistersinger
virtue in itself). Wagner’s score flowed with all the inevitability of a mighty
river. That is never, though, at the expense of detail, overt contrapuntal (and
other) virtuosity in which the composer sometimes revels portrayed lovingly,
comprehendingly, without degenerating into mere virtuosity itself. It was,
moreover, not only in the counterpoint and chorales that Wagner’s Bachian debt
was repaid. Wagner’s writing for oboes in particular, played as superlatively
as it was here, gave pause to all manner of thoughts concerning connection with
Bach’s sacred music too. (Now might we hear a St Matthew Passion or B minor Mass from Petrenko? Even some of the
cantatas? Too much to hope? If so, it is surely a victimless crime.)
 |
| Eva, Walther, and Magdalena (Okka von der Damerau) |
Kaufmann had withdrawn earlier
in the week, replaced at very short notice as Walther by Daniel Kirch. There
was considerable promise in his performance, although he tired towards the end.
At his best in the second act, Kirch showed himself capable of a detailed,
variegated performance, both verbally and musically. Earlier on, perhaps still
finding his way around the Nationaltheater, he had a tendency to force his
voice somewhat, almost as if a Siegfried. There remained, though, much to
admire. Martin Gantner’s Beckmesser was first-rate: a sung Malvolio of the
highest quality. Allan Clayton’s David proved equally detailed and finely sung,
well matched to Okka von der Damerau’s spirited Magdalena. Christof Fischesser
made for an uncommonly youthful, virile Pogner, and Milan
Siljanov’s Night Watchman suggested a singer from whom we shall be hearing
much more soon. More than enough, then, to be going on with until the full
revival Bösch’s production unquestionably merits.
