Search - Wagner :: WAGNER: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

A great new live recording of Wagner's Die Meistersinger

D. Lee Edwards | Los Angeles, CA USA | 07/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This new Meistersinger recording of a live performance from Covent Garden 12 July 1997, (issued on CD in 2007) conducted by Bernard Haitink makes a fascinating comparison with the oldest complete Meistersinger of a live performance with Toscanini conducting at Salzburg in August of 1937, exactly 60 years previously. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty and consistency of the new recording. Haitink keeps the performance vital and alive, never dragging but also never rushing. His is perhaps a more relaxed performance than Solti's live concert reading from Chicago which is one of my favorite performances of the opera. Haitink's performance has the advantage of a staged performance, the last one at Covent Garden before it was closed for extended renovation last year. There is a palpable excitement in the audience during this performance. They roar their approval at the intervals.



The singers are all excellent in their roles.

Quoted from Alan Blyth's program notes in the CD booklet:

"At the centre is John Tomlinson as Hans Sachs. Already a Wagner interpreter of long experience, including many years at Bayreuth as Wotan, King Mark and Gurnemanz, although not as Sachs, he brings to the part of the cobbler-poet a wealth of vocal and verbal nuance. The humanity and the pathos in his interpretation are overwhelming, as he invests his four, very varied monologues with just the worldly-wise, mellow and fatherly touch they call for... His is a noble portrayal that ranks with the best in the role from the past. By his side is the finely delineated portrait of the discomfited and always petty Beckmesser of Thomas Allen. Even without his physical presence one hears the sour face and irritated and irritating malevolence of the slighted town clerk, never aware of his own inadequacies... Gwynne Howell, once a notable Sachs himself, is here a highly sympathetic Pogner, Eva's wise and kindly father. His mellow, firmly projected bass allows Pogner's address in Act I to make it the personal credo that it should be. Anthony Michaels-Moore, who was comparatively new to the part of Kothner, keeper of the Masters' rules, brings warmth and incisiveness to a role often given to a lesser artist. The recital of the rules in Act I is delivered with an extraordinary refinement of tone and delivery. Finally among these lower voices, Michael Druiett gives due gravity to the role, small but important, of the Nightwatchman. The other British member of the cast is Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Magdalene. Like Michaels-Moore she was a newcomer to her part, which was all to the good: her lively, uncommonly youthful-sounding characterization is just one more positive element in the whole ensemble. She is wooed by the spirited David of the then-young Austrian tenor Herbert Lippert. As his fleet, well-groomed singing here might suggest, he is also a notable Mozartian tenor. The late and sadly missed Swedish singer Gosta Winbergh was establishing himself in 1997 in the forefront of Heldentenors, having graduated from the ranks of distinguished Mozartians. He sings Walther with a judicious combination of firm, evenly produced tone and the requisite ardour. He develops the character from the somewhat uncouth, self-satisfied youth of Act I into the more discipilined and attractive lover of Act III, under the wise tutelage of Sachs. Seemingly tireless, Winbergh brings to the high tessitura of the Prize Song a welcome warmth and fire. His Eva is sung by the American soprano Nancy Gustafson, much of whose early career was spent in Britain, most notably at Glyndebourne. She has sung with distinction in many of the world's opera houses, her pleasing presence and intelligent acting adding to the merits of her singing."



John Tomlinson as Sachs dominates the principle singers with his huge cavernous bass voice. He is believable in the part but the world still waits for Bryn Terfel to record this role! Then we might have a definitive contemporary Sachs. In some ways Tomlinson's Sachs reminds me of James Morris' Sachs at the MET. He sings it well and with great subtlety but is more a Wotan by nature and habit. To my ears, the Magdalene of Catherine Wyn-Rogers sounds very similar in timbre to the Eva of Gustafson. Both ladies sing their roles with distinction. Gustafson always sings beautifully, phrasing musically and with intelligence in her delivery of the text. Gosta Winbergh sings Walther beautifully if without that heroic vocal thrust of the great Walther of Henk Noort in the 1937 Salzburg recording which also has a superior Sachs in Hans Nissen and a more idiomatic Eva in Maria Reining. That performance, a radio broadcast, was recorded on an experimental Selenophone film system and has recently been restored to CD by the renowned audio engineer Ward Marson. Once you get used to the surface noise and somewhat limited frequencies, the sound is remarkably clear. (Issued on Andante). In the Salzburg performance the excitement is even more pronounced than at Covent Garden. There is real electricity in the air among performers and audience. Perhaps they were all aware that it was to be one of Toscanini's last performances in Austria. Indeed this performance turned out to be Toscanini's last staged opera performance. Later in New York he gave some concert performances of opera with his NBC orchestra.



The new Meistersinger recording turned out to be the last opera recording of Swedish tenor Gosta Winbergh who has since died prematurely. He can be seen also on DVD as Walther in a performance from Berlin in 1995. You will not find a better Beckmesser than Thomas Allen's In the new Covent Garden performance. A superb singing actor, he has a great comedic gift and the audience responds with laughter. I recall seeing him perform this role for the first time at the San Francisco Opera some years ago. When he was on stage he always held the attention of the audience in his hand and created a rather modern, quirky and delightfully neurotic Beckmesser which comes across clearly in the present audio recording. He is truly a Mastersinger! With regard to the rest of the cast, one may find more satisfying individual performances scattered throughout the 9 or 10 complete Meistersinger recordings available, but the overall ensemble of this performance is world class and as good as one may fine currently in the opera world. Each Meistersinger recording has had something unique to offer. This newest from Covent Garden is an excellent performance with a great atmosphere, definitely worth owning."