“The Mastersingers of Nuremberg”, an uncomfortable comedy by Wagner | culture

Richard Wagner did not use nouns and adjectives randomly when he wanted to define the specific genre of each of his scenic creations. His first and failed attempt Fairieshas the same name and is already very successful Tannhauser: “The Grand Romantic Opera.” Prohibition of love (“Grand Comic Opera”) and Rienzi (“Great Tragic Opera”) Two sides of the same coin – and youth – while…

Richard Wagner did not use nouns and adjectives randomly when he wanted to define the specific genre of each of his scenic creations. His first and failed attempt Fairieshas the same name and is already very successful Tannhauser: “The Grand Romantic Opera.” Prohibition of love (“Grand Comic Opera”) and Rienzi (“The Grand Tragic Opera”) Two sides of the same coin – and youth – while Lohengrin And Flying Dutchman It also shares the same title: “Romantic opera in three acts.” Nibelung ringthe banner of Wagnerian revolution, could not repeat any of the old templates, and thus the word “opera” became obsolete, which prompted its author to name the tetralogy as a “scenic festival” called for the opening of the Bayreuth Temple, and six years later – artistically and not Religiously, in order to “protect my work and its sacred content from desecration,” as the composer wrote to Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1878 – with Parsifal. And in the middle, another very disruptive product was born, Tristan and IsoldeAnd great comedy, Masters in Nurembergboth are identified simply as HandlongAny “action”: dramatic in one case, and comedic in another. Wagner loved nothing more than ambiguity and lack of precision. For this reason, commentators have been trying to shed light on many obscure areas for decades.

The locations of his dramatic works are not the result of chance either, as is evident in the choice of Thuringia tannhauser, From Brabant to Lohengrin Or, later, from the mysterious, mythical regions in which it is found bell. Nuremberg, which he himself referred to in a letter to his editor in 1861 as “the true nerve center of German life,” is full of symbolism, not only because it is the birthplace of the novel’s main protagonist, Hans Sachs, and Albrecht Dürer, but because it has managed to be preserved “like a stone.” Karim”, at the dawn of industrialization, on its appearance as a medieval and Renaissance city: for its premiere in Munich, Wagner wanted to faithfully reproduce the unique architecture in three local dimensions.

It is impossible not to connect this with Sachs's final monologue, when he exclaims: “Do not despise the masters and honor their art!” Soon after, he affected the idea of ​​Nuremberg as the recipient of all national jewels by saying: “No one will know what is most German and authentic if he does not live in honor of the German masters”; He crowned his speech with a new exclamation: “And if you support their actions, even if the Holy Roman Empire melts in smoke, sacred German art will remain for us!” This message will, by any means, penetrate the National Socialist regime, which has chosen Nuremberg as the scene of its annual marches and the place where its notorious racist laws are approved. This was probably also why the Allies left the city, that quintessential showcase of the best Germanic virtues, literally destroyed: the final bombings and final capture of Nuremberg, on April 20, 1945, coincided with Hitler's birthday.

Joseph Goebbels declared Bayreuth “the most German of all German operas”

Masters in Nuremberg It was performed in Bayreuth a few months after the Nazis came to power, and in the radio broadcast Joseph Goebbels can be heard saying during the first intermission that it is “the most German of all German operas” and that “there is no” action in all German operas. The musical literature of the German people is very sympathetic to our time and its emotional and spiritual tensions.” Leni Riefenstahl used the introduction to Act III in the dawn sequence Triumph of willHis entertainment for the National Socialist Rally at Nuremberg in 1934, and the introduction to Act I and the end of Act III were also shown at the opening, Headed by Goebbelsfrom the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin in 1935.

It's true that such pimples don't go well with comedy, because ultimately there's nothing else. Masters in Nuremberg. In his 1956 Bayreuth Festival production, Wieland Wagner, the composer's grandson, moved the work into an abstract setting devoid of any visual or conceptual reference to Hans Sachs's cityscape. In 2017, Barry Kosky manages to keep his core comedy intact, especially in the first act, where he has the lead singers emerge from inside the piano in Wanfried. However, in retrospect, the end of Act II had every sign of being a pogrom against Beckmesser (a rabid anti-Semite, and Wagner implicitly invested many of his characters with Jewish traits) and set the stage for Act III – much to the dismay of many. From the spectators present at the premiere – in what was a very faithful version of the room in which the Nuremberg Trials were held, which decided the fates of the still living Nazi leaders.

Laurent Bailly has a natural talent for comedy and will not miss the opportunity to exploit the deep sense of humor of a great work

In Salzburg, in 2013, Stefan Herheim transformed the work into a Hans Sachs dream full of edges and bends, while David Bosch, three years later, presented a hollow, gray production at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Laurent Belli has a natural talent for comedy, as he has already shown several times at the Teatro Real, and in his first production in the Wagnerian style, he will certainly not miss the opportunity to exploit the deep humor of a great work in every way. And he will explain its aspects, in a historical moment that falls between the two world wars, swinging his strong ideas between tradition and novelty, between isolation and culture, which are symbolized by those books that will burn in the German streets and squares shortly after. . The day before the movie premiere Top singers The festival in Bayreuth in 2017 marked the centenary of Wieland Wagner's birth, and in his praise of the honoree, Sir Peter Jonas referred to what Barry Koski had answered a few days earlier when asked about his possible discomfort at having to work in a factory. A place where “tourists would love to walk in Hitler's footsteps.” His response was – as Jonas recalls – “brief and decisive”: “This is the past and it arouses no fear in me. Auschwitz is a horror, Bayreuth is a comedy, even if it is a very black comedy! No one should miss the opportunity to decide for himself the color – or the colors – that Laurent Belli would use to paint it in Madrid.

“Innovators in Nuremberg”. Richard Wagner. Royal Theater. Madrid. From April 24th to May 25th.