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Wagner Opera Die Meistersinger (Recording)

Classical Music Milestone: June 21  

The Master Singers of Nürnberg, a comic German drama by Richard Wagner


Video below is a full Opera Recording of the  "The Mastersingers of Nuremberg." Sung by Theo Adam, René Kollo, Geraint Evans, Peter Schreier, Helen Donath, Ruth Hesse. Recorded by Staatskapelle Dresden and the Chorus of the Staatsoper Dresden. Conducted by Herbert von Karajan (EMI, studio, 1970).

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master Singers of Nuremberg) is a three-act comic opera composed by Richard Wagner. Libretto by Wagner himself, an original work with historical personages. It was first performed in Munich, Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater, June 21, 1868. Setting is in Nuremberg in the 16th century. It is among the longest operas commonly performed, usually taking around four and a half hours.

The story takes place in old city of Nürnberg (modern-day Nuremberg) during the middle of the 16th century when it was an Imperial Free City, and one of the centers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. It revolves around the real-life Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and master craftsmen in their main professions.






The Mastersingers developed a craftsmanlike approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs. The work draws much of its charm from its faithful depiction of the Nuremberg of the era and the traditions of the Mastersinger guild. The cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, one of the main characters, is based on an actual historical figure of Hans Sachs (1494–1576), the most famous of the historical Mastersingers.

Die Meistersinger occupies a unique place in Wagner's oeuvre. It is the only comedy among his mature operas and unusual among his works in being set in a historically well-defined time and place rather than in a mythical or legendary setting. It is also the only mature Wagner opera based on an entirely original story which the composer devised himself, in which no supernatural or magical powers or events are in evidence.  Die Meistersinger incorporates many of the operatic conventions that Wagner had railed against in his essays on the theory of opera: rhymed verse, arias, choruses, a quintet, (and even a ballet.) 


Video Credit:

Richard Wagner - Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Youtube, uploaded by MrWippler.  Accessed June 16, 2013.


Resource:

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. en.wikipedia.org.  


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