Re: have your rankings of favorite Meistersingers changed?

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from "Hans Christian Hoff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> contains these words:

{snip}
> >
> > Live dangerously -- add Thomas Quasthoff as the Night Watchman!
> >
> An excellent idea which I second wholeheartedly. There should be no problem
> at all to arrange things on stage so that this wonderfful singer can sing
> his part from a vantage point in a watchtower.

I'm not so sure. He has to enter and exit, remember? But Quasthoff can
get about well enough for all his disability -- he shouldn't need any
special static arrangements such as were made for Marjorie Lawrence as
Venus and Isolde, after her polio. A very short Night Watchman might get
the odd unkind laugh, but from what I know of him I think he'd be able
to cope with that -- and certainly he has exactly the smooth basso
cantante voice to make the role tell, like the voice of the night
itself.

Other than that, though, I'm not at all so sure I'd agree with you about
Meistersinger, that Brendel performance in particular. I don't like
either the cast or the semi-modernized production much -- I much prefer
the Bayreuth video, for all its PC blandness. Brendel seems to me a
lightweight and unconvincing Sachs compared to others I've seen,
including Norman Bailey and Weikl in the Bayreuth video. Admittedly
there does seem to be a shortage of really top-flight Wagnerian
bass-baritones in the German-speaking world right now, but even an
ordinary one like Hans Tschammer seems to me to have more voice and more
presence. And there are some promising figures further afield, such as
James Morris and Bryn Terfel, both still getting into the role, but with
great potential.

 As to the others, I'm not sure about Schade as David -- apart from
anything else, he's on the big side. Graham Clark remains my ideal, but
I'm not sure he's still booking the role; another possibility would be
Gert Henning-Jensen, the right kind of voice and build, and athletic
enough for the fighting and dancing. Schade might be all right as
Walther, but there are others -- Jorma Silvasti, Johan Botha provided
you don't have to look at him, Robert Dean Smith if you do. Or even
Placido Domingo, old as he is, to make up for his disappointing
performance with Jochum. I'd agree Schulte would be okay as Beckmesser,
but I found him very traditionally buffo compared to Sir Thomas Allen, a
really memorable characterization (John Pringle on the Australian video
with Donald Macintyre is also excellent, but that was a while back.)

And I would wholeheartedly agree about Mattila as Eva. Though I wonder
how Renee Fleming would do? Too poised, possibly. There was a rising
British soprano whom I'd have tipped as a great Eva, both vocally and
physically, on the basis of her Rusalka and some other roles, Susan
Chilcott; she was an excellent Rhinemaiden opposite Jane Eaglen, and was
slated for bigger things at Covent Garden by Antonio Pappano. Sadly she
died a few weeks back, barely 40.

Speaking of Pappano, how about conductors? He's very promising; and so
is Donald Runnicles, who's conducted it more often so far. Thielmann
might be indigestible. But after that Australian video I wouldn't mind
Sir Charles Mackerras again, with a better orchestra.

Okay, you can start shooting now!

Cheers,

Mike

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