Heidi Stober (soprano) et al; Deutsche Oper Berlin Chorus and Orchestra/John Fiore; dir. Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito, Anna Viebrock (Berlin, 2022)
Naxos DVD: 2.110766-67; Blu-ray: NBD0178-79V 240:41 mins
To judge from the costumes, this production by directors Jossi Wieler, Sergio Morabito and Anna Viebrock, filmed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in June and July 2022, and set at the Munich Conservatoire, evokes the 1970s.
Visually it’s a drab affair, with essentially a single, interior, municipal-style set to replace Wagner’s medieval city of Nuremberg and meadows beyond.
The central characters are also reconceived. Veit Pogner (good solid bass Albert Pesendorfer) is the departing head of the Conservatoire who can’t let go; the song competition is about selecting his successor.
Hans Sachs (Johan Reuter, at times running out of vocal steam) is a percussionist music therapist, a hippy-ish member of staff who writes pop songs and is sneaking around with the director’s daughter Eva (the dependable Heidi Stober). Also past his best is Klaus Florian Vogt’s underpowered and short-breathed Walther von Stolzing.
Philipp Jekal’s Beckmesser is the usual clumsy fool, though not excessively parodied: on the other hand he’s not especially memorable, except that he plays the accompaniment to his competition entry on the piano, while Sachs strikes the piano lid with drumsticks to mark his rival’s mistakes. Günther Groissböck offers classy casting as the Nightwatchman.
Ya-Chung Huang is likable as masterclass student David, with Annika Schlicht impressively ample of tone as his lecturer, Magdalene (another inappropriate relationship?).
While musical values – some overly mature vocalism aside – are generally good, the show is dully utilitarian, with little sense of the creative conflict between tradition and innovation that lies at the heart of the piece – let alone of its celebratory quality. Summoning up solid choral singing and orchestral playing, John Fiore is the dependable conductor.