Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
又名: 纽伦堡的工匠歌手
表演者: Chorus and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin/Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos/Otto Heuer/Eike Wilm Schulte/Lenus Carlson/Volker Horn/Peter Maus/Uwe Peper/Ute Walther/Peter Edelmann/Wolfgang Brendel/Eva Johansson/G?sta Winbergh/Victor von Halem/David Griffith/Barry McDaniel/Ivan Sardi/Friedrich Molsberger
专辑类型: 专辑
介质: CD
发行时间: 2004-4-20
唱片数: 2
出版者: Arthaus Musik
专辑简介
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is one of the most popular operas in the repertory, and is among the longest still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the K?nigliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21, 1868. The conductor at the premiere was Hans von Bülow.
The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the 16th century. At the time, Nuremberg was an Imperial Free City, and one of the centers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. The story revolves around the real-life guild of Meistersinger (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often 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. One of the main characters, the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, is based on an actual historical figure: Hans Sachs (1494–1576), the most famous of the historical Mastersingers.
In the first Act, the town goldsmith Veit Pogner announces that the winner of the St. John's Feast Day (Midsummer's Day) song contest will win the hand in marriage of his daughter, Eva. The only stipulation is that the winner must be, or become, a Mastersinger. Walther, a young knight who is already in love with Eva, determines to enter the contest, but his song is too radical, and he fails in his attempt to become a Mastersinger. In the second Act, the town clerk Beckmesser decides to enter the contest and attempts to woo Eva, but unwittingly causes a riot. In the third act, the cobbler Hans Sachs helps Walther to compose a Mastersong with which Walther ultimately defeats his rival Beckmesser and wins Eva.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg occupies a unique place in Wagner's oeuvre. It is the only comedy among his mature operas, (he having come to reject his early Das Liebesverbot), and is his only opera centered on a historically well-defined time and place rather than a mythical or legendary setting. It is the only mature Wagner opera to be based on an entirely original story, devised by Wagner himself. It 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. Die Meistersinger is, like Orfeo, Capriccio, and Wagner's own earlier Tannh?user, a musical composition in which the composition of music is a pivotal part of the story.
Contents [hide]
1 Composition
1.1 Influence of Schopenhauer
1.2 Completion and premiere
2 Roles
3 Synopsis
3.1 Act 1
3.1.1 Scene 1
3.1.2 Scene 2
3.1.3 Scene 3
3.2 Act 2
3.2.1 Scene 1
3.2.2 Scene 2
3.2.3 Scene 3
3.2.4 Scene 4
3.2.5 Scene 5
3.2.6 Scene 6
3.3 Act 3
3.3.1 Scene 1
3.3.2 Scene 2
3.3.3 Scene 3
3.3.4 Scene 4
3.3.5 Scene 5
4 Beckmesser
5 Reactions and criticism
6 Media
7 Recordings
8 Notes
9 References and external links
[edit] Composition
Wagner's autobiography Mein Leben described the genesis of Die Meistersinger.[1] Taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845 he began reading Georg Gottfried Gervinus’ History of German Literature. This work included chapters on Mastersong and on Hans Sachs.
"I had formed a particularly vivid picture of Hans Sachs and the mastersingers of Nuremberg. I was especially intrigued by the institution of the Marker and his function in rating master-songs....I conceived during a walk a comic scene in which the popular artisan-poet, by hammering upon his cobbler's last, gives the Marker, who is obliged by circumstances to sing in his presence, his come-uppance for previous pedantic misdeeds during official singing contests, by inflicting upon him a lesson of his own."[2]
Gervinus’ book also mentions a poem by the real-life Hans Sachs on the subject of Protestant reformer Martin Luther, called "Die Wittembergisch Nachtigall" ("The Wittemberg Nightingale"). The opening lines for this poem, addressing the Reformation, were later used by Wagner in Act 3 when the crowd acclaims Sachs: "Wacht auf, es nahet gen den Tag; ich h?r' singen im grünen Hag ein wonnigliche Nachtigall."
In addition to this Wagner added a scene drawn from his own life, in which a case of mistaken identity led to a near-riot: this was to be the basis for the finale of Act 2.
"Out of this situation evolved an uproar, which through the shouting and clamour and an inexplicable growth in the number of participants in the struggle soon assumed a truly demoniacal character. It looked to me as if the whole town would break out into a riot...Then suddenly I heard a heavy thump, and as if by magic the whole crowd dispersed in every direction...One of the regular patrons had felled one of the noisiest rioters.... And it was the effect of this which had scattered everybody so suddenly."[3]
This first draft of the story was dated Marienbad 16 July 1845. Wagner later said, in "Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde" (1851)[4] that Meistersinger was to be a comic opera to follow a tragic opera, i.e. Tannh?user. Just as the Athenians had followed a tragedy with a comic satyr play, so Wagner would follow Tannh?user with Meistersinger: the link being that both operas included song-contests.