Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg [DVD Video]
![Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg [DVD Video]](/images/Wagner-Die-Meistersinger-von-Nrnberg-DVD-Video-B0012K53TK-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Brand: Naxos OF America INCDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Dutch (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 274 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-02-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Euroarts
Movie Reviews of Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg [DVD Video]
Movie Review: A sublime Bayreuth Meistersinger
Summary: 5 Stars
Some of the sadness and anger that had attended Wagner's composition of Tristan had not yet dissipated in the 1860s. Wagner had suffered greatly from isolation due to his forced wanderings throughout Europe, and from constant financial worries because of the difficulties involved in staging his complex operas. Tristan proved especially difficult to stage given its many innovations and its radical departure from the music of the era. Wagner was also ill at the time. Yet Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg is a radiant and endlessly life affirming opera, proving once again that the relationship between life and art is especially ambiguous in the case of genius. It premiered in Munich at the Nationaltheater on 21 June 1868. Appropriately enough it was Mid-Summer's day.
Often described as Wagner's only comedy, it is his sunniest opera, the one most redolent of daylight. It is certainly different than that quintessential nacht-oper, Tristan. Wagner wrote that he had composed Meistersinger as a means of dissipating some of his suffering, seeing it as a source of consolation and healing for the pain and sorrows of the past. One of the key words in Meistersinger is 'illusion'. Wagner had decided that all of human activity was underpinned by illusion. And that art was especially 'a noble illusion.' Thus, we have in Meistersinger, with its song contest and its contestants, a whole world of illusion. And Hans Sachs tells Walther that 'man's truest illusions are revealed to him in dreams'. Since reading Schopenhauer, Wagner had become convinced that creativity originated in the dream-world. Meistersinger is an opera about dreams. This production lovingly recreates that magic world with superb performances aided by Bayreuth's unique and beautiful sound.
This June 1999 television film is one of the finest and most elegant Meistersinger's I've yet seen, and its fabulous sound is only one of the reasons. The performances are splendid with each of the singers deeply immersed in their roles, the singing unforced and powerful as the voices are projected outward from Bayreuth's incomparable stage. Robert Holl as Hans Sachs has a deep, warm and softly contoured bass voice. Peter Seiffert as Walther is a large, barrel chested man that looks every inch the heldentenor and has a superb voice to match. Emily Magee is a fine Eva, though not particularly youthful in the role. Andreas Schmidt is a dignified Beckmesser, a problematic role historically. The cast is universally good, with no weak links.
One of the two real stars of this production is Wolfgang Wagner, the composer's grandson, who staged and directed this production in 1996 as well as creating the set design. This is one of the best productions of his controversial reign as director. It features a traditional stage design, though stripped of all superfluities. The opera is similarly staged: a traditional production that removes all the dross. Daniel Barenboim is the other star: his conducting is superb, with an attention to orchestral detail that facilitates the Bayreuther Festspiele's stunning orchestral clarity in the opera's complex inner melodic lines. Nevertheless, he is always cognizant of the big picture. The orchestra's splendid technique and dynamics are always in the service of the unfolding onstage drama. He builds dramatic tension by speeding the musical pulse when necessary, pulling-in the reins when the onstage drama dictates a sense of orchestral repose. The Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele play with a beautiful directness under his baton, never giving in to the impulse to engage in dramatic overkill. They play with understated passion. It is a glorious musical experience. The two DVDs run for 274 minutes. The video was taken from a television broadcast and is clear with no artifacts. The sound is exemplary in PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. There are no extras other than a booklet.
Daniel Barenboim has become a solid conductor of Wagner and this is a very fine performance. It's become my favorite DVD of the opera and makes for a good investment if you like Meistersinger. Strongly recommended.
Mike Birman
Summary of Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg [DVD Video]
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