|
' (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg") is a music drama (or opera) in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas commonly performed, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater, today's home of the Bavarian State Opera, in Munich, on 21 June 1868. The conductor at the premiere was Hans von Bülow. The story takes place in Nuremberg during the middle of the 16th century. At the time, Nuremberg was a free imperial city, and one of the centers of the Renaissance in Northern Europe. The story revolves around the real-life guild of ''Meistersinger'' (Master Singers), an association of amateur poets and musicians, mostly from the middle class and often master craftsmen in their main professions. The mastersingers developed a craftsmanlike approach to music-making, with an intricate system of rules for composing and performing songs. The work draws much of its charm from its faithful depiction of the Nuremberg of the era and the traditions of the mastersinger guild. One of the main characters, the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs, is based on an actual historical figure: Hans Sachs (1494–1576), the most famous of the historical mastersingers. ' occupies a unique place in Wagner's oeuvre. It is the only comedy among his mature operas (he having come to reject his early ''Das Liebesverbot''), and is also unusual in being set in a historically well-defined time and place rather than a mythical or legendary setting. It is the only mature Wagner opera to be based on an entirely original story, devised by Wagner himself. It is also the only one of Wagner's mature operas in which there are no supernatural or magical powers or events. It incorporates many of the operatic conventions that Wagner had railed against in his essays on the theory of opera: rhymed verse, arias, choruses, a quintet, and even a ballet. ' is, like ''L'Orfeo'', ''Capriccio'', and Wagner's own earlier ''Tannhäuser'', a musical composition in which the composition of music is a pivotal part of the story. ==Composition history== Wagner's autobiography ' (My Life) described the genesis of '. Taking the waters at Marienbad in 1845 he began reading Georg Gottfried Gervinus' ''Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung'' (History of German Poetry). This work included chapters on Mastersong and on Hans Sachs.
Gervinus' book also mentions a poem by the real-life Hans Sachs on the subject of Protestant reformer Martin Luther, called ''Die Wittenbergisch Nachtigall'' (The Wittenberg Nightingale). The opening lines for this poem, addressing the Reformation, were later used by Wagner in act 3 scene 5 when the crowd acclaims Sachs: ''Wacht auf, es nahet gen den Tag; ich hör' singen im grünen Hag ein wonnigliche Nachtigall.'' (Awake, the dawn is drawing near; I hear, singing in the green grove, a blissful nightingale) In addition to this, Wagner added a scene drawn from his own life, in which a case of mistaken identity led to a near-riot: this was to be the basis for the finale of act 2. Out of this situation evolved an uproar, which through the shouting and clamour and an inexplicable growth in the number of participants in the struggle soon assumed a truly demoniacal character. It looked to me as if the whole town would break out into a riot...Then suddenly I heard a heavy thump, and as if by magic the whole crowd dispersed in every direction...One of the regular patrons had felled one of the noisiest rioters ... And it was the effect of this which had scattered everybody so suddenly.〔 This first draft of the story was dated "Marienbad 16 July 1845". Wagner later said, in ''Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde'' (1851) (A Communication to my Friends) 〔("A Communication to my Friends" )〕 that ' was to be a comic opera to follow a tragic opera, i.e. ''Tannhäuser''. Just as the Athenians had followed a tragedy with a comic satyr play, so Wagner would follow ' with ': the link being that both operas included song-contests. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|