The composer and critic Virgil Thomson, whose writings have just been reissued by the Library of America, had this to say about Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg): "[It is] the most enchanting of fairy-tale operas . … It is all direct and human and warm and sentimental and down-to-earth. It is unique among Wagner's theatrical works in that none of the characters takes drugs or gets mixed up with magic."
Wagner started drafting his opera in the 1840s. He had previously written a dramatic opera, Tannhäuser, in which a singing contest appears. Wagner came up with the idea of writing a comic pendant to Tannhäuser, treating the same theme in a lighter, sunnier vein.
In this opera, a prosperous tradesman offers the hand of his daughter in marriage to the winner of a song contest. Daughter Eva would love it if her sweetheart Walther was the victor. Walther is a poetic soul, but he has no use for the traditional rules which the mastersingers require him to obey. He also has a rival, the pedantic Sixtus Beckmesser. His qualifications are the reverse of Walther's: he has no great originality — but oh, does he have the rule-book down pat.
And then there's a third man: the shoemaker Hans Sachs. He's wise, sympathetic and humorous. We get the feeling that if he wanted to write a prize song, he'd be more than up to the task. But will he get in the way of young love?
There's something of a romantic-comedy plot here, but there's much more. Even when writing comedy, Wagner couldn't restrain himself from exploring serious themes. If you were studying his libretto for a class in school, you'd have things like "art/life" or "tradition — good? bad?" jotted in the margins. There's also an appeal to German national pride (a source of some discomfort, in light of subsequent history), and carefully crafted drama.
Small wonder that Wagner's "pendant" of an opera ended up containing close to five hours of music. But its brand of enchantment, even without magic or drugs, has held the stage for almost a century and a half.
Join us Saturday at 11 a.m. CT for Die Meistersinger and its abundant mix of literature, philosophy, drama, and music.
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