{"product_id":"wagner-die-meistersinger-von-nurnberg-2","title":"Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e   \u003ca class=\"links\" href=\"album.jsp?album_id=808093\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlso available on standard DVD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  English-speaking audiences have always found Die Meistersinger to be a life-enhancing celebration of wisdom, art and song. So it proves in David McVicar's production – the first at Glyndebourne – which is updated to the early-19th century of Wagner's childhood. At the centre of a true ensemble cast is Gerald Finley, a 'gleamingly sung', 'eminently believable' Sachs (The Independent on Sunday), supported by the dynamic conducting of Vladimir Jurowski which, like McVicar's production, uses Glyndebourne's special intimacy to bring sharp focus to bear on the subtlety of Wagner's musical and dramatic counterpoint. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  McVicar has put on a great show with style, intelligence and insight. -- The Telegraph \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Musically, it was judged faultlessly for the scale of the theatre by Vladimir Jurowski, who conjured playing of mercurial clarity not the first words one would normally choose for this gargantuan score from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, sustained with unfailing vigilance and concentration. -- The Guardian \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Richard Wagner \u003cbr\u003e  DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG \u003cbr\u003e  (Blu-ray Disc Version) \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Walther von Stolzing – Marco Jentzsch \u003cbr\u003e  Eva – Anna Gabler \u003cbr\u003e  Magdalene – Michaela Selinger \u003cbr\u003e  David – Topi Lehtipuu \u003cbr\u003e  Veit Pogner – Alastair Miles \u003cbr\u003e  Sixtus Beckmesser – Johannes Martin Kränzle \u003cbr\u003e  Hans Sachs – Gerald Finley \u003cbr\u003e  Kunz Vogelgesang – Colin Judson \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The Glyndebourne Chorus \u003cbr\u003e  London Philharmonic Orchestra \u003cbr\u003e  Vladimir Jurowski, conductor \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  David McVicar, stage director \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Recorded live at Glyndebourne, Lewes, July 2011 \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Picture format: 1080i High Definition \u003cbr\u003e  Sound format: LPCM 2.0 \/ DTS 5.1 \u003cbr\u003e  Region code: 0 (worldwide) \u003cbr\u003e  Subtitles: English, French, German \u003cbr\u003e  Running time: 300 mins \u003cbr\u003e  No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray) \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  R E V I E W:  \u003ctitle\u003e3644250.az_WAGNER_Die_Meistersinger_Nurnberg.html\u003c\/title\u003e  \u003cmeta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eWAGNER \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Vladimir Jurowski, cond; Anna Gabler (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eEva\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Michaela Selinger (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eMagdalene\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Marco Jentzsch (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eWalther von Stolzing\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Topi Lehtipuu (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eDavid\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Gerald Finley (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eHans Sachs\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Johannes Martin Kränzle (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eSixtus Beckmesser\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Alastair Miles (\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12i\"\u003eVeit Pogner\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e); Glyndebourne Festival Ch; London PO \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e OPUS ARTE OA 1085 D (2 DVDs: 300:00) OA BD7108 (Blu-ray) Live: Glyndebourne 6\/2011 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eJohn Christie, Glyndebourne’s founder, was Wagner-obsessed and would have dearly loved to present one of the composer’s operas early-on in the Festival’s history. But such an undertaking was not a reasonable possibility in Glyndebourne’s original 300-seat theater. As John Christie’s grandson recounts in one of this Blu-ray’s “extras,” an early Glyndebourne conductor commented “if you put on Wagner, you’ll need to put the audience on the stage and the stage in the auditorium.” Glyndebourne got a new opera house in the 1990s, seating 1,250, and Wagner finally came to East Sussex in 2003 with a production of \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTristan und Isolde. \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eThis David McVicar-directed \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003erepresents Glyndebourne’s second Wagner staging, and it’s something special. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eDie Meistersinger\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, at one level, is about intergenerational conflict and being able to cast younger singers as the quartet of lovers is a real plus. (The recent PentaTone \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eon SACD succeeds, in part, because those singers at least \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003esound \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eyouthful.) At Glyndebourne, McVicar notes, he could “cast singers that are appropriate to the ages of their characters and are physically convincing.” Marco Jentzsch, the strapping Walther, has got to be 6’3” or 6’4”—a far cry from the all-too-common fireplug Stolzings, whose boots come up most of the way to their protuberant abdomens. If Jentzsch can’t belt out the Prize Song as powerfully as a Ben Heppner or Peter Seifert, he’s fully up to the lyrical requirements of the role and his voice has a pleasant timbre. The Finnish tenor Topi Lehtipuu handles the part of David very effectively, both his character’s palpable horniness and, more critically, the act I exegesis on song writing. Anna Gabler is a complex and passionate Eva, as confused as Nuremberg’s shoemaker about the possibility of a future as Mrs. Hans Sachs. Michaela Selinger, the Magdalena, is perky and vocally appealing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eAlistair Miles portrays a Pogner that is Sach’s equal in intelligence and integrity, despite his fat-cat status; Johannes Martin Kränzle’s Beckmesser executes the requisite physical comedy and manages just the correct amount of pedantry and pride to define the town clerk’s obvious short-comings while leaving him a sympathetic character. Beckmesser, here, is a victim of his own personality failings rather than a fundamentally bad person. Any \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger, \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eof course, depends on its Sachs to keep our interest up for five hours, and Gerald Finley is a superb one. He happens to be the best singer here, but his acting is what makes this production so compelling. Finley’s character, we know from the outset, is thoroughly engaged with the dual goals of achieving artistic progress and promoting Stolzing’s romantic efforts—but is also a very conflicted human being. When the curtain goes up for act III, it’s clear that Sachs has been drinking all night and he kicks some furniture around. He uncovers a portrait of his late wife. And just before Walther enters to compose his song, we see Sachs pick up a pen to write something—presumably a contest song to compete for Eva himself. The Knight comes into the workshop and Sachs backs away from the abyss. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eIt’s that sort of theatrical detail that makes this production exceptional. The size of the stage and hall is still small by Metropolitan Opera or Covent Garden standards and allows for a high level of intimacy. As McVicar tells us “Everyone on stage is a character and has a story.” Watch the Masters as they congregate in acts I and III, especially the guy with the ear trumpet. That’s “Ulrich Eisslinger,” not exactly a major role—he has one line in the act I roll call. The part is positively \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003esavored \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003eby Adrian Thomson, who responds to every event on stage with facial expressions and body language that are alone practically worth the price of admission. And look at the Masters’ faces when Walther’s final version of the Prize Song takes an unexpected harmonic turn. These guys—the singers \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eand \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003etheir characters—are really listening deeply. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eMcVicar moves the action from the 16th century to the early 19th, the era into which the composer was born. In a second extra feature, \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eDie Meistersinger\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e—An Opera with Baggage, the director reminds us that the 1820s and 1830s were a time before Unification when Germans “could point to their culture as an expression of their national identity.” By considering \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003ein the context of this time frame, McVicar doesn’t need to directly address the future commandeering of this work for the vilest of nationalistic purposes. I like any \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003ewhere Beckmesser stays on stage after his humiliation. He’s not the “other”—he’s still part of a community. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThe production is sumptuously lit and filmed, in the same league as the Met’s venerable Otto Schenk version—and the meadow scene is a real eyeful. The sound is richly detailed with excellent vocal\/orchestral balances. (In multichannel, the “auf den theater” brass fanfares are definitely coming from afar.) Subtitles are offered in English, French, and German. Glyndebourne’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eMeistersinger \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003egoes straight to the top of the heap among the eight video versions in my collection. It registers here, to use David McVicar’s words, as “a profoundly human, wise, warm, loving work.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-weight:bold\"\u003eFANFARE: Andrew Quint \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Opus Arte","offers":[{"title":"Blu-Ray","offer_id":49607837352216,"sku":"809478071082","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/2059095.jpg?v=1777683631","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/wagner-die-meistersinger-von-nurnberg-2","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}