During my two seasons on the Met’s directing staff, I have had the great fortune to work on the world premieres of An American Tragedy and The First Emperor. Rehearsal periods were luxuriously long, there was palpable excitment about the unknown work, and the artists came to it without any prior knowledge of other productions.

Now that I am working on Meistersinger, I become part of an entirely different aspect of the Met: the revival. This particular production has been around for well over a decade, and many of the people working on it (directors, singers, chorus, pianists, etc.) are reprising their respective roles for the second and third (and more) times. Then there are those of us who are brand-new to not only this production, but to the opera itself. After approaching world premieres on equal footing with everyone else, it is an interesting feeling to be the one of the few people in the room who isn’t returning to their “old friend” Meistersinger. To a certain extent, Mr. Wagner’s epic and I are still engaging in small talk.

There is a certain familiarity that one can only gain with an opera through rehearsing and performing it; a familiarity that cannot be achieved by study alone. It is this familiarity that I have seen the last two days in rehearsal that has made this an exciting process so far; one vastly different from my previous Met experiences. Those familiar with Meistersinger tap into the “collective memory” (Thanks, Laurie) of productions-past. There is an exciting energy about re-creating and improving on choices made before…all in the tight revival timeline of three weeks! Yes, there are many elements of the production that have been there from day one, but no one is looking to do a carbon copy of the last Meistersinger revival.

I am looking forward, over the next three weeks, to gaining entry to that “collective memory” and learning the inner-workings of Meistersinger. Though I have studied this opera for many months, I still have a long way to go. My studying has only laid the foundation for the work I will do in the rehearsal room. I am fortunate to be able to learn the show alongside my incredibly knowledgable colleagues, Peter McClintock and Laurie Feldman, not to mention some of the foremost Wagner-interpreters of our time.

While some are returning to their “old friend,” I am just getting to know the opera. I have a feeling, though, that come March 1, Meistersinger and I will be well on our way to a great friendship.

We’re preparing for rehearsals of Meistersinger. This will be the fifth revival of Otto Schenk’s detail-packed production of this marathon opera, which premiered in 1993. Some of the cast will be returning from previous runs of the show, and it’s usually a lot of fun when we reconvene for the first time; many shared memories of rehearsals and performances. There’s often a very special feeling shared by ‘Wagner people”. Some say that this is due to the intense concentration that is required of Wagner performers…..maybe it’s also because of those long hours spent together!

Peter McClintock, our director, is also directing Eugene Onegin, and we actually start Meistersinger rehearsals before Onegin opens on January 9^th. Peter is also a disciplined and ardent student of the Chinese language. His days begin in the dawn hours with homework, long before our Met day begins. But this week he wanted to carve out some special time for a newcomer to the Meistersinger cast, bass Evgeny Nikitin, who is singing Pogner for the first time. In a revival situation, we rehearse for a fairly brief period of time, much less time than for a new production. This can be challenging for a singer who is either new to the role or new to the production, especially when lots of the rest of the cast have done the production before. So Peter wanted to sit down with Evgeny and carefully go through the role, line by line, discussing each and every idea and motivation.

We met in the 4^th floor director’s office. Peter poured tea (Chinese, of course!), and we sat down together to watch the video of the dress rehearsal from 2003. Although Evgeny speaks excellent English, Peter chose to speak Russian with him, in order to maximize communication. Although I was able to follow only very loosely the thread of the conversation, I can attest that they did indeed cover every single moment of Pogner’s text, as well as what every other character was saying in each moment. One of the joys of being a director is watching a performer bring his own ideas and unique creativity and imagination to a role. And in fact, in our meeting with Evgeny, we made a wonderful discovery. Looking carefully at Pogner’s text in the massive and complicated finale of Act I, Evgeny pointed out that he speaks very positively of Walther von Stolzing, and expresses his anxiety as to whether Eva will choose him. In the light of Pogner’s evasive communication with Eva in Act II, this is a fascinating moment, and led us into all sorts of speculation about this character and his motivations. I’ve lived with Meistersinger for years and never really thought about this. It’s so very exciting when we can look at such a familiar piece and make new discoveries. With this sort of creative work happening even before our rehearsal period begins, I’m expecting the upcoming weeks to be very exciting.