Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

This production is a musical event 22 years after its last performance at the Teatro Real; at the same time it is a tour de force for artists, technical teams and staff, due to its demands at all levels. Pablo Heras-Casado will be at the helm of this production, after all the Wagners he has already conducted at the Teatro Real and together with the voices of great voices such as Gerald Finley and Jongmin Park.  

This monumental opera deals with themes such as tradition versus innovation, the struggle for creative freedom and the importance of true love and honesty. It also has a political dimension, as it is set at a time when German national unity was a burning issue and culture and music were used to promote it.

The score of the only comedy by Wagner - except Das Liebesverbot/The Ban on Love– occupies more than 800 pages (also consider the 600 pages of Parsifal), and its protagonist, the cobbler Hans Sachs has a part which is equivalent to the three Wotan roles of the Ring all together. The key to explain these numbers resides in its style, in the predominance of quick tempos and the conversational aspect of the vocal writing which comes close - more, perhaps than any of the other Wagnerian musical dramas -   to the ideal of singing theatre advocated by the composer.  

Superior in every way, Die Meistersinger is also something like the bourgeois antipode of Tannhäuser and the passions of Tristan und Isolde explained on a human scale. It is also a new and original indication of the composer’s interest in medieval culture, called on here, as a reflection on the function of art as tradition and as a transforming force. It comes to the stage through the eyes of Laurent Pelly –La fille du régiment, Viva la mamma–, who measures his proverbial gift for comedy in what will be his first Wagner production.

Musical drama in three acts

Music and libretto by Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Premiere at Royal Court Theatre of Munich on 21 June 1868

Premiere at the Teatro Real on 18 March 1893

New production of the Teatro Real, in co-production with the Royal Danish Opera of Copenhagen

Artistic team

Musical conductor: Pablo Heras-Casado

Stage direction: Laurent Pelly

Costumes: Laurent Pelly y Jean-Jacques Delmotte

Set design: Caroline Ginet

Lighting: Urs Schönebaum

Chorus master: José Luis Basso

Cast

Hans Sachs: Gerald Finley

Veit Pogner: Jongmin Park

Kunz Vogelgesang: Paul Schweinester

Konrad Nachtigal: Barnaby Rea

Sixtus Beckmesser: Leigh Melrose

Fritz Kothner: José Antonio López

Balthasar Zorn: Albert Casals

Ulrich Eisslinger: Neal Cooper

Augustin Moser: Jorge Rodríguez- Norton

Hermann Ortel: Bjørn Waag

Hans Schwarz: Valeriano Lanchas

Walther von Stolzing: Tomislav Mužek

David: Sebastian Kohlhepp

Eva: Nicole Chevalier

Magdalene: Anna Lapkovskaja

Sereno: Alexander Tsymbalyuk

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real