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Midsummer's eve in Nuremberg and the real-life cobbler-poet Hans Sachs and the guild of mastersingers are pursuing their craft of poetry and music according to traditions and rules. A goldsmith's daughter, Eva, and a knight, Walther von Stolzing, fall in love, but Eva's father has promised her to the winner in the forthcoming song contest. Under the wise tuition of Sachs, can Walther learn the mastersinger's art in time to win Eva’s hand and see off a challenge from the foolish town clerk Beckmesser? Richard Wagner’s only comic opera had a long gestation. Summer 1845: drawing on the History of German Literature as well as the biography of poet and shoemaker Hans Sachs, the composer sketches out ideas for a satirical counterpart to Tannhäuser. Autumn 1861: Wagner writes to his publisher that he intends to cheer himself up with ‘something lighter’ and begins composing Die Meistersinger, which he would not complete until six years later. With a sense of self-derision with which he is not usually associated, Wagner brings together an exercise in style and an aesthetic manifesto in praise of the ‘noble and holy German art!’. Here is an opera that speaks volumes about the composer’s own preoccupations: the widening divide between high art and popular culture, and the fracturing of tradition by the radically new. Wise and audacious, the characters of Sachs and Walther can be seen as a double self-portrait of their creator. OperaVision shares live Teatro Real’s new production (the first in Madrid for 22 years) which is conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado and staged by a director with some gift for comedy, Laurent Pelly. Full performance streamed LIVE on OperaVision on 18 May 2024 at 18:00 CET and available until 6 November 2024 at 12:00 CET: 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 Kyle van Schoonhoven Augustin Moser Jorge Rodríguez- Norton Hermann Ortel Bjørn Waag Hans Schwarz Valeriano Lanchas Hans Foltz Frederic Jost Walther von Stolzing Tomislav Mužek David Sebastian Kohlhepp Eva Nicole Chevalier Magdalene Anna Lapkovskaja Sereno Alexander Tsymbalyuk Chorus Teatro Real Chorus Orchestra Teatro Real Orchestra Music and text Richard Wagner Conductor Pablo Heras-Casado Director Laurent Pelly Costume Laurent Pelly Jean-Jacques Delmotte Sets Caroline Ginet Lighting Urs Schönebaum Chorus Master José Luis Basso OperaVision is a freeview opera streaming platform, supported by the European Union's Creative Europe programme. Watch live streams as the performances themselves unfold in the opera house. Enjoy a variety of shows - including opera, operetta, musical theatre, dance, ballet and concerts. Opera connaisseur or curious newcomer, there is something for everyone on OperaVision. @operavision
