Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg)

“The camerawork – mostly close-up – is superb, focusing on the intimacy of the Glyndebourne stage and the visual expressiveness of a young cast. Vicki Mortimer’s Biedermeyer sets are notably more handsome on film than in the theatre, and the performance (captured late in the inaugural run) breathes a general air of wellbeing” Financial Times, 22nd September 2012 ***

“McVicar's staging stokes the glow of Meistersinger's humane heart...and above all he reminds us that this is an opera about youth and self-discovery. Gerald Finley's pivotal Sachs relish[es] this intensely verbal role with a Lieder-singer's skill and beauty...Jurowski completes the ensemble with a beautiful account, unfolding the story with pace and details...Together they make the immense performance the most uplifting performance I can recall” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 *****

“Jurowski handles the score with seriousness and pomp...Finley has the role of Hans Sachs massively in focus, both musically and dramatically. He is compulsively watchable throughout...McVicar's production is best at one-to-one emotional confrontations but rather loud and messy in ensemble scenes...it would be mealy-mouthed not to notice the commitment and enthusiasm steaming off the stage, while Finley's work has to be seen and heard” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“The best Meistersinger on video so far reaches DVD at last. Stein isn't the most individual interpreter, but his immense Bayreuth experience and craft illuminate the score with deceptive naturalness, its glowing textures brought out by the marvellous orchestra and chorus. Soloists fit their roles no less naturally.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 *****

“...an exceptionally starry cast, with not a single weak link and with many strengths...Wolfgang Wagner's sets and costumes are grandly traditional and add greatly to the impact of the piece...An outstanding version, with Horst Stein pacing the massive work splendidly.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“Thank goodness for no quirky ideas...The singers are all outstanding, led by James Morris's warmly genial Sachs...and by Ben Heppner, who is an equally convincing Walther...Mattila not only looks gorgeous but sings ravishingly as Eva, while Sir Thomas Allen's characterisation of Beckmesser is all his own...Levine's conducting holds the performance together richly” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“The camerawork – mostly close-up – is superb, focusing on the intimacy of the Glyndebourne stage and the visual expressiveness of a young cast. Vicki Mortimer’s Biedermeyer sets are notably more handsome on film than in the theatre, and the performance (captured late in the inaugural run) breathes a general air of wellbeing” Financial Times, 22nd September 2012 ***

“McVicar's staging stokes the glow of Meistersinger's humane heart...and above all he reminds us that this is an opera about youth and self-discovery. Gerald Finley's pivotal Sachs relish[es] this intensely verbal role with a Lieder-singer's skill and beauty...Jurowski completes the ensemble with a beautiful account, unfolding the story with pace and details...Together they make the immense performance the most uplifting performance I can recall” BBC Music Magazine, December 2012 *****

“Jurowski handles the score with seriousness and pomp...Finley has the role of Hans Sachs massively in focus, both musically and dramatically. He is compulsively watchable throughout...McVicar's production is best at one-to-one emotional confrontations but rather loud and messy in ensemble scenes...it would be mealy-mouthed not to notice the commitment and enthusiasm steaming off the stage, while Finley's work has to be seen and heard” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012

“this production revolves around Beckmesser, and Michael Volle puts in an exceptional performance...I would urge even the sceptics to take this production seriously...A complex and troubling but also consummate and satisfying experience: even on DVD it leaves a lasting impression.” Classical Review, 9th November 2010

“Katharina Wagner at first presents Walther von Stolzing as a paint-spraying performance artist and Beckmesser as a retentive, Reclam-photocopying pedant...This nicely observed updating would be enough to sustain some productions for a whole evening. But, for Katharina Wagner, this is just the tip of the iceberg...as all stage productions should be, this is 200 per cent a Meistersinger to see.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“[Volle's Beckmesser] is so consistently alert, so wary of traditional caricature, so mellifluous in sound, and so well acted that it is, in fact, almost plausible to see him as the opera's hero...Franz Hawlata is a refreshingly youthful Sachs (which makes the Sachs-Eva-Walther triangle more affecting)” International Record Review, March 2011

“This is perhaps the finest recording, either on DVD or CD, of Wagner's complex masterpiece… Christian Thielemann… keeps the whole piece, very close to five hours, moving irresistibly, and he has the Vienna Philharmonic playing magnificently, untiringly, and a superb cast. This one has the noblest contemporary Sachs, Falk Struckmann, in top form, and Johan Botha, a man-mountain, as an exceptionally sensitive Walther, and an expressive actor despite his bulk. The Pogner of Ain Auger is phenomenally fine, and Adrian Eröd's Beckmesser is outstanding. Otto Schenk's production is as traditional without a trace of routine. Sticking mainly very closely to Wagner's stage directions - a revolutionary stroke - and well photographed, it illuminates point after point in the action.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 ****

“The staging is the undoubtedly loving work of a cultured man who knows the piece inside out and wishes to represent it faithfully but whose other duties have prevented his developing any especially distinctive style of his own. The wonderful women, Mesdames Magee and Svendén, however, get there on their own and their dignity and detail are worth watching. Apart from them, and the sexy aeroplane choreography of the "girls from Fürth"... the main attractions of the release lie in Daniel Barenboim's beautifully limned and paced account of the score.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008