Munich.(International)(opera)(Munich Festival)

This year's Munich Festival, which traditionally ends with a performance of Wagner's Die Meisteninger von Nurnberg, began with a new production of this magnificent work in the Nationalthearer. After twenty five years of service, August Everding's venerable "classic" staging was replaced by a new interpretation by Thomas Langhoff, who juxtaposed the traditional and the modern, comedy and social commentary. As the curtain rose, one found oneself in contemporary Nurnberg. The attendance in St. Katherine's was sparse, as in most German churches today. Sacrificing musical considerations for dramatic ones, the opening chorus was heard from offstage, an unsatisfactory tradeoff at best. Walther von Stolzing burst into the church looking like a motorcyclist, leather-jacketed and longhaired. The apprentices, dressed in T-shirts (on the front: Nurnberg Poetry Club) and colored baseball caps, were typical modern teenagers. Beckmesser did his adjudicating on a laptop computer, with the rules projected via slides. All of this worked quite well. Beckmesser, mouthing every word of Kothner's recitation, knowing every" rule by heart, was particularly well characterized here. In Act II, Langhoff's concept began to evaporate into thin air, inconsistencies abounded, drama and music were often at odds. Although the apprentices littered the stage with lilacs, the antiseptic barrenness of Gottfried Pilz's sets destroyed any midsummer feeling. Missing entirely was a sense of the poetic. Beckmesser accompanied his serenade with a prerecorded tape played on a Walkman. (Can a Walkman descend two musical half steps following Sachs's correction? Sorry, but suspension of disbelief can only go so far.) The fight turned nasty, and the end of the act showed part of the city's poorer neighborhood burning. Evil societal elements were lurking.

Hans Sachs's workshop looked like a sterilized hospital suite. The visiting girls from Furth were attractive cheerleaders. When the Masters entered, some came with wives, some alone, and one was with the obligatory same-sex partner. Television reporters covered the Festival competition, projecting video images onto a large screen until Beckmesser, a very sore loser, emerged with a group of baseball-bat-wielding skinheads to threaten the tranquility of the final tableau. Had Wagner wanted that scene negatively interpreted, he would hardly have composed it in glorious C Major!

Eva's costume for the first two acts was particularly unflattering, making poor Michaela Kaune look all bust and rear end. In contrast, she looked lovely in her Act III wedding gown and, as if trans formed vocally as well as physically, finally began to give her instrument free rein, producing glorious singing.

Jan-Hendrik Rootering, the Sachs, enormous of girth, mostly immobile and, in his formal attire, resembling a beached whale, sang his long, difficult role with great stamina but also with stretches of indifference. He was most convincing as the music soared, least convincing in his many important parlando passages. Despite some embarrassing staging, Eike Wilm Schulte was a wonderful Beckmesser, using his powerful, beautiful voice in exemplary fashion. Kevin Conners sang magnificently as David, giving surely his best performance to date. Robert Dean Smith coped superbly with Walther von Stolzing, his voice clear and soaring in the prize ...