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Indulging in Forbidden Consecutives
Mastersingers at the BBC Proms,
enjoyed by ROBERT ANDERSON
Years ago Wieland Wagner gave us at Bayreuth a Mastersingers without Nuremberg, as perforce did Welsh National Opera at the Proms on 17 July 2010. Characters scurried on and off the platform as required, the admirable Beckmesser of Christopher Purves gesticulated more than most, David Soar's wonderful Nightwatchman reduced many of us to tears high up against his multicoloured background, and the choral ladies of the non-existent city set an example of united domestic responsibility by sitting with bare arms (a trifle daring, perhaps) but demurely clasped hands.
It is high time we stopped bothering how much of Beckmesser was really Hanslick, and through what remote ancestor the latter acquired some drops of Jewish blood...
Copyright © 20 July 2010
Robert Anderson,
London UK
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