Favorite Quotes: Glyndebourne Study Day on Wagner’s Die Meistersinger

Favorite Quotes:  Glyndebourne Study Day on Wagner’s Die Meistersinger

FYI:  Wagner’s Die Meistersinger is set in the 1500s in Nuremberg, Germany and incorporates some actual historical figures from that time.  Some of the characters represent different crafts and professions (cobbler, goldsmith, baker, furrier, etc.).  The music is very complicated, especially the large crowd scene at the end of Act 2.

In Wagner, when boy meets girl it’s always complicated.

Real people, real time, real place – that’s kind of unusual for Wagner!

An illustrated Book of Trades from 1568 ranks 114 trades and professions in descending order of importance.  1 = Pope, 26 = Goldsmiths, 78 = Bow Makers, and so on.  Musicians are ranked dead last, together with “slow-witted fools.”

The first act of the opera is about setting the rules for a song contest:  Only Wagner would set a committee meeting to music.

Conductor Vladimir Jurowski to the audience:  I promise I won’t wave my arms too much.

Tristan and Meistersinger are two sides of the same coin.  They’re a “Buy one, take two” deal.

By now you’ve heard this motive about 75 times – trust me, you’ll hear it a few more.

On the big crowd scene that closes Act 2:  You would need 24 ears to perceive all that is happening.

Bayreuth, the operahouse that Wagner designed, has a very deep, covered orchestra pit that creates a blended, burnished sound.  Glyndebourne is a smaller auditorium with a more live pit that fosters a brighter, louder sound.  The conductor on the challenges of performing Wagner in this space:  Bayreuth, you know, has a very veiled sound.  If we get the balances right in the orchestra and in the voices, I think you’ll hear 75% more than you do in most performances.

Moderator [jovially]:  I think you’ve just said it’s going to sound better here than in Bayreuth! 

Director David McVicar:  There’s a dictatorial aspect to all of Wagner’s art.  We must resist him!

His goal as a director:  That quiet place, that spiritual place where great art takes us, that makes us question the life that surrounds us.

During the Q & A:

Woman in the audience:  Many of us when we play or hear music see colors.  When you knew you were going to conduct and direct this opera what colors did you see?