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Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

22/06/2010

Terfel sweeps 'em away @ Millenium Centre, Cardiff
   Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Wales Millennium Centre
Cardiff Bay
5/5

The Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a love story with a happy ending by Richard Wagner that contains a subtext of art versus craft and how to achieve a healthy balance between the two. For an opera with such an uncomplicated story, a lightly comic touch and not a mythical creature in sight, it has been the gross misfortune for this delightful entertainment to have been purloined into the nationalistic service of Hitler and thus ruined forever in the minds of many music fans. Of course, Wagner and his anti-Semite leanings have hardly helped matters, so first task for tonight's award winning director Richard Jones was to set about losing ballast from this rather cumbersome balloon.

If first impressions are a key to intent, the opening set with only simple boxes for church pews against a panelled, Lutheran bare wall, wipes away all thoughts of predecessors and sets parameters for what will follow in this brand new WNO production. Of all Wagner's operas, this is the one least amenable to intervention but following on from the composer's grandson Wieland having introduced a new, less chocolate box version of 16th century Mitteleuropa Nürnberg at the 1956 Bayreuth Festival, the once immutable rules have been broken, opening the way for still closely related but fresher interpretations. 

As Hans Sachs, the shoemaker poet, the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel returns to Wagner. As the city's guiding light, spiritual protector, inspiration, comfort and mostly well meaning sprite, Terfel is superb in his reflection of every facet of this richly drawn character. His lyricism and attuned acting ability draw the audience as close to him as a confidante. He bears the emotional weight of responsibility as guardian to Nürnberg's heart and art, emoting it with every fibre of his being, whether in song or in silence.

There are many highlights in this opera, which clocks in at almost five hours, but particularly memorable is a comic scene best described as a pyjama riot on the streets, complete with realistic looking head-butts and punches that somehow leaves Beckmesser with nothing more effective with which to conceal himself than his mandolin. 

As part of his re-imagining, Richard Jones has removed all suggestion and connection with this vulgar history, replacing it instead with the kind of competition with rosettes for prizes that can be seen at any County Show. Equally effective at celebrating craft, excellence and tradition and most apt. Tonight's brand new and exhilarating production has gone some way to creating a new and current identity for this controversial opera and is another victory for WNO's astonishing creativity and vision.

Jane Oriel
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