Hans Sachs is one of the more complex parts composed for a low male voice and is usually sung by mature performers. Nicholas Brownlee is thirty-three years old and the youngest actor to play the role in such a high-profile show. Nicholas Brownlee convinces vocally and in acting, and his beautiful cultured voice sounds firm, powerful and even fresh Nuremberg main songs at the end (the opera lasts five and a half hours, the performance has two thirty-minute intervals). The American singer demonstrates excellent German pronunciation and diction, is endowed with charm and charisma. Since 2020/2021 Nicolas Brownlee is an artist of the Frankfurt Opera company. His progress is definitely worth following.
“My dream came true, but probably ten years earlier than I expected,” says Nicholas Brownlee of Hans Sachs’ party. “What I did in preparation for the role was repeat the lines over and over again. I think it’s a little easier with a thirty-three year old brain than a fifty year old brain. I think Nuremberg main songs at its core is the idea of how to move society forward while still understanding and appreciating what has come before. On the one hand, it is a tribute to the old man. On the other hand, the new takes its place. Each generation goes a little further, gets a little better and more advanced. If something goes better, we can talk about progress, ”shares Nicholas Brownlee in his thoughts on Wagner’s comedy, adored in Germany.
Masterpieces from Nuremberg was staged by Sebastiāns Weigle, music director of the Frankfurt Opera, this is the German conductor’s 15th and last season as music director of the theatre. Under his leadership, Wagner’s opera sounds sparkling and dynamic, the conductor brilliantly highlights comic drive and poeticism, but not frivolity. The performance features an excellent ensemble in which each soloist shines, and many of them are making their debut in this Wagner opera, so they play and sing with particular passion – bass Andreas Bauers-Kanabas (goldsmith Feits Pogners), known to the Latvian public, the baritone Mihaels Naģs (conductor Sistus Bekmesers) and the tenor EJ Glückert (Knight Walter von Stolzing). Faith Pogner’s daughter Ieva is played by soprano Magdalena Hinterdobler, Ieva’s nanny Magdalena is played by mezzo-soprano Claudia Manke.
German director Johannes Erath offers an ironic, modern and whimsical interpretation with elements of surrealism and absurdity. In the show, the influence of both René Magritte’s characters and the cabaret aesthetic can be seen. Johannes Erath compares Wagner’s satire to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – both opera and comedy take place on Midsummer’s Eve. The director also draws parallels with Samuel Beckett’s theater of the absurd, which is a kind of reaction to our “meaningless world”, in which man lives in freedom, but also in fear and alienation. The opera characters Hans Sachs and Sixtus Beckmesser remind Johannes Erath Beckett Waiting for Godot relatives of the heroes Vladimir and Estragon. The show has many references to cultural and artistic facts that enrich and refresh the experience of the audience.
Masterpieces from Nuremberg You can listen in Frankfurt on November 27, December 3, 9 and 17.
Information: oper-frankfurt.de
