BAYREUTH, Germany (AP) — In Wagner’s house theater, a twist has been added to the basic opera “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.”
As an alternative of Walther becoming a member of the guild of grasp singers and making ready to marry Eva after he wins the track contest, in Bayeuth’s new model she grabs the medal out of the younger knight’s palms, returns it to her father, then leads her future husband offstage for a future forsaking the traditions of their household and metropolis.
“No thank you. Let’s go!” defined soprano Christian Nilsson, who’s singing Eva in her function debut. “She is a strong girl.”
Matthias Davids’ manufacturing runs by way of Aug. 22, emphasizing leisure with a Hollywood Technicolor look highlighted by an upside-down inflatable cow and a tiny St. Catherine’s Church atop 34 steep steps.
Cow picture dominates set
Nilsson’s Eva arrives for the Feast of St. John. encased in flowers with extra blossoms in her headdress, carried atop horizontal poles by 4 males.
“We were always referring to Eva as the prize cow. We said she is sold like a prize cow,” stated Davids, a 63-year-old German director identified for his work in theater musicals.
That concept led to the large heifer, manufactured by an organization that makes inflatables and lined with flame retardant coating, in keeping with set designer Andrew Edwards.
Sixtus Beckmesser, the petulant city clerk who loses the track contest to Walther, pulls the plug on the cow, which darkens and sags, throughout the last oration defending the crucial of German artwork by the cobbler Hans Sachs.
Whereas Sachs runs to revive the connection — reinflating the bovine balloon and restoring mild — the younger lovers reject him and what he stands for. Townspeople, many carrying conical pink caps that give them elf-like seems, shrug their shoulders on the last notes as Sachs and Beckmesser argue upstage.
Wagner’s joyful ending not all the time stored
When “Meistersinger” premiered in 1868, Wagner offered a cheerful ending by which Walther and Eva joined collectively and he’s admitted to guild. Davids’ ending is much less jarring than Kasper Holten’s 2017 Covent Backyard staging, set in a males’s membership the place Eva is horrified Walther would need to be part of the misogynistic Meistersingers and runs away in tears.
“I saw some productions and I always found them kind of heavy and meaningful,” Davids stated.
He learn Wagner’s letters about his need to provide a comedy to earn cash and determined to seek for lightness and humor whereas realizing comedy cannot always maintain over 4 hours. Particulars had been labored out throughout rehearsals, with Davids impressed by the chemistry of Nilsson and tenor Michael Spyres, who additionally was making his debut as Walther.
Nilsson maintains a beatific beam throughout Walther’s prize track.
“I really felt like in this production Eva and Walther truly had a fun connection — fun, young, loving connection — and I just leaned into that and listened to Spyres’ beautiful tenor,” Nilsson stated.
Bringing levity, and an Angela Merkel look-alike, to the stage
Davids’ distinction was sharp from Barrie Kosky’s 2017 manufacturing, set partly in Wagner’s house of Wahnfried and the Nuremberg trials courtroom, with Walther and Sachs portrayed as Wagner of varied ages.
This time Georg Zeppenfeld was a grandfatherly Sachs in an argyle button by way of sweater vest. Beckmesser, performed fussily however with out histrionics by Michael Nagy, had a shimmering silver sweater beneath a cream Trachten jacket, mirror sun shades and lute reworked to resemble a heart-shaped electrical guitar outlined by pink mild that gave him an Elvis Presley look. Jongmin Park, an imposing Pogner as Eva’s father, was attired in a extra flowing gown.
Eva wore a standard dirndl and Walther, an upstart, a punkish T-shirt. Susanne Hubrich costumed numerous townspeople to resemble German entertainer Thomas Gottschalk, comic Loriot, followers of the soccer membership Kickers Offenbach and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Ms. Merkel is a Wagner fan and attends the Bayreuth Festival almost every year,” Hubrich stated. “I spoke with her after opening night. She was amused.”
Edwards, the set designer, had orange and yellow spears of sunshine that resemble fairgrounds and included architectural particulars from the Bayreuth auditorium akin to round lamps in units of three within the church and seats like those the viewers was viewing from.
Conductor Daniele Gatti, returning to Bayreuth for the primary time since 2011, and the solid had been rewarded with a constructive reception from a spectators identified to make displeasure identified after extra provocative performances.
“Just looking around the audience, there was a lot more smiles on people’s faces at the end than normally you see at the end of Wagner productions,” Nilsson stated.
