Any danger that Bryn Terfel would cast his shadow over the rest of the cast and the orchestra in WNO’s first production of Die Meistersinger quickly melted away.
While a fabulous showcase for Terfel, others were free to excel in a vocal and dramatic triumph from a cast impressive in individual roles and a great ensemble achievement with at one point 90 people on stage.
As we tried to identify the faces on the front cloth, the orchestra under WNO music director Lothar Koenigs unflinchingly powered into the majestic Overture. Once the front cloth had risen the evening started slowly with gimmickry threatening to dominate.
But once Walther began his song trial the production starts to fall into place and the evening whistles by. By the time we are in Sachs brilliantly conceived house – a temple to German intellectualism where books share shelf space with cobbler’s lasts, walls are adorned with antlers and Romantic paintings– we are on solid ground.
Terfel played a psychologically multi-faceted Sachs, as singer and actor balancing the requirements of power with gentleness in the pianissimo. He is a rebel free thinker who at first shuns his Master Singer costume, but who ultimately, and uncomfortably for us, embraces the Germanic faith.
Amanda Roocroft delighted as Eva singing like an angel and acting with subtlety and intelligence. If this was Rossini she would be the Rosina to Bryn’s Barber.
Raymond Very was an impressive Walther although less heroic than Wagner possibly wanted, perhaps because of his reliance on Eva and Sachs.
Andrew Tortise was totally engaging as Sachs’s apprentice, David, and Christopher Purves milked every bit of comic possibility from the ridiculous rather than nasty Beckmesser. There were times when less slapstick would be better.
Musically, from the riotous end of Act II to Sachs’ contemplative monologues, our cobbler coaching the young knight for that most famous of song contests, Koenigs’ orchestral fabric was woven with richness, vibrancy and cohesion.
The production ends with the Nürnburg townsfolk now in medieval costume in an arena watching the processions and contest, just as the Third Reich enjoyed doing in the same city with its infamous stadium. Replicating the front cloth, they hold up pictures of German speakers (whether Aryan or not) who have changed the course of art and thinking.
Was I the only one who couldn’t get images of concentration camp victims and the women who carry photographs of disappeared victims of racist/fascist regimes out of their mind? I hope not.
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