St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (excerpts from the opera, concert performance)

Performed in German (the performance will have synchronised English and Russian supertitles)


New to the repertoire

PERFORMERS:
Mikhail Petrenko
Irina Churilova
Mikhail Vekua
Andrei Popov
Vladimir Moroz
Anna Kiknadze

Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra 
Conductor: Valery Gergiev


PROGRAMME:
Richard Wagner
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (excerpts from the opera, concert performance)

Musical Preparation: Marina Mishuk


The audience will be admitted 45 minutes before the start of the concert
The concert has no interval

About the Concert

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is returning to the Mariinsky Theatre almost a century since it was last staged here. The last production of the opera came in 1926, though it was not retained in the repertoire; neither did productions at the Bolshoi (1929) or Maly Opera Theatres (1932) enjoy any lasting success. Since then not a single Russian theatre has staged the opera – only on rare occasions have there been concert performances of highlights, and only the pompous overture found a sure footing in the symphony music repertoire. The concert on Saturday presents a rare opportunity to hear the music of Die Meistersinger performed live and featuring magnificent Wagnerian singers of the Mariinsky Theatre.

The only one of Wagner's mature operas to have a happy end and no deaths tells of the power of art and love. As in Tannhäuser, the plot is based around a competition of singers, and here, too, the protagonist is a real historical figure – the poet and singer Hans Sachs who lived in the 16th century and who in his monologues appeared as a proponent of the national German spirit. In Die Meistersinger there is also a lyrical line of the love of the young knight Walther, a student of Sachs, for Eva, the daughter of a goldsmith. Moreover, Die Meistersinger is not devoid of comic features and has a naive humour linked with the image of Walther's unsuccessful rival, the town clerk Beckmesser.

The lengthy monologues and ensemble scenes make Die Meistersinger fully correspond with ideas of Wagner's immense scale: in its entirety it runs for more than four hours. The concert will only include certain of its highlights – scenes from Act III, among them the famous monologue of Sachs and Walther's song. All of the pieces are to be performed using the original German text at the Mariinsky Theatre for the first time (accompanied by supertitles in Russian and English).

Age category 6+

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