Community Corner
Lyric Opera Lecture: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
John Kohlmeier of the Lyric Opera Lecture Corps presents a lecture on Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
This glorious masterwork stands with The Ring as the ultimate test for singers, chorus, and orchestra. At its heart, a song contest that will transform the society in which it takes place. Nürnberg’s ancient guild of mastersingers is looking for a work of art—a shining beacon of poetry and music. Only those who can pass the guild’s onerous test may enter. But the winner gets the ultimate prize—marriage to the peerless Eva.
Walther von Stolzing, the brilliant innovator, competes for art and for love; Beckmesser, the narrow-minded pedant, does everything to defeat him; Sachs, wisest of all the mastersingers, mentors the young genius, sometimes at the cost of his own happiness; and the people wait breathlessly to crown the victor.
In Wagner’s only foray into comedy, great art triumphs over all in one of the most joyous and overwhelming achievements in the history of music.
