danajohnhill.org

I love opera (I have the pennant to prove it ) because it is simultaneously base and sophisticated.

Take, for example, the production of Die Miestersinger von Nürnberg at this summer’s Bayreuth Festival, which concluded last Tuesday. From what I read, Katharina Wagner, the composer’s great-granddaughter, is the heir apparent to the directorship presently held by her father, Wolfgang, who has ruled Bayreuth with unrelenting control for decades, and she has created a terrible production of Wagner’s sole comedy. According to Michael Kimmelman, so awful was this Meistersinger that, at the conclusion, as the über-hot Katharina was taking her bows, she was greeted by a cascade of boos. This is not uncommon at Bayreuth: in 2005 I wrote about that year’s production of Parisfal which I heard on the radio. At it’s conclusion, after the customary silence afforded that most sacred of operas, the audience erupted into loud boos. It was fantastic.

Certainly, the young Ms. Wagner knew she was about be be booed, and she handled it with dignity. It will be interesting to see how well she does in the long term if she, indeed, assumes the Geschäftsführung title. As Mr. Kimmelman points out in his New York Times review, the festival is ironic for being run in a fashion that is simultaneously conservative (its nepotism) and radical (its bizarre productions). The same part of me that appreciates that someone named Ford runs the Ford Motor Company also appreciates that a descendant of Richard Wagner runs the festival which countless disciples of the composer consider an essential pilgrimage. I, too, hope to one day see a Ring or a Tristan or a Parsifal at Bayreuth. I’d prefer it to be in a production that the composer would recognize. But, even if it isn’t, and Fasolt rapes Fafner, or Isolde is presented as a stripper, or Kundry is made to be a crack whore, I am glad to know that, thanks to opera’s duality of refinement and hooliganism, I can always boo.