Economy Bites Cincinnati "Meistersinger"
Two seasons ago, in July, 2007, Cincinnati Opera announced
a new production for its 2010, 90th-anniversary season, Richard
Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.”
To be set in Cincinnati during the 19th century,
it was to be a celebration, not only of the nation’s second oldest opera
company, but of the city itself and its deep-rooted German heritage. Native son James Levine was engaged to
conduct, with famed bass-baritone James Morris as Hans Sachs.
Levine and Morris are still on the boards,
but the Opera announced last week that the widely touted new production by
scenic designer Robert A. Dahlstrom has been canceled, a victim of the
recessionary economy.
Taking
its place will be a period production (16th-century Nürnberg), created for Düsseldorf
Opera by Otto Schenk and Günther Schneider-Seimssen. It promises to be a handsome one – Schenk and
Schneider-Seimsen created the Metropolitan Opera’s new “Meistersinger” – but
what was certain to be a musical and civic event of the first order has now
paled in magnitude.
As it happens, “Meistersinger” fits Cincinnati
like Oktoberfest. (Coming up September
19 and 20, Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest is the largest in the world after Munich,
Germany.) The 137-year-old Cincinnati
May Festival is an outgrowth of the German choral-singing tradition, and Music Hall,
built for the May Festival in 1878, is located in Over-the-Rhine, home of Cincinnati's thriving German-American population
during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Meistersinger” is about singing and the mastersinger
guilds active in German-speaking parts of Europe during the 14th-16th
centuries. One of the opera’s
protagonists, Hans Sachs, is based on a famous historical mastersinger. It is Wagner’s only comic opera and, though long
-- about four-and-a-half hours -- is more like a traditional opera, with arias,
choruses and ensembles, than his “music dramas” like “The Ring of the Niebelung”
and “Parsifal.” The story centers on Eva
and Walther, young lovers who cannot marry unless Walther manages to win a song
contest held by the mastersingers.
As originally contemplated, the new
production would have been set in Over-the-Rhine, with scenes in Music Hall,
Old St. Mary’s Church (where Mass is still held in German on Sundays) and Vine
Street, OTR’s main artery, which also marks the divide between the east and
west sides of town.
Over-the-Rhine – so named because it bordered
on a canal that was filled in and became today's Central Parkway -- fell into neglect as
anti-German sentiment spread in the climate of the two World Wars and residents
moved out. It was
put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and has been undergoing
re-vitalization in recent years. One
wonders what a boost these efforts would have received had a world premiere
production actually been set in OTR. The
Music Critics Association of North America, for instance, had been keeping an
eye on it as the site for its 2010 annual meeting.
“Meistersinger” -- not performed by
Cincinnati Opera since 1983 -- will honor Cincinnati’s German heritage simply
by appearing on the anniversary season schedule (June 23 and 26 at Music
Hall). German opera is relatively scarce
at Cincinnati Opera, whose audiences prefer Italian repertoire (Verdi,
Puccini).
One hopes that the company’s marketing and
outreach wizards will be able to forge enough connections between “Meistersinger”
and Cincinnati to create a Cincinnati “Meistersinger,” whether it is actually
set here or not.
Cincinnati Opera will present “Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg”
conducted by James Levine July 23 and 26 at Music Hall. The cast includes bass-baritone James Morris
as Hans Sachs, soprano Hei-Kyung Hong as Eva and tenor Richard Margison as Walther
von Stolzing.
July 7 and 10. Verdi, “Otello” with Maria Luigia Borsi, Catherine Keen,
Antonello Palombi, Greer Grimsley and Denis Sedov. Robert Spano, conductor.