Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Bayreuth 2008)

Katharina Wagner's controversial 2007 production of her great grandfather's comedy was her first opera staging at the Bayreuth Festival and proved a confrontational and thought-provoking operatic event in the best tradition of the festival. Drawing on the work's performance history, the production forced a new engagement with the opera's themes of tradition and progress, recasting the hero Walther as representative of the former and his nemesis, Beckmesser, as a groundbreaking avant-garde artist. The concept is made all the more fascinating in this 2008 performance by superb portrayals of those roles from Klaus Florian Vogt and Michael Volle – who have gone on to become two of the finest Wagnerians of their generation.

Soloists: 

Norbert Ernst (Tenor), Carola Guber (Mezzo-Soprano), Franz Hawlata (Bass-Baritone), Michaela Kaune (Soprano), Artur Korn (Bass), Klaus Florian Vogt (Tenor)

Ensembles: 

Bayreuth Festival Chorus, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra

Conductor: 

Sebastian Weigle