Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg tells the story of the young upstart Walther von Stolzing, who enters the singing competition of Nuremberg’s Mastersingers (the city's guild for poets and musicians) in order to win his beloved Eva. Written and composed entirely by Wagner himself, the opera premiered in Munich at the National Theater in 1868, and would prove to occupy a unique place in Wagner's œuvre: it is his only opera with a comedic tone, a happy ending, and a setting in a specific place and time rather than in a mythological world.
It was in 2011 that Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was first presented at the Glyndebourne Festival, featuring a beautiful staging (by David McVicar) that set the story post-Napoleonic Germany of the in early 19th century and recalled centuries of German artwork. A not-to-be-missed landmark production, revived by the same festival in 2016 to great acclaim!
Photo: © Alastair Muir / Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2011