Wagner: Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg - Bayreuth Festival (2017) [Blu-ray]

Deutsche Grammophon’s collaboration with the Bayreuth Festival has delivered rich artistic fruits over many decades. Their latest creative venture, a multi-year project launched in 2016, positions the Yellow Label as the legendary annual Wagner festival’s exclusive audiovisual partner. The relationship has already documented landmark Bayreuth stagings of Tristan und Isolde (2016) and Parsifal (2017) as DVD/Blu-ray videos. The edition’s third installment, scheduled for international release on July 20, is devoted to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Wagner’s music drama, his only mature comedy, emerges here in the fresh light of Barrie Kosky’s critically acclaimed Bayreuth Festival debut production.

The Australian director’s vision of Die Meistersinger, first staged at Bayreuth in July 2017, was greeted as “a triumph” by the Berliner Morgenpost, hailed by Opera News for its “enormous insight and great quality” and described as “imaginative, supple and serious” by the Guardian.

“Astonishingly entertaining and convincing“ – Der Spiegel
“A triumph“ – Berliner Morgenpost
“A production of enormous insight and great quality … that plumbs the depths of both the opera and its composer” – Opera News
“An exquisite cast” – Die Zeit
“Michael Volle was an eloquent Sachs” – The New York Times
“Philippe Jordan’s supple conducting is moulded aroung Kosky’s staging … and the Bayreuth Orchestra and Chorus are superb” – The Guardian