The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Coliseum ★★★★
So exhilarating are the final stages of Wagner’s The Mastersingers of Nuremberg that, given a decent performance, an audience is almost guaranteed to come away on a high.
The staging at ENO, a strongly recast revival of Richard Jones’s 2010 Welsh National Opera production, is more than decent: it’s a splendid company achievement. Jones’s staging remains questionable, however, in its evasion of the work’s problematic issues, notably its nationalistic rhetoric, and his crowd’s embrace of “German masters” from Dürer to Brecht, while heartwarming, is an ideological cop-out. The show is also slow to ignite, blazing only in Act 3, leaving long stretches of previous acts in need of greater directorial intervention.
The Jones magic is evident in a phantasmagorical sequence representing Walther’s hallucination of pursuit by the Masters. Iain Paterson’s Sachs may not be quite as rich and rounded as Bryn Terfel’s was for WNO, but the intelligent modulation of his beautiful tone marks him out as a future Sachs of distinction. Rachel Nicholls as Eva sensitively deploys a sizeable voice which comes into its own at the climax of a superbly staged Quintet.
As Walther, Gwyn Hughes Jones is more ingratiating of voice than his rugged greybeard appearance would suggest, lacking a touch in bloom but impressively lasting the course. Other parts are well taken, too, with Andrew Shore outstanding as Beckmesser.
Edward Gardner conducts fluently and stylishly, and what a joy to experience this intricately allusive text in one’s own language — precisely as Wagner wished.
Der fliegende Holländer, Royal Opera House ★★★★
Terfel was in town a couple of nights earlier for the revival of Tim Albery’s dour but intermittently gripping 2009 production of Der Fliegende Holländer under Andris Nelsons.
His range, from whispers to demonic outbursts, is astonishing, amounting to a powerful psychological portrait of a disturbed man. If the Senta seemed less traumatised than usual, it was probably because Adrianne Pieczonka uses her vocal accomplishments to suggest that she’s an ordinary girl with an unfortunate obsession.
Holländer until Tuesday February 24 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk); Mastersingers until Tuesday March 10 (020 7845 9300, eno.org)
