Hi, my name is Walther von Stolzing and I am a knight who enters the city of Nürnberg to do business with Meister Pogner. Well, I arrived on Saturday at his house, I met his beautiful daughter, Eva. Man, she is beautiful and my head started spinning making me somehow out of control. The next day I learned from a servant that they are in church and I make my way to the church where I see her - but her pesky governess keeps coming in between. She tells me that if I want to marry Eva, I have to become a Meistersinger and asks her friend David to teach me to sing - which of course is more said than done. I mean, to think that I, a swordsman, want to sing…!!!! Then I was between all these Meisters and I did not have a clue what was going on. All I know is that I want to sing to win Eva as my bride. Boy, did they give it to me! There was this particular man, Beckmesser, who was very unfriendly and he gave me a hard time. Then there was Hans Sachs who became my friend in the end.

So I sing and they throw me out and then I try to abduct the girl and that causes all hell to break loose. Beckmesser wants to serenade Eva. I can not shut him up, and neither can Sachs, who was brilliant enough to stop me and Eva from fleeing the town. So the whole town was fighting in the end and as Eva and I try to make a break, Sachs stops us, takes Eva home and takes me in his house.

Waking up the next morning, Sachs teaches me to compose a song of a beautiful dream I have had, which becomes the song that I sing at the Festwiese or Festival Meadow. In the end I become a Meistersinger and get Eva as my bride.

Why did I stick with it? I am stubborn and bold enough to just do that. I like to come into a town and turn every thing upside down to every one’s annoyance.

If Walther were writing, that’s what he might say. But sadly Walther is only a character thought up by Wagner. For me, he is one of the brilliant composers – he not only composed the music but also was a great poet. Walther is one of the most magnificent roles for me to sing. Why do I like the piece??? Well, the whole of Meistersinger is a lot about Wagner himself having difficulties in his life and in composing his music. People did not like his operas at first and it was revolutionary to compose an opera without specific arias — and then he also assigned a theme to every person and event in his operas…. a very distinctive signature!

I think that Sachs and Walther are both people that Wagner related to, and I know that some people will disagree with me on this, but that is the nice thing about having your own opinion. Walther comes to this town and breaks every rule in the book. First by speaking to Eva without the consent of her father and in a public place, which in those days was a crime. Both he and Eva could have been killed because she is still an unmarried woman, and promised by her father as bride to the one who will become the champion singer of the town.

Walther is madly in love with Eva and is going to take all the chances he can get and break all the rules he needs to in order to win her. He tries to learn from David how to sing and fails miserably. Then he tries to abduct her and Sachs stops that. In Sachs, Walther meets a man who helps him not only to be a poet but also a composer. And with Sachs’s help, Walther writes one of the most beautifully composed romantic songs in the world. There are other beautiful songs, but this one is special because Sachs is also in love with Eva in his own way. I think Walther, for the first time in his life, meets a father figure who teaches him something about life and the right way of doing things, without having to grab a sword to kill somebody just because you don’t like him. I think it is one of the best lessons one can teach anybody today. But Walther also learns in the quintet that Sachs is or was also in love with Eva and Walther realizes what Sachs has sacrificed for him and for Eva. When Eva begins the quintet, she gives Walther the inspiration to make major changes in the Preislied. And only Sachs realizes that Walther - and Wagner – have changed words and melody to create a prize-winning song!

I can carry on for a long time about Walther. There is so much to discover in the music; and that is one of the mysteries of music — that we all may have something to say about it!

Now, as Walther would say, “Fanget an!”– Let’s start!

This entry was posted by Johan Botha on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 10:25 am and is filed under New Production Countdown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.