Organization

Singer

Lise Davidsen

Evas

Claudia Mahnke

Magdalene

Klaus Florian Vogt

Walther Von Stolzing

Paul Appleby

David

Michael Volle

Hans Sachs

Johannes Martin Kränzle

Beckmesser

Martin Gantner

Kothner

Georg Zeppenfeld

Pogner

Stage director

Otto Schenk

Conductor

Antonio Pappano

Lighting designer

Gil Wechsler

Costume designer

Rolf Langenfass

Set designer

Günther Schneider-Siemssen

Choreographer

Carmen de Lavallade

Lincoln Center

German

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (reduction) -  (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Act III)

New York City

United States

Metropolitan Opera House

Public

Private

The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Act III

English

Spanish

Approved

Wagner’s sublime comedy takes the Met stage for the first time in seven years. Antonio Pappano conducts an unbeatable cast led by renowned baritone Michael Volle as the wise cobbler Hans Sachs and sensational soprano Lise Davidsen—returning triumphantly following her rapturously hailed 2019 company debut—as Eva. Tenor Klaus Florian Vogt and baritone Johannes Martin Kränzle join them as Walther von Stolzing and Beckmesser.

Wagner’s only comedy is a monumental yet intimate love story that is also a journey through the artistic process. The story revolves around the creation of a song—written by a brash, self-taught poet—and follows the very typical operatic formula of young love winning out over meddlesome old men. But more than a mere romance, the opera is an uplifting and inspiring treatise on the importance of art in a community and the world at large.

Richard Wagner (1813–83) was the complex, controversial creator of music-drama masterpieces that stand at the center of today’s operatic repertory. Born in Leipzig, Germany, he was an artistic revolutionary who reimagined every supposition about music and theater. Later in his career, he developed the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total work of art,” combining music, poetry, architecture, painting, and other disciplines, a notion that has had an impact on creative fields far beyond opera.

The opera takes place in the symbolically important town of Nuremberg, in southern Germany, around the year 1560. Nuremberg stood for many things: It was a political center of the Holy Roman Empire and became known as a center of business and excellent craftsmanship. Here, Nuremberg becomes an idealized representation of everything good about German tradition—an egalitarian hotbed of art and thought where a shoemaker really could be (and was) respected as an artist and a philosopher.

The score of Meistersinger is a sublime achievement, at once lyric, grand, and amazingly detailed. It shows Wagner’s absolute command of his craft, from the lush orchestration to the soaring vocal solos to stirring ensembles. The many choruses also demonstrate the scope of Wagner’s genius, most notably the foursquare chorale that opens the work, the near anarchy of the complex riot scene in Act II, and the playful apprentices’ songs in Act III.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew