Wagner Overture: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg The German composer Richard Wagner was one of the major Creative figures of the 19th Century. A great man ofthetheatre, in his middleyears hecomposed an unbroken succession of operatic masterpieces: The Flying Dutchman (1843), Tannhäuser (1845), Lohengrin (1848), Tristan and Isolde (1859), The Mastersingers ofNuremberg (1867) and The Ring ofthe Nibelung (1852-1874). His final opera was Parsifal (1882). He established the Bayreuth Festival for the performance of his music. He died after an eventful life in 1883. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, or The Mastersingers ofNuremburg, was Wagner’s only maturecomedy, and his only workdealingwith ordinary historical figures.The plotfocuses upon the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs (1494-1576) and the Guild of Mastersingers. Awealthy memberofthe Guild, Pogner, has decided to offer his daughter, Eva, in marriagetothewinner of a singing contest.The young hero Walther is in love with Eva and decides to enter the contest, but is unaware of its complex rules.With the aid of Sachs, and despite the bitter Opposition of Beckmesser, who also aspires to marry Eva, Walther wins the contest with his prize song, and so the hand of Eva. Wagner created some of his finest music for the opera, which covers a very wide ränge of dramatic and emotional situations, but which is dominated above all by the fresh enthusiasm ofyoung love,tempered by the wisdom ofthe Mastersingers, as personified by Sachs.The Overture opens with the majestic theme associated with the Mastersingers themselves, and goes on to encompass many ofthe principal musico-dramatic themes ofthe opera, before concluding, as it began, with music of impressive pomp and ceremony with which the operatic action is launched. Programme notes
