A visit to Covent Garden for 'Die Meistersinger',
with Classical Music agony aunt ALICE McVEIGH
I lucked out on 22 December 2011, and got tickets to the Royal Opera House's Die Meistersinger. Here is my take on this still-fresh production:
It is entirely dominated by Wolfgang Koch, as Hans Sachs, despite a divine Eva in Emma Bell, and an exciting David in Toby Spence.
As for Koch, those carping critics who decided that his voice wasn't 'big enough' for the Royal Opera House entirely failed to notice the quality of his acting, and the way he uses dynamics to expertly shift the phrasing emphasis (something the supremely gifted Simon O'Neill as von Stolzing found very hard to do, though his part is horrifically high)...
Copyright © 30 December 2011
Alice McVeigh, Kent UK
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