Search - Wagner, Fischer-Dieskau, Hotter :: Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (1956 Bayreuth Festival)

Fischer-Dieskau. Yuck.

Theodore Shulman | NYC | 03/03/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau shamelessly attempts to steal Act 1 as Fritz Kothner. Why did he never play the character for which he was properly suited by voice-type and personality? Beckmesser.



Despite the overall badness, this is not completely without merit. Josef Greindl is very nice as Pogner, as always. Also as always, Karl Schmitt-Walter is excellent at Beckmesser. Both are better elsewhere.



It's funny. I recently got hold of a Bayreuth 1957 because Gustav Neidlinger plays Sachs and Clutyens conducted it beautifully. He must have had an off night."

Thank goodness Music & Arts has withdrawn this travesty

Kostas Sarantidis | Portland, ME United States | 02/22/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"There is nothing good I can say about this issue, and please don't waste precious money to buy it used or new at exorbitant prices from one of the sellers listed by Amazon.com, or from another label like Melodram. Sonically, it is horrendous, the worst sounding off-the-air transcription of a Bayreuth broadcast you'll ever hear. Besides all the bugs that Music & Arts couldn't clean up, there is way too much bass; sometimes it's more like a buzz than anything else.



Other reviewers have commented on the shortcomings of Cluytens at the podium. At least he doesn't get in the way of the music. Windgassen is too rough and has little of the lyrical quality one looks for in Walther. Sometimes he sounds like he's singing Tannhauser, a role much better suited to his temperament and vocal quality anyway. He does well in the Quintet, singing softly enough to be mistaken for a good Walther. Brouwenstijn has a few good moments and generally sings a clean line. She has a nice trill after the Prize Song, but doesn't really make much of an impression. None of the other singers is worth discussing. Even Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is disappointing in Kothner's two solos in the first act. Perhaps Wieland Wagner's production of a Meistersinger without Nuremberg encouraged the singers to give us characterless portrayals.



But the biggest problem with this performance is the very reason for its existence: Hans Hotter. What a disastrous, decrepit portrayal of this great role! There is hardly any of the character's humor. Hotter was incapable of the relaxed and playful conversation in which Hans Sachs engages with Eva and Beckmesser in the 2nd act and Walther and Beckmesser in the 3rd act. These are some of the greatest scenes in all opera, and he does nothing with them. Anger on the other hand he has in plenty. Just listen to his overwrought barking just before Eva's O Sachs Mein Freund! It is ugly and totally beyond what the moment requires or justifies. Even Alberich doesn't bark like this after the ring is snatched from him! The big solos go for nothing. Listen to the beginning of the Fliedermonolog. Hans Hotter is struggling just to produce a firm line, never mind make anything notable of the music. According to the notes he avoided the role because of its high tessitura. Yet it is in the many low-lying and conversational passages that his voice has no body whatsoever. Often he resorts to an unsupported whisper just to make it through. Add to that his trademark wobble and you have the most disastrous Hans Sachs on record. I will not comment on his botched attempt at the soft E-flat in the Wahnmonolog. How this performance could be praised by other reviewers is beyond me. One could excuse some of the vocal failings if he had any strong ideas about the character, but he seems not to have had any idea worth preserving on record. I'm not the biggest fan of Hans Hotter in any of his roles, but this attempt at Hans Sachs is way beyond tolerance."