The operas of Wagner’s maturity are so distinct that they are often referred to not as operas at all, but rather as “music dramas,” in an attempt to underscore the singularity of his aesthetic goals. He moved increasingly toward realizing his ideal of a Gesamtkunstwerk, a work synthesized from disparate artistic disciplines, including music, literature, the visual arts, ballet, and architecture. THE BACKSTORY Richard Wagner’s earliest operas amalgamated more-or-less standard traditions of German Romantic Opera (as codified in the works of Carl Maria von Weber, Heinrich Marschner, and others) and French Grand Opera (a large-scale enterprise typified by Giacomo Meyerbeer and his contemporaries in Paris). INSTRUMENTATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes and English horn, 3 clarinets and bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 8 horns, 4 Wagner tubas, 3 trumpets and bass trumpet, 4 trombones, contrabass tuba, 2 pairs of timpani, 3 harps (though up to 6 are possible), and strings, in addition to the singers. Seiji Ozawa conducted, with Jessye Norman as Sieglinde, Peter Hofmann as Siegmund, and Paul Plishka as Hunding SFS PERFORMANCES: FIRST AND ONLY-While the SFS has played music from Die Walküre many times, beginning in 1912, the only performances of Act I were in May 1977. Franz Wüllner conducted, with soprano Therese Vogl as Sieglinde, tenor Heinrich Vogl as Siegmund, and bass Kaspar Bausewein as Hunding, at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich Leipzig, Saxony (Germany)ĬOMPOSED: Wagner wrote the text from Autumn 1851 through the beginning of 1853 and composed the music largely from June 1854 to March 1856

Die meistersinger sf opera