I haven't listened to very many of the Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts in recent years. Partly that's a matter of just having fallen out of the habit. Partly it's a matter of there just aren't that many operas that I really enjoy hearing over and over.
One of the big exceptions to that rule is today's opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Richard Wagner, of course, is one of the greatest composers who ever lived and certainly in the top three, and I love (really love) almost all of his mature works starting with Dutchman.
But there is something special about Meistersinger; it's his sunniest work, after all, so it seems especially appropriate on a day like this where the temperature is climbing into the 50's for the first time in months.
I feel a special affinity to Wagner's music. He probably could have set the phone book to music and made it interesting. As evidence see what he does with the roll call of the Mastersingers.
It's a long work, of course. The Met's broadcast will last nearly six hours, including intermissions. But there is not a single superfluous note in the entire three acts.
Posted by jt at March 10, 2007 01:07 PM