Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Overture Opera Guides) 1847495583, 9781847495587

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
The Music: A Commentary
Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller
The Beckmesser Problem
The Performance Legacy of Die Meistersinger
Thematic Guide
Die Meistersingervon Nürnberg, Libretto
ACT ONE
ACT TWO
ACT THREE
Select Discography
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD
Select Bibliography
Wagner Websites
Note on the Contributors
Acknowledgements

Citation preview

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We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Overture Publishing on this series of opera guides and to build on the work English National Opera did over twenty years ago on the Calder Opera Guide Series. As well as reworking and updating existing titles, Overture and ENO have commissioned new titles for the series and all of the guides will be published to coincide with repertoire being staged by the company at the London Coliseum. We hope that these guides will prove an invaluable resource now and for years to come, and that by delving deeper into the history of an opera, the poetry of the libretto and the nuances of the score, readers’ understanding and appreciation of the opera and the art form in general will be enhanced. John Berry, CBE Artistic Director, ENO

The publisher John Calder began the Opera Guides series under the editorship of the late Nicholas John in association with English National Opera in 1980. It ran until 1994 and eventually included forty-eight titles, covering fifty-eight operas. The books in the series were intended to be companions to the works that make up the core of the operatic repertory. They contained articles, illustrations, musical examples and a complete libretto and singing translation of each opera in the series, as well as bibliographies and discographies. The aim of the present relaunched series is to make available again the guides already published in a redesigned format with new illustrations, some newly commissioned articles, updated reference sections and a literal translation of the libretto that will enable the reader to get closer to the meaning of the original. New guides of operas not already covered will be published alongside the redesigned ones from the old series. Gary Kahn Series Editor

Sponsors of the Overture Opera Guide to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Eric Adler Frank and Lorna Dunphy Richard Everall Ali Khan Andrew Medlicott Ralph Wells

Sponsors of the Overture Opera Guide ebook to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

The Nicholas John Trust

The Nicholas John Trust was established in 1996 to promote the art of opera. In addition to providing scholarships for students preparing for an opera career, it supports organizations involved in encouraging a greater understanding and appreciation of opera. For more information on Nicholas John and his work, see his biography in the Note on the Contributors section at the end of this guide.

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Richard Wagner

Overture Opera Guides Series Editor Gary Kahn Editorial Consultant Philip Reed

OP OVERTURE

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Overture Publishing an imprint of alma classics

London House 243-253 Lower Mortlake Road Richmond Surrey TW9 2LL United Kingdom Article by Arnold Whittall, first published by John Calder (Publishers) Ltd, 1981, revised 2015 © the author, 2015 Articles by John Deathridge, Tim Blanning, Hans Rudolf Vaget and Áine Sheil first published in this volume © the authors, 2015 This Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Opera Guide first published by Overture Publishing, an imprint of Alma Classics Ltd, 2015 © Alma Classics Ltd, 2015 All rights reserved Translation of libretto © Peter Branscombe Printed in United Kingdom by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY isbn:

978-1-84749-558-7

All the pictures in this volume are reprinted with permission or presumed to be in the public domain. Every effort has been made to ascertain and acknowledge their copyright status, but should there have been any unwitting oversight on our part, we would be happy to rectify the error in subsequent printings. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.

Contents List of Illustrations

10

Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg11 John Deathridge The Music: A Commentary Arnold Whittall

28

Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller Tim Blanning

42

The Beckmesser Problem Hans Rudolf Vaget

49

The Performance Legacy of Die Meistersinger Áine Sheil

57

Thematic Guide

75

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Libretto

81

Act One

85

Act Two

161

Act Three

243

Select Discography

326

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD

330

Select Bibliography

333

Wagner Websites

336

Note on the Contributors

337

Acknowledgements341

List of Illustrations

1. Richard Wagner in 1868 2. Nuremberg at the end of the fifteenth century 3. The Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich in the 1860s 4. The Meistersingerschrein from Nuremberg’s St Catherine’s Church (Gemälde- und Skulpturensammlung, Nuremberg) 5. National Choral Festival in Nuremberg, 1861 (Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg) 6. Playbill for the 1868 Munich premiere 7. Wagner in the royal box at the Munich premiere 8. Set design by Max and Gotthold Brückner for the first Bayreuth production 9. Karl Scheidemantel 10. Fritz Friedrichs 11. Cast for Act Three, Scene One at Glyndebourne 12. Liebig card of Eva, Sachs and Walther 13. Winifred Wagner with Hitler at the Stadttheater, Nuremberg 14. Wilhelm Rode’s production at the Deutsches Opernhaus, Berlin 15. Playbill for the 1935 Berlin production 16. Rudolf Hartmann’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1951 (Fritz Ramme) 17. Wieland Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1956 (Siegfried Lauterwasser/ Festspielleitung Bayreuth) 18. Wieland Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1963 (Wilhelm Rauh/Fest spielleitung Bayreuth) 19. Wolfgang Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival, 1968 (Siegfried Lauterwasser/ Festspielleitung Bayreuth) 20. Norman Bailey and Derek Hammond-Stroud (Reg Wilson) 21. Hans Neuenfels’s production at Oper Stuttgart (Mara Eggert) 22. Graham Vick’s production at the Royal Opera House (Clive Barda) 23. Kurt Horres’s production at La Monnaie (Johan Jacobs) 24. Katharina Wagner’s production at the Bayreuth Festival (Bayreuther Festspiele GmbH/Jochen Quast) 25. Raymond Very and Bryn Terfel at WNO (Catherine Ashmore) 26. Andreas Homiki’s production at the Komische Oper Berlin (Monika Rittershaus) 27. Johannes Martin Kränzle and Gerald Finley (Alastair Muir) 28. David Alden’s production at the Netherlands Opera (Monika Rittershaus) 29. Stefan Herheim’s production at the Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele/Forster)

1. Richard Wagner in 1868, portrait by Joseph Bernhardt painted for King Ludwig II of Bavaria before the rehearsals of the first performance of Die Meistersinger. Wagner called it ‘the best portrait of me that still exists’.

2. Nuremberg at the end of the fifteenth century, from Hartmann Schendel’s Weltchronik (1493) (above). 3. The Hof- und Nationaltheater, Munich, in the 1860s (below).

4. Detail of the Meistersingerschrein (1621) from Nuremberg’s St Catherine’s Church, now in the city’s Gemälde- und Skulpturensammlung (above). Twelve Mastersingers in session, with Hans Sachs added posthumously on the left. Note the chain and wreath above them. 5. Souvenir print of the Second Pan-German Choral Festival in Nuremberg, 1861 (below). The event deliberately set out to celebrate the city’s illustrious past and to proclaim the wish for German unity.

6. Playbill for the 1868 Munich premiere (detail).

7. Wagner in the royal box of the Hof- und Nationaltheater acknowledging the audience’s applause at the Munich premiere.

The first Bayreuth Meistersinger in 1888: 8. Set design for Act Two by Max and Gotthold Brückner, based on the Munich production and which remained the model for many subsequent productions well into the twentieth century (above). 9. Karl Scheidemantel as Hans Sachs (bottom left). 10. Fritz Friedrichs as Sixtus Beckmesser (bottom right).

11. Liebig card, advertising meat extract, and featuring Eva, Sachs and Walther, 1910 (above). 12. Glyndebourne, 1928 (below). The cast in costume for a concert performance of Act Three, Scene One in the Organ Room, with John Christie (far right) as Beckmesser, six years before the first Glyndebourne Festival.

13. Winifred Wagner as Hitler’s guest in the former royal box at the Stadttheater, Nuremberg, in 1935 for the Reichsparteitag production of Die Meistersinger (above). A performance of the opera opened every Nazi party rally in the city. 14. The Festival Meadow scene in Act Three of the production directed by Wilhelm Rode and designed by Benno von Arent at the Deutsches Opernhaus, Berlin, 1935 (below). The vertical banners echo those of Nazi rallies.

15. Playbill for the 1935 Berlin production. Words from Sachs’s Act Three peroration, ‘was deutsch und echt’, are inscribed at the bottom above the swastika seal.

Post-war Bayreuth: 16. Act Two of the production directed by Rudolf Hartmann and designed by Hans Reissinger in 1951 (above): tradition still ruling. 17. Act Two of the production directed and designed by Wieland Wagner in 1956 (below): ‘Die Meistersinger ohne Nürnberg’.

18. Act One of the production directed and designed by Wieland Wagner in 1963 (above): the wooden Shakespearean playhouse. 19. The Act Three quintet in the production directed and designed by Wolfgang Wagner in the opera’s centenary year of 1968 (below).

20. Norman Bailey as Sachs and Derek Hammond-Stroud as Beckmesser in the production directed by Glen Byam Shaw and John Blatchley and designed by Motley at Sadler’s Wells Opera in 1968 (above). 21. Wolfgang Probst as Sachs, about to ascend in a chariot at the end of Act Three, in the production directed by Hans Neuenfels and designed by Reinhard von Thannen at Oper Stuttgart in 1994 (below) (see pp. 65–66).

22. The riot at the end of Act Two in the production directed by Graham Vick and designed by Richard Hudson at the Royal Opera House in 1993 (above). 23. Ulrika Tenstam as Magdalene, Emily Magee as Eva and Robert Dean Smith as Walther in the production directed by Kurt Horres and designed by Andreas Reinhardt at La Monnaie originally in 1985, seen here in 2000 (below).

24. Act Three of the production directed by Katharina Wagner and designed by Tilo Steffens at the Bayreuth Festival in 2007 (above). 25. Raymond Very as Walther and Bryn Terfel as Sachs in the production directed by Richard Jones and designed by Paul Steinberg at WNO in 2010 (below).

26. Act Three of the production directed by Andreas Homiki and designed by Frank Philipp Schlößmann at the Komische Oper Berlin in 2010 (above). 27. Johannes Martin Kränzle as Beckmesser and Gerald Finley as Sachs in the production directed by David McVicar and designed by Vicki Mortimer at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2011 (below).

28. Act Three of the production directed by David Alden and designed by Gideon Davey at the Netherlands Opera in 2013 (above). 29. The girls from Furth arrive by train in Act Three of the production directed by Stefan Herheim and designed by Heike Scheele at the Salzburg Festival in 2013 (below).

Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg John Deathridge After describing the notorious Paris Tannhäuser debacle and the endless frustrating rehearsals of Tristan und Isolde in Vienna in 1861 that eventually led nowhere, Wagner says in his autobiography Mein Leben (My Life): ‘I decided to write Die Meistersinger.’1 This single lapidary sentence is one of the most enigmatic he ever put into print. After making the momentous decision to write Tristan und Isolde seven years before, he had supposedly lost all interest in composing Die Meistersinger. He had put an early scenario of it written in 1845 to one side and given it to his ‘muse’ Mathilde Wesendonck as a present. Over time Wagner presented Mathilde with over fifty of his autograph manuscripts he no longer needed. But in 1861 he sheepishly asked for his Meistersinger manuscript back. What made him change his mind? The cliché usually trotted out is that his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck had cooled. After his passionate affair with her in the mid-1850s that inspired the creation of Tristan, so the story goes, he now needed to write something completely different to express his need to distance himself from her. That may have an element of truth. But the biographical picture of Wagner in a tight emotional clinch with his ‘muse’, from which he desperately needed to extricate himself, is too neat and tidy to be really convincing. And in any case it assumes that the two had had an affair in the first place, for which there is scant evidence. Wagner did flirt with the wife of his patron Otto Wesendonck, it is true; but this is not the same thing as actually sleeping with her. 1 Richard Wagner, My Life, trans. Andrew Gray, ed. Mary Whittall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 667.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg The more prosaic truth is twofold: Wagner urgently needed money; and he started developing good ideas about his old Meistersinger project that had not occurred to him before. Most of the differences between the original plan he sketched in 1845 as a ‘Comic Opera in Three Acts’2 and the substantially revised version he composed between 1861 and 1867 are local and concern subtle details. But others are so far-reaching that eventually the designation ‘comic opera’ had to be abandoned altogether – a significant fact about Die Meistersinger that is often overlooked. In his autobiographical writings Wagner describes the early Meistersinger draft as a comic ‘satyr play’3 about a medieval singing competition conceived as a humorous counterpart to the fraught complexity of Tannhäuser and the Song Competition at Wartburg, first performed in Dresden in 1845. His new ideas sixteen years later were quickly to transform the whole thing into a drama that was indeed still ‘soft, humorous, impudent, whimsical’,4 but now had become a melancholic allegory second to none in his entire output. Clearly angling for yet another advance, Wagner wrote to his publisher that he had decided to cheer himself up with ‘some lighter subject’5 that would be finished much faster than his other works, probably within a year. That year turned into six – the last note of Die Meistersinger, according to an autograph date entered at the end of the score, was written on ‘Thursday, 24th October 1867, eight o’clock in the evening’6 – and probably no other single fact about the work is more eloquent 2 See the excellent English translation of the 1845 draft by Jane Ennis in Wagner [New Series], 8/1 (January 1987), pp. 13–22. 3 ‘A Communication to My Friends’ in Richard Wagner’s Prose Works, trans. and ed. William Ashton Ellis, 8 vols. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd, 1892–99), vol. 1, p. 329. 4 ‘[Z]art, heiter, keck, drollig’: letter to King Ludwig II, 5th September 1866 in Richard Wagner, Sämtliche Briefe, vol. 18, ed. Andreas Mielke (Wiesbaden, Leipzig, Paris: Breitkopf & Härtel), p. 219. 5 Letter of 30th October 1861 from Vienna to Franz Schott in Mainz. See Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1987), p. 527. 6 See John Deathridge, Martin Geck, Egon Voss, Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis (WWV): Verzeichnis der musikalischen Werke Richard Wagners und ihrer Quellen (Mainz, London, New York, Tokyo: B. Schott’s Söhne, 1986), p. 478.

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg about the lengthy and involved journey Wagner undertook towards its completion. Taking a few snapshots of the finished version against the background of his first draft and the later ideas he injected into it may help us to see how he arrived at his wonderful and, at first, unexpected destination.

Boy Meets Girl At the beginning of Die Meistersinger everything is almost too much for the knight Walther von Stolzing. He has come to Nuremberg on business, only to find distraction in Eva. Even the intensely serious subjects of the opening chorale – John the Baptist, Christ’s baptism and His self-sacrifice for the sins of humanity – cannot bring him to his senses. All he can do is to lean against a pillar in Nuremberg’s St Catherine’s Church and gaze passionately at Eva, who is sitting in a pew with her nurse Magdalene. Eva is equally smitten. She notices Walther’s importunate glances with a rush of feeling, enough to deserve a reproving nudge from her companion. She has met Walther just once, and then only the day before in the house of her wealthy father Pogner. For a Franconian knight, whose family finances have seen better times, this had been an essential visit for Walther. Not that he now sees it that way. ‘O, betrat ich doch nie sein Haus’ (‘Oh, If only I had never entered his house’), he blurts out. Visiting Pogner was not a mistake because of any failed business deal or anything remotely similar. It was there he had met Eva. Boy meets girl is never simple with Wagner. Understandably, the pragmatic Magdalene wants to make light of it all. You are just ungrateful, she tells Walther; so far you have been well received in Nuremberg. But things are not that straightforward. Walther demands a ‘word’ of assurance. Is Eva betrothed or not? He receives an enigmatic answer: that will be decided in the Mastersingers’ competition tomorrow – the first Walther has ever heard of the Mastersingers. ‘Are you not one?’, Eva asks anxiously. ‘A wooing song?’ Walther replies. What’s all this about the prize of Eva’s hand to be decided by the Mastersingers’ guild? Doesn’t the bride have a choice? Her feeling rising precipitously and ignoring all rules, Eva bursts out: ‘You – or no one!’ 13

die meistersinger von nürnberg It is easy to overlook the tangle of sentiment under the surface of this seemingly innocuous banter. In the third scene, when Walther sees Pogner again, he apologizes that he ‘forgot’ to tell him the day before of his wish ‘to be a Mastersinger’. What drove him to make for Nuremberg, he claims all of a sudden, was his ‘love of art’. This is just po-faced fibbing. It is already clear that he knew nothing about art or the Mastersingers in the first scene until David, the apprentice of the cobbler Hans Sachs, gave him an impromptu lesson in the second. Walther is no literary expert, nor even a particular fan of the Mastersingers: he just wants to get the girl. Or is the banal motivation more complex? Things were not always like this. In the first draft Wagner wrote in 1845, the ‘young man’ at the start exudes enthusiasm for German literature and the Mastersingers. Indeed he is so well versed in the German poetic corpus of the Middle Ages that he offers the astonished masters ‘Siegfried and Grimmhilde’, and then ‘Parzifal’ in the Ton of Wolfram von Eschenbach as subjects for his test piece in the first act – only to be told with a philistine shaking of heads: ‘The rules must be obeyed’.7 This ‘young man’ is probably a self-portrait of Wagner himself. Apparently, while he was taking a cure at Marienbad at the time he conceived the scenario, his brain was so saturated with the poems of the medieval poet Wolfram von Eschenbach and Georg Gottfried Gervinus’s multivolume History of the Poetic Literature of the Germans (1835–42) that he simply had to write down his ‘whole Mastersingers comedy’ with blithe disregard for the possible consequences to his health. His doctor, we read in My Life, reacted in a way not unlike his Mastersingers: he strongly objected to the flouting of the (medical) rules and in no uncertain terms told his patient that he was ‘utterly unsuitable’ for treatment.8 The reason we meet a rather different Walther in the final version of Die Meistersinger is that when Wagner suddenly decided sixteen years later to revise and finish the work he had already composed a large part of the Ring (up to the end of the second act of Siegfried) and Tristan und Isolde. In the meantime, he had also discovered Arthur Schopenhauer, who to the end of his life remained his favourite philosopher. Here he found clarification of many of his life experiences, including, as he put 7 See Jane Ennis’s translation of the 1845 draft (n. 2), p. 15. 8 Wagner, op. cit., pp. 302–3.

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg it in a letter to Liszt in Weimar, ‘the final denial of the will to live’ – an idea of ‘terrible seriousness’ and ‘uniquely redeeming’.9 Definitely not a reason for suicide, the notion is close to Buddhist philosophy, as Schopenhauer acknowledged, and assumes two things: that desire is prior to thought (i.e. the Will, in Schopenhauer’s sense of the word, has primacy over the intellect) and that desire causes suffering. The goal of life therefore becomes the attempt to deny the Will, to cleanse oneself of the futility of desire through great personal suffering and an awareness of, and reflection upon, the suffering of others. According to My Life, Wagner’s sudden decision to reshape and complete Die Meistersinger had solely to do with the ‘most exalting impression’10 made on him in Venice by Titian’s painting Assumption of the Virgin – an image he described many years later to his second wife Cosima as recalling ‘to him his idea of the sexual urge: this unique and mighty force, now freed of all desire, the Will enraptured and redeemed’.11 In the context of Die Meistersinger the comments sound distinctly odd and have led to a collective shaking of scholarly heads. But the important question is: what on earth has Wagner’s interpretation of Titian’s masterpiece got to do with his imaginative depiction of the seemingly jovial goings-on and rambunctious rough and tumble in sixteenth-century Nuremberg? The answer is Schopenhauer and Tristan. If the dissatisfied Will, the irrational desire and violence controlling human life is to retain its primacy over intellect, the ‘young man’ immersed in German literature in the first version of Die Meistersinger had to be transformed into someone with essentially no interest in reason and thought. Walther is driven by the sexual urge, not German literature, and clearly willing to go to desperate lengths to satisfy it. Desire has made Eva blind to reality too, willing as she also is to override the rules of the singing competition set out by her own father in order to be with Walther, and at the risk of ending up in the void: ‘you – or no one!’ The lovers’ covert 9 Letter of 16th December 1854 from Zurich. See Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, p. 323. 10 Op. cit., p. 667. 11 Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack (eds.), Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, trans. Geoffrey Skelton, 2 vols. (London: Collins, 1978–80), vol. 2, p. 851 (entry for 25th April 1882).

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die meistersinger von nürnberg plan to elope in the second act in order to escape the narrow confines of Nuremberg’s twisting alleys and the oppressive stuffiness behind the bottle-glass windows of its quaint houses is present in the early scenario. But in the final work it has been embroidered as a likely exit into darkness that now recalls the fated desire of the lovers in Tristan und Isolde, their yearning for night and oblivion.

Sachs to the Rescue Hence Hans Sachs’s real concern when he overhears what the lovers intend to do. Unlike his counterpart King Mark in Tristan, an older man who suffers passively (and at length) when he discovers that his young wife is sleeping with his trusted friend and comrade Tristan, Sachs takes action to prevent the lovers’ escape. Indeed, he turns into a true hero of Schopenhauer’s ethics the moment he is made to sing his drawn-out cobbling song about the expulsion of Eve from Paradise, a pointed lesson Eva is meant to hear and one that deliberately frustrates the lovers by seriously delaying their getaway. The Hans Sachs of Die Meistersinger in its final form is the great conduit of the denial of the Will. A laconic, even cynical figure in the first version, he becomes the magnificent emotional fulcrum of the finished drama. Capable of true insight into Walther and Eva’s compulsive attraction to each other, the new Sachs tries in effect to spare them the consequences of ‘love as terrible torment’ (‘Liebe als furchtbare Qual’) – the whole point of Tristan, according to Wagner12 – while also reflecting on the delusional state of humanity in general. The key is the untranslatable German word ‘Wahn’, which can mean folly as both a disordered sense of reality leading to madness and, especially in the context of Die Meistersinger, a daringly adventurous belief in the benign illusions of art. The philosophical clinch between opposites within a single word, more frequently found in German than in English, is explored with musical brilliance in one of the most memorable passages in the entire work: Sachs’s ‘Wahn’ monologue near the beginning of Act Three. This is a moment that Wagner simply could not have written before 12 Letter of 23rd August 1856 from Zurich to August Röckel in Waldheim. See Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, p. 359 (translation modified).

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg composing King Mark’s response to Tristan’s adultery in the second act of Tristan – music expressing a kind of melancholic bafflement about human relations that for Mark never really ceases. The difference in Die Meistersinger is that Sachs, through reflection, eventually manages with great effort and personal sacrifice to overcome the futility of the sexual urge and to make his peace with the lunacy of the world. It falls to Eva to warn him that he may yet not succeed. They are erotically attracted to each other – a brilliant idea added to the revised version. ‘If I had the choice,’ Eva tells him, ‘I would choose none but you.’ But the situation has chosen her instead – ‘necessity, compulsion’ (‘ein Müssen… ein Zwang’). It has also led ‘to unknown torment’ (‘zu nie gekannter Qual’). The allusion to the language of Tristan is followed almost immediately by a quotation from the score, leaving no doubt that in Die Meistersinger the emotional and dramatic universe of that work has long since seeped into the fabric of the action. ‘My child / of Tristan and Isolde / I know a sad tale,’ Sachs sings in reply to Eva, in effect rejecting her advances as the orchestra remembers (a semitone lower) the actual opening of Tristan. And to the sound of King Mark’s theme plucked from Act Two, he adds: ‘Hans Sachs was clever and did not want / anything of King Mark’s lot.’ Sachs’s love for Eva, a much younger woman he has known since she was a child, is neither formally under threat nor blindly driven by fate like the love of Tristan and Isolde. But it is real enough, and the choice he makes to relinquish it in the name of art – the sublime consecration of Walther’s Prize Song is soon to follow – is an act of true sacrifice. Seeing Mark’s lot in Tristan as salutary, Sachs avoids tragedy by a hair’s breadth. Neither Walther nor Eva had reckoned with meeting each other, a fateful moment nearly leading to disaster: now the consequences of that moment are certain to take a different course.

Inventing the Allegory Unlike his first concept from the mid-1840s, Wagner starts sewing allegorical threads together right at the start of the Meistersinger we know today. In the early scenario his lovers have a fleeting exchange of passionate whispers in a Nuremberg church after a service, mingling with the congregation as they leave to the sound of an organ voluntary. 17

die meistersinger von nürnberg In the post-Tristan version he had a better idea: a quasi-Lutheran hymn, musically derived from the opening of the overture (one of the first things he composed after deciding to resume Die Meistersinger) and with words based on a Martin Luther chorale text in a hymnal published in 1543 which translated reads: ‘Christ our Lord came to the Jordan / in accordance with His father’s will / to receive baptism from St John, / His work and ministry to fulfil…
 / also to drown bitter death / through His own blood and wounds.’ In stark contrast, the text of Wagner’s own chorale addresses St John personally: ‘When the Saviour came to thee / willingly accepted thy baptism, / dedicating Himself to a sacrificial death, / He gave the covenant for our salvation.’ This allows us to guess that we are in a church service dedicated to St John on a late afternoon in ‘Nuremberg, around the middle of the sixteenth century’, the time of the action given in the score. This can be no other than 23rd June, a moment in the Christian liturgical calendar known as St John’s Eve, the preparation for the Festival of the Nativity of St John the Baptist on the following day. The precision of place and time is worthy of an opera by Meyerbeer and Scribe, Wagner’s main rivals, who were fond of stage directions like this one at the start of Act Three of their grand opera Les Huguenots: ‘Sunday in August [1572, in Paris] about six o’clock in the afternoon’. Les Huguenots is an operatic version of the human disaster that led to the brutal slaughter of Protestants by Catholics in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572. No specific historical event could have ever been part of Die Meistersinger: Wagner’s story is in essence pure allegory and entirely his own invention, indeed the only one of his stage works not based on any other narrative source. And for all its fascinating detail culled from the historical accounts of the real Mastersingers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its culturally charged symbols are emphatically directed at its nineteenth-century audience. It really is almost as if Hans Sachs is leafing through Schopenhauer’s magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation, from the first half of the nineteenth century, when, according to Wagner’s scenic instructions at the beginning of Act Three, he ‘noisily turns over one of the large pages of the folio’ on his lap. Nothing points more vividly to Wagner’s strategy of linking fantasies about the past with life in the present than the simple 18

Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg fact that he deliberately timed Die Meistersinger’s first performance so that it would take place at the summer solstice on Midsummer Day, 21st June 1868 – a date also closely associated in Christian cultures with the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist beginning two days later. In German, John is actually Hans Sachs’s first name. (For official purposes, Hans is a name in its own right, but it was originally short for Johannes.) The allusion to the harbinger of Christ in the opening chorale provides Hans Sachs’s role with a quasi-religious glow before he slowly begins to lend authority to Walther as – so to speak – the true musical Messiah of the future. The dynamics of the biblical model and the plot of Die Meistersinger, in other words, already begin to replicate each other. The age-old theological issue about why Christ, Himself without sin, should require the baptism of John in the first place is solved in Die Meistersinger by Sachs, who not only takes on the onerous role of preparing the way for the new ‘Messiah’ at the cost of significant personal sacrifice, but also gives his final blessing to Walther to pursue his own mission by recalling a snippet of the Act One chorale about John the Baptist that now prepares the way for the baptism of the Prize Song, but not the person who sings it. The theological tussle in the Gospels about the rationale for Christ’s baptism – the argument about why the putative leader of mankind who has Himself never sinned needs authoritative approval from John the Baptist to absolve the sins of others – is short-circuited by deference to the baptism of a work of art, which on account of the sheer beauty it will present in the final tableau is beyond mundane moral concerns. The ritual of baptism takes place during a visionary quintet led by a woman (Eva) in the name of a new kind of music that in a modern spirit is to transcend the sins of the people, who begin to fall into an enraptured state the moment Walther begins to improvise ever-new words of his song (‘beneath a wondrous tree…’) not heard before by either Sachs or the people, let alone the audience. It is as if his music, already presented earlier in the act as the gift of an inspired dream, is about to assume divine status. Christ’s mission in the biblical story is in effect about to be transformed in the opera into a quasi-religious quest for the redemption of humanity in which art itself, precisely because of its apparent lack of sin, is destined to play the principal role. 19

die meistersinger von nürnberg

‘In the Beginning Was the Deed’: Faust and the Other St John Sachs is one of twelve Mastersingers assembling after the afternoon service in St Catherine’s Church in Act One for their roll-call and discussion of current business. The number twelve obviously resonates with the number of Christ’s apostles. Researching intensively into his complete overhaul of Die Meistersinger, Wagner found their names in a late seventeenth-century scholarly book about Nuremberg by the polymath Johann Christian Wagenseil.13 With the help of the composer Peter Cornelius, he tracked the book down in the Imperial Court Library in Vienna in the early 1860s and lost no time in raiding the section on the authentic religious and rigorously rule-laden musical practices of the real Mastersingers. As Wagenseil records in almost excruciating detail, these were still being followed in seventeenth-century Nuremberg, when memories of their most illustrious member, the sixteenth-century Hans Sachs, were still strong. In modern times, scholarly attention has focused on an early seventeenth-century votive tablet or quasi-altarpiece called the Meistersingerschrein, which hung on the walls of (the real) St Catherine’s Church in Nuremberg. Now in the city’s Gemälde- und Skulpturensammlung, it takes the form of a triptych, the wings of which were opened after the church service, when, in front of the shrine, the Mastersinger School ‘held its solemn session’.14 Apart from this clear evidence that the sequence of events in Act One of Die Meistersinger has an element of authenticity, the shrine also offers visual snapshots of Mastersinger ideology and ritual practice in 1621 that had not changed substantially since the middle of the sixteenth century. At the top is King David as the first Mastersinger being crowned by angels as he kneels before the Holy Trinity. Beneath is the entire School in session, each face of the figures an actual portrait of members living 13 Johann Christoph Wagenseil, ‘Buch von der Meister-Sänger Holdseligen Kunst’ (aus: De civitate Noribergensi commentatio. Altdorf 1697), ed. Horst Brunner (Göppingen: Alfred Kümmerle, 1975). The names of the elder Mastersingers that Wagner adopted practically unaltered are on p. 515 of the facsimile reproduction of the original. 14 Clair Hayden Bell, ‘The Dating of the Meistersingerschrein of Nürnberg’, Monatshefte, 43/2 (February 1952), p. 83.

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the time. They are divided into two groups, the left from the observer’s point of view consisting of the elders, the part of the School to which the names listed in Wagenseil’s study used by Wagner refer. Above them hang the so-called ‘school wreath’ (Schulkranz) and the silver chain known in the School as the ‘David’ (see plate 4).15 They were awarded symbolically to the winners of the second and first prizes in each singing competition respectively, though in Wagner’s allegory that presents a puzzle. At the end of Die Meistersinger, Sachs eventually gets second prize (the wreath), presumably for good service, and Walther the chain (a gold one in the opera), which should count as first prize, but because of Sachs’s final speech and the subsequent jubilation of the chorus in praise of the older man, their acknowledged ‘leader’, hardly feels like one. The elders depicted in the left field of the shrine number thirteen, because Sachs has been added posthumously on the upper left-hand side as the spiritual leader of the twelve as if he were still living among them. But for Wagner’s purposes thirteen Mastersingers in the stage picture (and in the cast list) would have been too many. In any case they all had to be alive – and in good health. One of the much lauded jokes during the masters’ roll-call is the announcement by an apprentice that one of them, Niklaus Vogel, is absent though illness. The real gag is that Wagner found a witty way of preserving allegorical exactitude. Twelve Mastersingers they had to be, suggesting that Hans Sachs, as a genuinely living and qualified member of Christ’s followers, could be linked to another Johannes, this time St John the Apostle, then generally agreed to be the author of the fourth Gospel and Christ’s favourite disciple. In many respects, Wagner had a particular sympathy for this part of the New Testament that subtly left its mark on Die Meistersinger in a number of ways. Compared with the Synoptic Gospels, for example, only in John the Apostle’s account is John the Baptist brave enough to make clear publicly that Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God, not unlike Sachs’s stalwart support of Walther in the teeth of virulent opposition from his fellow Mastersingers. Unlike the other gospels, too, St John’s is the only one that apportions sole blame for the death of Christ to the Jews. This may open a can of worms in light of the many accusations 15 Ibid., p. 83: the illustrations of the shrine are on pp. 89–90.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg of anti-Semitism that have been levelled at Wagner for his portrayal of the most pedantic and comically narrow-minded member of the Mastersingers, Sixtus Beckmesser, who miserably fails with his own prize song and, after disgracing himself in front of the people, simply disappears in the throng as if he were an undesirable person inimical to the mission of ‘true’ art. That is a discussion for another day.16 The point I want to make here is not so much about the Gospel itself, but about Faust’s famous rewriting of its beginning in the study scene in the first part of Goethe’s Faust. Goethe, with the help of his colleague the poet Christoph Martin Wieland, practically single-handedly revived the reputation of Hans Sachs in the eighteenth century when Wieland published his poem ‘Hans Sachs’s Poetic Mission’ (‘Hans Sachsens poetische Sendung’) in 1776. It was written in a modern version of Knittelvers, a popular fifteenth- and sixteenth-century verse form extensively used by Sachs, in which pairs of lines had to rhyme, though with the number of accented syllables varying from line to line. In honour of Sachs, Goethe uses the technique prominently in Faust as well, as does Wagner in the libretto of Die Meistersinger, which in this respect obviously pays homage to both Sachs and Goethe. But the influence of Faust on Die Meistersinger goes further. Reading the first line of John’s Gospel in his study – ‘In the beginning was the Word’ – Faust rebels against the proclamation of logos or divine thought by stating: ‘It is impossible for me to value the Word so highly, / I have to translate it differently’ (‘Ich kann das Wort so hoch unmöglich schätzen, / Ich muss es anders übersetzen’) – a clear criticism of Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible and his dogmatic insistence on remaining true to its content. Indeed, one of the biggest differences between the early version of Die Meistersinger and the final one is that from the beginning Walther takes on Faust’s role as a usurper of written codes and Faust’s modern search for a post-Christian sensibility. No wonder Walther is deaf to the sounds of the quasi-Lutheran chorale that opens the opera! Not literally, but in the same spirit, he turns the first line of John’s Gospel, as Faust does in line 1237 of Goethe’s text, into: ‘In the beginning was the Deed’ (‘Im Anfang war die Tat’). In 16 For more on this, see the article by Hans Vaget in this guide [Ed.].

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg other words, he has galvanized the spirit into action away from the oppressive rule of the ‘Word’. But here rebelliousness leads not to the signing of a pact with the Devil, as in Faust, but to the singing of an amazing song. Indeed, Walther continues to spurn the status of written text central to the Mastersingers’ stringent code, and to show his distaste for their literary, religious and even political ambitions, almost to the very end of the work, when the Masters themselves have to relent. Shortly after the beginning of the public performance of his Prize Song in the final scene, there is a marvellous stage direction that says it all: just as Walther starts improvising new lines that seem to merge more and more with the glorious sound of his music, Kothner, who with the other Masters has been following the written words of the song on a piece of paper, is now so deeply moved that ‘he drops the sheet which he had started reading’.

Sachs, Superstition and the Final Tableau The real Hans Sachs was a famous poet, playwright and master cobbler in sixteenth-century Nuremberg. Tragically, he experienced the death of all seven of his children. He was a widower at sixty-six, but soon married an eighteen-year-old girl called Barbara and remained blissfully happy with her until his death in 1576 at the age of eighty-two. It was a life of grief, vitality and the assiduous creation of at least 4,000 Mastersongs and a number of plays, including a seven-act Tragedy with Twenty-Three Characters about the Uncompromising Love of Tristan with the Beautiful Queen Isolde (1553). The title alone is suggestive. ‘Uncompromising love’ is near to what Walther and Eva experience in Die Meistersinger. And the Herald’s announcement at the end of Sachs’s play, which Wagner had in his personal library in Dresden, seems relevant too: ‘So the tragedy ends. / And the public message it sends / is how such disordered love / has such a strong, powerful urge… / but knows neither morals nor virtue’.17 17 Hans Sachs, Tragedia mit 23 personen von der strengen lieb Herr Tristrant mit der schönen Königin Isalden, Faksimile nach dem ältesten Druck aus dem Jahre 1561, erschienen in Nürnberg, eds. Danielle Buschinger and Wolfgang Spiewok (Greifswald: Reineke, 1993), pp. 73–4.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg But ‘disordered love’ is not quite the outcome of either Tristan or Die Meistersinger. On the contrary, their endings are ruled by powerfully ordered emotions, blissful resolve and communal celebration respectively. Nor is it order that, paradoxically in the terms of Sachs’s play, can be accepted unreservedly as moral or virtuous. Isolde is transfigured over Tristan’s body into an alluringly sensuous goddess whose adulterous passion has clearly triumphed, while Walther and Eva lean on Sachs’s shoulders either side of him as he is celebrated by the people of Nuremberg as their titular head after giving a speech about the superiority of German art and the dangers it faces from foreign influence. Especially in light of Hitler’s enthusiasm for Die Meistersinger, it is not hard to see why the speech’s frank nationalism, absent in the first scenario, is for some an acute embarrassment. Wagner knew practically everything about Hans Sachs there was to know in the nineteenth century. Between writing his first draft in 1845 and the 1860s, when he gradually brought a very different concept of Die Meistersinger to completion, he also gleaned as much as he could from his reading about the history of superstition in central European folk culture that altered not only his portrayal of Sachs, but also Sachs’s relationship to the potentially unruly people of Nuremberg. One of the most important studies he consulted was Jacob Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology, the twentieth chapter of which contains the following passage about Nuremberg and the summer solstice or Sommersonnenwende: On 20th June 1653 the Nuremberg town council issued the following order: Where experience heretofore hath shown, that after the old heathenish use, on John’s day in every year, in the country, as well in towns as villages, money and wood hath been gathered by young folk, and thereupon the so-called sonnenwendt or zimmet fire kindled, and thereat winebibbing, dancing about the said fire, leaping over the same, with burning of sundry herbs and flowers, and setting of brands from the said fire in the fields, and in many other ways all manner of superstitious work carried on — Therefore the Hon. Council of Nuremberg town neither can nor ought to forbear to do away with all such unbecoming superstition, paganism, and peril of fire on this coming day of St John.18 18 Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, trans. James Steven Stallybrass, 4 vols. (London: George Bell & Sons, 1883), vol. 2, p. 619 (emphasis in the original).

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Interrupting the tumultuous meeting of Walther and Eva in Act Two, the Nightwatchman sings: ‘guard your fire and also your light, / so that no one comes to harm’. According to the stage direction, Walther has already reached for his sword ‘and stares wildly before him’, while Sachs, apprehensively, overhears Walther’s and Eva’s conversation, sensing that the abduction of Eva into the night is about to take place. Considering this startling turn of events towards the irrational, the Nightwatchman’s warning is not just a ruse to calm things down, but an admonitory reference to superstitious practices at the summer solstice in Nuremberg that go back to prehistoric early Germanic rituals of sun worship. In a sense, the Nightwatchman represents ‘the Hon. Council of Nuremberg town’. His warning about ‘fire and light’ is not just about danger to life and limb; it also suggests that the remnants of superstition and paganism in the Christian Festival of the Nativity of St John the Baptist in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are still active in every nook and cranny of Wagner’s invented allegory. David, for example, Sachs’s junior apprentice cannily named by Wagner after King David, the really big fish in the Mastersingers’ canon and their patron saint, finds himself at least twice in Act Three slipping into the vortex of the irrational. In the first scene of Act Three, on the morning after the riot at the end of the previous act and assuming that the violence is over at last, David begins his poem about John the Baptist by accidentally singing the tune of Beckmesser’s abortive Serenade, the music that had started the riot in the first place. His excuse is that he has been distracted by the riot, referring to it as a ‘Polterabend’, an old German custom founded on the superstition that holding a party for the friends of the future bride and bridegroom on the eve of their wedding and smashing traditional crockery and other objects will fend off evil spirits. Trying to assuage David’s guilt about his key role in the riot, this is indeed how Sachs, aware that David wants to marry his girlfriend Magdalene as soon as possible, has explained to his inexperienced student the noisy destructiveness of the previous evening. For David that only makes matters worse. By the time we get to the final tableau, we find him in a nearly schizophrenic state, rightly warning that the Mastersingers will not approve of the Apprentices’ and young women’s dancing with abandon, yet only seconds later insisting that he 25

die meistersinger von nürnberg join in the fun (‘What will the Masters say? / You won’t listen? Then I’ll enjoy myself too’). At which point, according to the stage direction, he ‘seizes a young and beautiful girl and mingles in the dance with great ardour’. Literally translated, the last phrase is ‘in great fire’ (‘in grosses Feuer’), which sounds strange in English, but in the context of Wagner’s well-researched allegory captures more accurately the aphrodisiacal effects of the midsummer frenzy in which David finds himself. Even Sachs is not immune. His famous ‘Flieder’ monologue in Act Two may look like a moving soliloquy during which he simply relaxes after the tension caused by his experience of hearing Walther’s Trial Song in Act One (a description found in countless synopses). But at this glorious moment in the opera it is surely more than that. Sachs is breathing the scent of the elderflower (not lilac, as many translations have it), which according to German folk traditions always came into fullest bloom at the summer solstice on St John’s Day. It was planted on graves as a ‘tree of death’; but it was also believed to have powers of healing and to arouse erotic feeling in anyone who smelt it.19 Whether as a token of mourning, a means of restoring health, or even an aphrodisiac plain and simple, the elderflower had three important associations in the history of German superstition that Wagner deliberately wove into the character of Sachs to make him the cheerfully melancholic and still sexually potent figure audiences invariably take to their hearts. The final tableau is clearly meant to be a theatrical equivalent of the pan-German choral festivals that took place in various cities each year in Wagner’s lifetime, including an especially large-scale one in Nuremberg in 1861 attended by an estimated 20,000 visitors, including 6,000 singers (see plate 5). But the stage is also set for a final and nearly biblical confrontation between disorder and order that has been simmering from the start. The latent erotic energy of the people (Volkserotik) that has kept bubbling up in previous scenes is now channelled into a focused communal observation of two songs. The first is sung by Beckmesser, still a stickler for the rules and staunch defender of the ‘Word’. Yet his song falls apart in comical disorder, caused by both his lack of 19 Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, eds. E. Hoffmann-Krayer and Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli, 10 vols. (Berlin/Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1927–42), vol. 4, cols. 261–76.

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Snapshots of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg charisma and the surreal chaos of his song’s text – the very aspect of the Mastersingers’ art he is supposed to embody. The second song is by Sachs’s new ‘Messiah’ Walther von Stolzing, who sings it with all the erotic allure that Beckmesser lacks and wins not just the hearts of the Volk, but the prized (gold) chain, the ‘David’ and the girl too. The defender of the ‘Word’ and narrow authoritarian order has been defeated. And those moribund tenets holding the community together, we assume, are about to be abolished: indeed, in Wagnerian terms the moment of revolution looks as though it may have truly arrived. But it all hits a serious snag. Impulsively addressing Pogner, the giver of the prize, Walther suddenly rejects it: ‘Not Master! No! / I will be happy without Masterhood.’ Sachs comes to the rescue again, this time more problematically: addressing the bewildered community, who are visibly shocked by the unexpected turn of events, he launches into a pompous sermon about upholding the legacy of the Masters and the foreign threats that could undermine the strength of German art.20 The reaffirmation of order is welcomed with enthusiasm. But from Walther’s Faustian point of view it is nothing less than a return to the oppressive rule of the ‘Word’. He just wants to be with Eva. He keeps the prize, yet turns a deaf ear to the future by relinquishing his revolutionary role – and, by allowing the old order to return, perhaps unwittingly signs a pact with the Devil after all.

20 For further reading about Sachs’s Act Three peroration, see the article by Tim Blanning in this guide [Ed.].

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The Music: A Commentary Arnold Whittall

The Background Wagner’s main period of work on the composition of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg began in March 1862 and ended in October 1867. The Prelude to Act One was written at an early stage, but its celebrated opening theme [1a]1 may well not have been Wagner’s first musical inspiration for the opera. He seems to have written the melody for the Act Three chorale [33] even before the poem was completed, and it is perfectly possible that the chorale from Act One, Scene One also pre-dates the Prelude: certainly its first phrase [8] could have inspired the theme which launches the Prelude itself [1a]. It has often been noted that the Prelude contains no reference to material associated directly with Hans Sachs: it might therefore have been very different had it been composed after the rest of the score. Wagner’s purpose in the Prelude, though, was not to tell the story of the opera in advance but to present a symphonic study of various associated and contrasted themes. The main themes are those representing the rather pompous but undeniably impressive grandeur of the Masters and their art [1a, 1b and 3]; in contrast come the ideas associated with the spontaneous, eloquent romanticism of young lovers who are impatient with convention and tradition [2, 4, 5, 6]; and one associated with the good-natured common sense of the townspeople who admire genuine mastery as wholeheartedly as they pour scorn on the bogus and pretentious [1c]. The Prelude therefore represents the work’s most essential conflict – between Walther’s radicalism and 1 Numbers in square brackets refer to the Thematic Guide [Ed.].

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The Music the Masters’ orthodoxy – but not the process whereby that conflict is dramatically resolved. One distinguished Wagnerian, Carl Dahlhaus, has argued that the Prelude forms a symphonic poem, or even a symphony in one movement, with a main exposition/first movement, a contrasting exposition/‘slow’ movement, a development/scherzo and a second development which is both recapitulation and finale.2 Certainly, although the Prelude is no more ‘absolute music’ than any of Wagner’s other mature compositions, it is still a rich and elaborate musical structure, and symphonic in the way its basic themes are treated as well as in its harmonic organization, establishing, departing from and returning to a principal key, C major. This can be regarded as the governing tonality of the whole work, even though it does not make its presence felt throughout in the way the principal key of a symphony can do. Die Meistersinger is too extended, flexible and radical a structure to be symphonic in that sense. Nor, at this stage of his career, did Wagner use his themes and their constituent motifs merely as illustrative signals to the audience. They have structural significance for the music as well as symbolic significance for the plot, and may be alluded to for musical reasons when their precise pictorial significance is ambiguous. Since the Prelude does not introduce all the most important themes of the work, much innocent pleasure may be had in trying to show how themes which emerge later might be related to those in the Prelude. It is generally agreed that works of art communicate most successfully if they are coherent; and coherence – making sense by ‘hanging together’ – implies a balance between similarities and contrasts in which the similarities, the unifying factors, predominate. But a five-hour stage work is very different from a twenty-minute string quartet or a forty-minute symphony, not least because its unity will be achieved as much through character, setting and action as through music. In Wagner, as in other opera composers, the stress is less on monolithic unity than on a continuous (if occasionally interrupted) process of evolution. In this commentary, therefore, the identification of themes and motifs – and the common elements underlying certain contrasts – will be placed in the context of fundamental formal 2 Carl Dahlhaus, Richard Wagner’s Music Dramas, trans. Mary Whittall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 71.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg and harmonic factors which, while often not consciously perceived by the listener, are the composer’s most basic means of ensuring that he creates something which is satisfyingly constructed, as well as immediately communicative. Such general points need to be stressed because Die Meistersinger is probably Wagner’s most richly detailed score. A full account of its small-scale form-building processes, its thematic and harmonic evolution, would run to many hundreds of pages. This article is very much a selective summary, which can barely begin to do justice to such skill and subtlety. And the subtlety, as well as the humour, of Die Meistersinger owes much to the fact that its main subject is music itself. It therefore depends on distinctions between those moments in the drama when ‘real’ music is being performed on stage, and those passages where the characters are singing what is, ‘in reality’, speech. Die Meistersinger is also about the differences between the old orthodoxy and the new unorthodoxy in music. But although the moods expressed in the score range from mocking wit to deep reflectiveness, from youthful exuberance to high romance, it is all – even Beckmesser’s distracted strummings on his lute – composed within the orbit of Wagner’s own style. The work is not a documentary about a sixteenth-century conflict between incompatible concepts of what music should be, despite references to an actual Mastersong [3]. Every note is Wagner’s, and in his dream-like display of compositional virtuosity, the aesthetic and social issues resonate more profoundly and memorably than they ever would in a soberly historical treatment of the same dramatic theme.

Act One The first scene of Act One is usually passed over relatively rapidly in brief descriptions of the work, on the grounds that it is preliminary, and that only in the second scene, with David’s extended account of the Mastersingers’ rules and regulations, does the drama really begin. But Scene One is crucial, not only because it establishes the work’s pervasive lightness of tone and touch – such pace is a vital component of comedy, especially so extended a comedy – but because the flexible continuity of its organization perfectly matches the spontaneous appeal of the music. 30

The Music Wagner’s actual material may not always seem particularly inspired or compelling in itself: it’s not difficult to argue that Mozart or Schubert are greater melodists. But the material becomes compelling through the way it is used, and its utter appropriateness for its dramatic purpose. The most essential of all Wagner’s usages – or techniques – is variation, on both the largest and smallest scales. For example, the initial chorale, with its ‘romantic’ interpolations, offers a fascinating blend of contrast and similarity; and in purely melodic terms, perhaps, the second phrase of [8] is as much a relative of the first as a complement to it. After the chorale, the second part of the scene is built around three objects which Eva and Magdalene have mislaid – kerchief, brooch and book. Each time Magdalene goes in search of one of them the same musical material is heard, in related, varied guise, and this is a form-building process which can function whether the material in question is one of the work’s more prominent themes or not – in this case, it is not. As Scene One proceeds, it offers a vivid portrait of Walther’s barely restrained impulsiveness – he cannot help being ‘in breach of custom’ – and the most substantial musical focus is a busy version of [1a], which underpins the preliminary discussion of the nature of mastery, and shows to perfection how voice and orchestra combine to create the musical substance. Thematic statement may be more complete, thematic development more intense, in the orchestra; but the vocal line itself is shaped to ensure that the expressive focus of the music is with the character represented on stage. The vocal line is never merely incidental. At the end of this scene, there is no doubt about the wholeheartedness with which both Walther and Eva identify with the Prelude’s main love theme [5]. However, the rest of Act One is less immediately concerned with love than with the nature of mastery as defined by the Masters’ own rules, and the quality of Walther’s art, which seems to flout those rules at every turn. The music of Scene Two retains the essentially light quality of Scene One, as David relishes every detail of the various poetic and musical laws. The opening phrase of David’s exposition derives its descending line [10] from the theme to which he first appeared [9]; and a still more elaborately decorated descending shape provides the scene’s most eloquent phrase [12] – by which time the connection between the idea of a new Mastersong and Walther’s own love theme is being made 31

die meistersinger von nürnberg clear [passage z in 5 and 12]. Some may even see a connection between all these ideas and the tune which is heard after David’s first mention of Hans Sachs [11]; but Sachs’s ‘working’ theme, to which David describes his Master’s tendency to take the strap to his apprentice, is rather differently shaped [22a]. The musical and dramatic effectiveness of David’s long solo – structured by Wagner with a through-composed mastery remote from the procedural restrictions it describes – is strengthened by the increasingly frequent interruptions. Walther’s comments ensure that his ardent musical character is not forgotten, and the most extended contributions of the Apprentices frame David’s references to a second character who has yet to be seen: Beckmesser. Wagner later develops Beckmesser’s main motif [18b] from the little descending figure heard here [18a]. The whole of David’s solo is structured around the tonality of D major, with B flat as the main area of contrast, and the tonality shifts from D to a close relative, G, for the Apprentices’ ensemble. Now, as the Masters themselves approach, there is a more extreme shift to the key of F, which will function for large parts of the long third scene. This scene contains at least seven distinct stages, and a good deal of new thematic material. First comes the assembly of the Masters, an episode whose gradual, cumulative progress is achieved by allowing a single broad yet lively theme to dominate it [14]. The effect is not unlike that of a chaconne. One can see why Wagner thought of Bach, the master of cumulative design as well as of contrapuntal artifice, in connection with Die Meistersinger; and Wagner’s own polyphonic skill at fitting x from [1a] and x from [2] to [14] is no less impressive for its apparent effortlessness. After Sachs’s entrance, the roll-call is set to a concentrated recapitulation of the assembly music, a variation which focuses more closely than the original on its basic F major harmony. Pogner’s address shares both tonality and time signature with the assembly music, but it has a new theme [15], an idea whose main motif – x in [15] – is in essence little more than the elaboration of a single triad, and which for that very reason is especially useful for development in complex ensembles. As he proceeds, Pogner himself describes the importance of the Masters’ art [x from 1a], and in the recapitulatory final section (a concentrated variant of the first, far from 32

The Music an exact repetition) the main motifs of [14] and [15] are combined. The Masters’ excited discussion of Pogner’s proposal appropriately develops x from [15], while Sachs’s calming intervention concentrates on x from [1a] – the Masters’ art as something which all the people can recognize and appreciate. Much of the important new material to be introduced in the remainder of the act is associated with Walther: a ‘theme of knightly character’ [16a] as he enters to be presented to the assembly, and ideas from his two extended solos [16b, 19 and 16c, the latter close to 6]. Of the other ideas, those which are associated with Sachs’s sympathy for Walther [22b] will be particularly important later in the work; so will be the music for Beckmesser’s anger and malice [18b and 20]. Walther’s first solo has three related sections, separated by dialogue which anticipates the disputes to come; and it is the third section which is the most radical in its treatment of the basic material, although it regains its main key of D major well before the end. After the broad comedy of Kothner’s reading of the rules (with x from [1a] prominent), and Beckmesser’s preparations for his duties [18b], Walther’s Trial Song begins impulsively and expansively, and provokes not only interruptions but a complex ensemble which underpins, and undermines, its final stages. The first part of the song has three sections – an ABA1 form – and the second part, when Walther is eventually allowed to begin it, after Beckmesser’s tirade and Sachs’s attempt at arbitration, starts with its ‘B’ section, proceeding to an ‘A2’ which unfolds over the welter of comment and complaint from the Masters. When Wagner adds the Apprentices’ song to the texture the individual strands are woven into a rich blend which drives the music to its main concluding cadence, at Walther’s furious exit. But the orchestral music which ends the act is not mere tumult. Wagner provides the essential image for the rest of the work in showing Sachs absorbed by a purely musical idea – [17], a version of [16c] – one which depends for its effect as much on harmony as melody. Sachs is at odds with his colleagues and the contrast between [17] and what now seems a derisive rather than noble [1a] at the very end of the act encapsulates the opposition which the rest of the drama will explore and resolve. 33

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Act Two Wagner organized the main climaxes of all three acts of Die Meistersinger in comparable fashion, as formal ‘songs’ which evolve, or explode, into elaborate ensembles. In Act Three it is an ensemble of admiration and approval; but Act Two, like Act One, has an ensemble of hostility, as Beckmesser’s Serenade provokes, and is gradually submerged by, the Midsummer Eve riot. The contrast between the two prize songs of the last act could scarcely be greater: Beckmesser’s may mangle the text of Walther’s, but its music is a variant of Beckmesser’s own Serenade in the second act. In Act Two, however, the main contrast is not between Sachs’s Cobbling Song and Beckmesser’s Serenade, but between Sachs’s own two solos, only the second of which is a true ‘song on stage’. The first is a monologue concerned with Sachs’s response to Walther’s music. The Cobbling Song, in its clear stanzaic form and uncomplicated material, is more like something of which Beckmesser and his fellow Masters would approve, although in its third stanza Wagner introduces an orchestral countermelody [32, deriving from 22b and 21a], which reflects the undertone of regret and sorrow in the text’s references to Eva. One of the major musical triumphs of this marvellous act – perhaps Wagner’s most imaginative and, in some ways, his most radical in its rapid shifts of mood and supple tonal transitions – is the way in which more serious or sustained material is seamlessly woven into the predominantly fast and light-hearted fabric. The opening scene focuses on the Apprentices’ chorus celebrating St John’s Day [x from 15] and the exchanges for David and Magdalene make prominent use of Sachs’s working, and apprentice-beating, theme [22a]. This material runs through Scene Two, but as Pogner recalls Sachs’s words of caution about his ‘prize offering’ the music broadens into a restrained eloquence intensified by the surprisingly florid, for Wagner, clarinet arabesques, evoking the balmy summer night, and the more purposeful theme for Nuremberg itself [23]. Scene Two begins and ends in the act’s initial tonality of G major, and Scene Three starts, as David sets out Sachs’s worktable, in the same way as Scene Two. But then a superbly economical transition magically blends [22a] and [17]. In the monologue which follows, Sachs’s attempts to work are interrupted by his memories of Walther’s 34

The Music Spring Song [19 and 16c as well as 17]. After its first section, the theme of Sachs’s later Cobbling Song [29] is clearly heard as a counterpoint to [22a]. But the second section of the monologue begins like the first, except that it is now in the key of F that Walther himself had used, and offers a more extended development of the material than section one. A climax [17] initiates the third section, and only for the final quatrain does Wagner introduce a new theme – one which appears nowhere else: Sachs has decided that he approves of Walther’s music, but he does not need to continue quoting it in order to confirm his admiration. The link to the fourth scene is made through [16b], a motif from Walther’s first Act One solo. But with the appearance of Eva, a new central key, A flat, is established, and with it comes a new pair of themes [24 and 26] which can be connected with both [22b] and [16c], as if Eva’s vulnerability, Sachs’s tolerance and Walther’s passion were all mutually interdependent. With this fourth scene, the sense of dialogue between voices and orchestra intensifies, and the structural framework of the act expands: this is the first scene to include a large-scale tripartite scheme – the opening material returning at Eva’s ‘Könnt’s einem Witwer nicht gelingen?’ (Might not a widower be successful?’) – and to use that scheme as the first stage of a still more extended process, including the quarrel between Eva and Sachs, Eva’s discussion with Magdalene and ending only with Walther’s entrance. During the quarrel, much use is made of the contrast between [21a, 21b, 22b] on the one hand and [16a] on the other: Sachs is reluctant to admit to Eva that he admires Walther’s music, and she uses [20] to reproach him. As the tension increases, the music is at its most radical in its avoidance of clear-cut cadences, and its deft thematic interweavings and juxtapositions. In Scene Five, the passionate exchanges between Eva and Walther continue to develop the music of the previous scene (especially [16a] and [22b]): eventually, as Walther grows more furious, [1a] and [20] are brought into conjunction. But the climax is one of those moments of extreme contrast which ultimately enhance the continuity (if not the unity) of Wagner’s most elaborate structures from time to time. The discord (a diminished seventh) on which Walther’s tirade ends could resolve in several different ways, but Wagner chooses the F sharp from it for the Nightwatchman’s horn, and the music now moves into 35

die meistersinger von nürnberg B major as the magical Midsummer Eve theme is first heard [25]: it is therefore by statements of this theme in this key that the F major of the Nightwatchman’s song is framed. The Midsummer Eve theme occurs three times in this section, but the B major tonality grows less and less stable as the lovers hesitate over what to do and where to go. Beckmesser’s lute contributes to this uncertainty, and it is only Sachs’s preliminary hammer stroke, followed by the first stanza of his Cobbling Song [29 with 11], which fixes the tonality as a somewhat chromatic but relatively stable B flat major. Sachs’s song is simple and direct, but each stanza forms a single span, with much less subdivision and repetition than in the AAB verses which will be heard in Beckmesser’s Serenade, and which, for all their faults of detail, follow the formal rules of Mastersong. It is sometimes claimed that Beckmesser’s sheer poetic and musical incompetence – here, and even more in his attempt at a Prize Song in Act Three – is a dramatic inconsistency which Wagner never bothered to justify. How could someone so obviously, comically inept have become a senior member of the Mastersingers’ guild? The issue is complicated by arguments that Wagner indulged in explicit anti-Semitism in Beckmesser’s cantillationlike vocal writing. (He had originally called the character Veit Hanslich, to mock the leading, and rather anti-Wagnerian, music critic of the time, Eduard Hanslick.)3 That Wagner (like large numbers of his cultured contemporaries) was anti-Semitic when it suited him cannot be denied, and several stagings of Die Meistersinger (notably that at Bayreuth first seen in 2007, directed by the composer’s great-granddaughter Katharina) have capitalized on what is perceived as the work’s ideological ambivalence to call its apparently genial portrait of social and cultural cohesion into question. Beckmesser’s music can indeed be heard as mocking Jewish qualities, but its failings as Mastersong can also be explained as evidence of an ageing singer who has lost inspiration and creative energy, perhaps becoming more critic than composer through an increasing obsession with finicky rules and regulations at the expense of the kind of inspired spontaneity that the more youthful Walther brings to his music. This might at least make dramatic sense: Beckmesser has lost the mastery he once had, but it is not that he 3 For more on this, see Hans Rudolf Vaget’s article in this guide [Ed.].

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The Music never had any mastery in the first place. While neither he nor Walther is literally ‘alien’, in the racial sense, they both bring elements of disconcerting strangeness to bear on the long-standing conventions that have satisfied the Nuremberg bourgeoisie for so long. In the final stages of Act Three, Walther will win over the assembled company through the sheer conviction and eloquence of his new kind of song. The final stages of Act Two, by contrast, shows Beckmesser’s cack-handed attempt to woo Eva forming the musical basis for social disruption of the most violent kind, in a riot that develops his song theme, and even allows it to be taken up concertedly by the other Masters. The climax of the riot matches that of Walther’s earlier tirade: the Nightwatchman’s horn sounds F sharp, and he sings his song in its original F major, thereby interrupting the smooth progression of the music as it moves gently through its final meditation on the Midsummer Eve theme towards its concluding fortissimo chord of E major.

Act Three The first two acts of Die Meistersinger have a pervasive lightness of touch which is unique in later Wagner. Act Three has great breadth, but there is nothing heavy or laboured about it, and the range of expression it encompasses is correspondingly immense. The orchestral introduction expresses the contrast between the resigned, melancholy, private side of Sachs [32] and the satisfactions not merely of writing poetry, but of writing poetry which has a wide public appeal – the ‘Wach auf’ (‘Awake’) chorale which will be sung by the assembled townspeople and Masters later in the act. (A surprisingly gentle version of phrases from the Cobbling Song is also heard.) Scene One offers a still stronger contrast: David at his most extrovert [9, 31] and Sachs at his most thoughtful [22b and 32]. David’s set piece, a genuine ‘song on stage’, has an almost hymn-like simplicity [13] – another offshoot of [8]? – but its subtle ABA1 structure suggests that David has learnt something from Walther as well as from Sachs himself. As Sachs tells the apprentice to prepare to be his herald in the day’s celebration, [3] appears in its original C major, and this key will be used to punctuate the act at significant points, before providing the 37

die meistersinger von nürnberg basis for its final stages. For the moment, however, it is heard only in passing. Sachs’s Act Three monologue is not, of course, a song within the opera, and not subject to the rules of the Masters’ guild. In it, Wagner unfolds an evolutionary design of sovereign inevitability. There are four principal sections: the first associates Sachs’s own melancholy awareness of the general madness at large in the world [32] with the very different spirit of Walther’s Spring Song [16c]; the second moves from a portrait of a peaceful Nuremberg [23 and 34] to a vivid reminiscence of the town disrupted by the previous night’s riot [31]; and the third delicately ascribes the entire affair to the devilment of Midsummer Eve [25, 31]; in the final section, Sachs decides to see if he can turn all this craziness to positive ends on St John’s Day, by ensuring that the townspeople come to appreciate the challenging art of the young knight [15, 2, 23]. It is appropriate that this most wide-ranging of Sachs’s solo set pieces should contain an equally wide range of thematic reference within its flexible form, but what prevents it from being a mere thematic pot-pourri is the progress of its harmonic design – at first ambiguous in its hints of various keys – E minor, A minor, D minor, B flat major – but finally arriving at a grandly stable and secure C major. The main event of Scene Two is Walther’s presentation of two verses of his newly dreamt Prize Song ([7], which indicates possible links between the ‘new’ first phrase and other ideas). But this part of the scene is preceded by two sections which contain substantial developments of earlier material: the first focuses on Sachs’s benevolence towards the knight [21b], and the second – one of the richest episodes in the entire work – elaborates the love theme [24b] in a guise [27] which strongly recalls a well-known theme from Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1849). The exchanges between Sachs and Walther which immediately precede the Prize Song bring these thematic elements together to complete a structure based around the tonality of E flat and its close relative B flat. And although the Prize Song itself uses the work’s central C major, the scene as such ends with the return of [21b] and the scene’s framing tonality of E flat ([16a] and [23] are also in evidence). Scene Three begins with an elaborate reworking of Act Two material as Beckmesser pantomimically relives the events of the previous night, and his outburst of rage later in the scene involves further development 38

The Music of the Serenade and riot themes [30, 31]. In the initial pantomime, the soft orchestral statement of the Prize Song theme [7] as Beckmesser sees and scans the manuscript is a particularly delightful touch. One brief prickly moment apart, Sachs is entirely benign in this scene [21b], while Beckmesser’s song of triumph confirms that he is a man of few ideas by further developing the material of his Serenade [35]. After Beckmesser has rushed out, Wagner rapidly slows the tempo, and the scene ends, as Sachs observes that Beckmesser will deserve all he gets [22a], with a strong reminder of the C major ending of Sachs’s earlier monologue [2, 15, 23]. After that monologue, there had been a striking shift of harmonic perspective from C to E flat at Walther’s entrance. Now there is an equally striking shift from C to A flat as Eva appears at the start of Scene Four. It opens with the music which accompanied her scene with Sachs in Act Two [24], but when she begins to complain about her shoes, a theme is heard which will be used extensively throughout this long and diverse scene ([28], perhaps deriving from [6] and [16c]). At first, it alternates with Sachs’s working motif [22a] to prepare a fortissimo statement of the B major Midsummer Eve theme [25]. Walther appears; then it underpins Sachs’s grumbling as the music moves back to C for the third verse of the Prize Song. The outburst from Sachs which this provokes is most obviously concerned with [29] and [32], but Eva’s new theme [28], and also [26], are present too. Eva’s emotional rejoinder to Sachs rapidly transforms its use of [32] into comments about Tristan and Isolde, which Sachs himself turns into a quotation from Wagner [37]. The dramatic effectiveness of this in-joke is obvious, and it also provides a brief shift of musical focus away from the main thematic elements of Die Meistersinger itself. Their return (particularly x of [28]) as Sachs, his good temper restored, summons David and greets Magdalene, is the more effective as a result; and Sachs’s announcement of the need to christen a new Mastersong, with its use of the Act One chorale melody (first in D, then in its original C) is one of the most delightful episodes in the work, as subtle as it is simple. For David’s promotion to journeyman the Masters’ motif (x from [1a]) is employed. And the Quintet is introduced by the most magical transformation of x from [28] as the harmony travels smoothly across the wide space separating C major from G flat major. The Quintet itself 39

die meistersinger von nürnberg is a rare inspiration and, as an ensemble for solo voices, a very rare phenomenon in later Wagner. It has a simple ternary form: A (12 bars) for Eva alone, B (13 bars), using the opening theme of the Prize Song [7], and A1 (11 bars) which reworks the first section; even here the orchestra is not reduced to the role of mere harmonic support, since the concluding reference to [5] is given to the instruments alone. The mood and material of this most exalted moment are gradually dispelled as the long transition to the final scene begins, and the intimate, romantic themes give way in a finely controlled modulation, to the ‘public’ material for the town and the people [1a, 23]. The Guild Songs and Apprentices’ Dance are Wagner at his most direct, though plenty of compositional subtleties (especially the use of ‘irregular’ phrase lengths) could be instanced: certainly this light-hearted music is never merely perfunctory. With the entry of the Masters, the main material of the first act Prelude is at last heard again in full [1a, 1b, 3] – material which now spans the remainder of the work. But it is Sachs who is the dominant character, and the concerted singing of his ‘Wach auf’ chorale [33] brings him once more to the centre. The passage in which he introduces the song contest begins [32] like a variant of the opening of his earlier monologue, but it proceeds, by way of [21b] to an extended reminiscence of the Masters’ assembly music from Act One [14] and, at the climax, to the theme of Nuremberg itself [34]. The fast-moving version of the ‘mastery’ theme is the basis for the gibes as Beckmesser prepares to sing [1c], and that song itself is an unhappy variant of his Act Two Serenade [36], whose tonal uncertainty is enhanced by the choral and orchestral commentary. Beckmesser is laughed into silence at the end of his first stanza, and his ‘anger music’ from Scene Three accompanies his furious exit. Sachs’s ensuing explanation [21b] and his introduction of Walther [5, 16a] make fresh use of the appropriate themes, and the entire section settles into the C major tonality which will provide the harmonic basis for the rest of the work. Walther needs to sing only one stanza of his Prize Song, newly enriched and extended as it is, to win the acclamation of the assembly, and to inspire their participation. Jubilation breaks out, and Pogner steps forward to invest Walther with the Master’s insignia [3]. Walther’s rejection is set to a reminiscence of the Quintet in its remote original 40

The Music key of G flat, but the music has returned to C before Sachs begins his remonstrations. It is clearly unlikely that Walther will protest further, and this final set piece unfolds and develops the Prelude’s final section, the vocal line a counterpoint of the greatest eloquence. The most dramatic interruption of the process, as Sachs warns of foreign threats to German life and art, is pure recitative, without motivic content, though with suitably unstable chromatic harmony. Then the work’s thematic progress is triumphantly resumed, with [23] and [34] for Sachs’s last paragraph, and his very last line, set to [1b], provides the theme for the passage of development within the choral finale, otherwise concerned with [1a], [3] and [1c]. Inspiration and inevitability combine to conclude a work whose mastery – surely as subtle and skilful a demonstration of compositional technique at the service of expression as has ever been devised – further enhances its power, and gives little serious support to anyone disposed to argue that the ending simply sets the seal on the composer’s dubiously chauvinistic German nationalism. Die Meistersinger is invariably described as the great exception to Wagner’s normal preoccupation with myth and saga. It is certainly evidence of his versatility: but no less than Tristan und Isolde or Götterdämmerung, it owes its impact to a musical structure of supreme strength and conviction, which never ceases to fascinate, and dazzle – even those who devote their lives to its interpretation and analysis.

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Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller Tim Blanning On the list of Richard Wagner’s cultural heroes, Shakespeare and Beethoven are usually given pride of place. He saw himself as combining – and transcending – their dramatic and musical creativity in a dialectic of genius. But also worthy of inclusion is the dramatist, poet and cultural theorist Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805). In all the voluminous writings by and about Wagner, his name appears again and again. For example, Opera and Drama (1851), the most important of the ‘Zurich reform writings’, reveals that Wagner knew Schiller’s œuvre inside out. At Tribschen (his home outside Lucerne, where he completed the score of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) and Wahnfried (his final home in Bayreuth), Schiller’s birthday on 10th November was observed ceremonially every year. The exception that proved the rule was 1869, when it got forgotten in the intensive work on the composition of Götterdämmerung. Reminded by Cosima a day later, he had a good answer: ‘Well, yesterday was the very day on which, while I was working, I felt inwardly pleased by Schiller’s picture hanging on the wall opposite me, and I pictured to myself his whole essence.’1 How very Wagnerian to claim that subconsciously he had remembered the birthday! Perhaps the ultimate tribute he paid was to consider staging Schiller’s trilogy Wallenstein at Bayreuth. The affinity he felt was various. In part it was political, deriving from Schiller’s famous dictum that ‘the authority of the stage 1 Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack (eds.), trans. Geoffrey Skelton, Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, Volume One: 1869–1877 (London: Collins, 1978), p. 163.

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Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller begins when that of the state ends’.2 Schiller had argued that the horrors of the French Revolution demonstrated that the seeds of rational perception will wither where they fall unless the soil has been prepared by the emotions and imagination. Aesthetic experience is the one area in which the rational and the sensual could interact harmoniously, for only in culture was man simultaneously active and free, able to influence the world around him while remaining self-contained. It was only through culture that humankind could achieve liberty without licence: ‘if man is ever to solve the problem of politics in practice, he will have to approach it through the problem of the aesthetic, because it is only through beauty that man makes his way to freedom’.3 That was music to Wagner’s ears, as was Schiller’s further hope that opera could lead the way, for ‘through the power of the music and through a freer harmonic stimulation of our senses, opera predisposes the mind to be more receptive to beauty’.4 Wagner agreed: the purpose of drama was ‘the emotionalization of the intellect’.5 Schiller’s programme of redemption through aesthetics was realized in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. For the last-named he also provided a more specific inspiration for Wagner, both biographically and poetically. A subject of the Duke of Württemberg, Schiller had been given a good education at an elite military school, but had also felt the heavy hand of princely despotism, including a ban on any further publications after his first sensational success, Die Räuber (The Robbers) in 1781. The 2 See Udo Bermbach, Der Wahn des Gesamtkunstwerks. Richard Wagners politischästhetische Utopie (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994), p. 260. 3 Friedrich von Schiller, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794), Letter Two. See James J. Sheehan, Museums in the German Art World. From the End of the Old Regime to the Rise of Modernism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 45. 4 Schiller in a letter to Goethe, 29th December 1797. See Dieter Borchmeyer, ‘Wagner and Schiller “Brothers in theatralicis’’: Thoughts on the Bicentenary of Schiller’s Death’, Bayreuth Festival 2005 programme book, p. 151. 5 Richard Wagner, ‘Oper und Drama’ in Sämtliche Schriften und Dichtungen, 5th edn. (Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, n.d.), vol. 4, p. 78.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg following year, he had fled, eking out a wandering existence until settling in Jena in 1787. His unhappy history helps to explain why Wagner nursed such a loathing for the German princes. It was of course enhanced by his own perceived persecution by the King of Saxony, which in 1849 sent him into exile with a price on his head. Cosima’s diaries contain many irate expostulations about the princes, for example in November 1871: ‘In the evening read Plato’s Republic to R. with much enjoyment – before that R. read from Freytag’s book about the times of the war of liberation, always delighting in the German people and being shocked by the wickedness of the German princes.’6 This was a reference to the war of 1813–15 which brought to an end twenty years of French domination of Germany. In a series of articles published in a Munich newspaper in 1867 with the title ‘German Art and German Politics’, Wagner placed the war in what he believed to be its politico-cultural context. His narrative ran as follows: following the example set by Frederick the Great of Prussia, the German princes of the old regime had preferred the decadent and despotic culture of Louis XIV’s France to their own; the great revival which developed in Germany towards the end of the eighteenth century was the spontaneous work of the German people, without any assistance from their rulers; together with Mozart and Beethoven, Schiller had rejuvenated the German spirit; it was this spirit which in 1813 stormed on to the battlefield to reclaim everything lost by the princes – empire, territory, honour – and returned to the people their liberty. Alas, they were then betrayed. In all of history, Wagner thundered, there could be no blacker story of ingratitude than the treason of the German princes: the German people had got rid of the French oppressors only to find that their princes had reinstated French civilization! In support of this reading of recent German history, Wagner cited Schiller’s poem ‘Die deutsche Muse’ (‘The German Muse’), in which a sense of grievance about the lack of princely patronage was outweighed by the pride the German people could take in the knowledge that they had created their culture by their own unaided efforts. In an unpublished poem of the same period (1801) which was later given 6 Gregor-Dellin and Mack, op. cit., pp. 431–32.

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Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller the title ‘Deutsche Größe’ (‘German Greatness’), Schiller returned to the theme: Darf der Deutsche in diesem Augenblick wo zwei übermütige Völker ihren Fuß auf seinen Nacken setzen, Darf er sein Haupt erheben und mit Selbstgefühl auftreten in der Völker Reihe? Ja er darfs! Er geht unglücklich aus dem Kampf, aber das, was seinen Wert ausmacht, hat er nicht verloren. Deutsches Reich und deutsche Nation sind zweierlei Dinge. Die Majestät des Deutschen ruhte nie auf dem Haupt seiner Fürsten. Abgesondert von dem Politischen hat der Deutsche sich einen eigenen Wert gegründet, und wenn auch das Imperium untergegangen, so bliebe die deutsche Würde unangefochten. Sie ist eine sittliche Größe, sie wohnt in der Kultur und im Charakter der Nation die von ihren politischen Schicksalen unabhängig ist. ……………………………………………………………………… Schwere Ketten drückten alle Völker auf dem Erdenballe Als der Deutsche sie zerbrach, Fehde bot dem Vatikane, Krieg ankündigte dem Wahne, Der die ganze Welt bestach. Höhern Sieg hat der errungen, Der der Wahrheit Blitz geschwungen, Der die Geister selbst befreit, Freiheit der Vernunft erfechten Heißt für alle Völker rechten, Gilt für alle ewge Zeit. ……………………………………………………………………… Majestät des Deutschen ruhte nie auf dem Haupt seiner Fürsten, Stürzte auch in Kriegesflammen Deutschlands Kaiserreich zusammen, Deutsche Größe bleibt bestehn. 45

die meistersinger von nürnberg At a time when two arrogant nations [France and Great Britain] have their feet on his neck, Can the German hold up his head and take his place with pride among the peoples of the world? Yes he can! He may suffer misfortune in war, but he has not lost what constituted his real value. German Empire and German nation are two quite different things. The majesty of the German never rested on the heads of his princes. The German has founded his own true value away from politics and even if the Empire were to go under, German dignity would remain inviolate, for it is a moral form of greatness and resides in culture and the character of the nation, which is quite independent from its political fate. ……………………………………………………………………… Heavy chains oppressed all peoples on the earth when the Germans broke them asunder by entering the lists against the Vatican and declaring war on the illusion which held the whole world in thrall. The greater victory is won by him who unleashes the blaze of truth, and who liberates minds. To win freedom to use reason is a victory for all nations and stands for all eternity. ……………………………………………………………………… Germany’s majesty never rested on the heads of princes and even if Germany’s Empire were to perish in the flames of war, German greatness would remain intact. This of course anticipates the final speech of Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger, which sounds almost like Schiller set to music. Although Wagner knew and explicitly cited ‘The German Muse’, he equally 46

Hans Sachs and Friedrich Schiller certainly did not know ‘German Greatness’, which was not published until 1902. In any event, the uncanny resemblance between the two texts reveals how close their conceptions of German history were. It also allows a proper understanding of the allegedly ‘chauvinist’ nature of Hans Sachs’s warnings. The crucial passage is: Habt Acht! Uns dräuen üble Streich’: – zerfällt erst deutsches Volk und Reich, in falscher wälscher Majestät kein Fürst bald mehr sein Volk versteht, und wälschen Dunst mit wälschem Tand sie pflanzen uns in deutsches Land; was deutsch und echt, wüßt’ keiner mehr, lebt’s nicht in deutscher Meister Ehr’. Beware! Evil tricks threaten us; once the German people and the German empire fragment under false foreign rule, then soon no prince will be able to understand his people, and foreign delusions and baubles will take hold of Germany; and no one would know any more what was German and genuine, if it did not live on in the tradition of the German Masters. The work is set in the newly Protestant city of Nuremberg in the midsixteenth century (the historical Hans Sachs’s dates were 1494–1576). Sachs is looking forward with anxiety to a period of civil strife driven by religious hatreds, culminating in the Thirty Years War of 1618–48. He is of course right to be alarmed. The Holy Roman Empire will indeed fragment, as Spanish, Danish, Swedish and French armies rampage across German-speaking Europe, aided and abetted by the German princes. Even after military conflict has come to an end, foreign domination will persist in the form of the French and, to a lesser extent, Italian culture imitated by the deluded princes, slaves to alien fashions. Only the authentic, if unsophisticated, culture of the Mastersingers will keep the native flame burning. In other words, Sachs is not targeting foreigners, nor is 47

die meistersinger von nürnberg he asserting German superiority; his anger is reserved for the German princes. Although Wagner certainly had a low opinion of contemporary French culture, he blamed its materialism and superficiality not on the French nation but on the oppression of Napoleon III’s Empire. If ‘chauvinism’ is defined as ‘exaggerated patriotism of a bellicose sort; blind enthusiasm for national glory or military ascendancy’ (as it is by the Oxford English Dictionary), there is nothing chauvinistic about this speech. Hans Sachs would have been even more upset, had he been able to look into the future and see what happened when German native culture did find its feet again. A great cultural efflorescence which included Haydn, Kant, Goethe, Mozart, Fichte, Schiller, Beethoven, Weber, Hegel, Schubert, etc., was accompanied by political catastrophe after 1792, when the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic Wars turned Germany into a French colony to be exploited at will. In 1813 the German people rose in revolt in a great war of liberation and threw off the foreign yoke, only to find that the German princes had not changed one jot. The traitors were still inside the gates and still wedded to ‘foreign delusions and baubles’. As Wagner observed, if a cultural event had to be laid on for a visiting foreign potentate, it was not a Schiller play that was chosen but an Italian opera or a French ballet. In February 1878 Cosima recorded in her diary: ‘R. says that the 1813 uprising, so misinterpreted by the ruling princes and thus crushed, was as much a disaster for Germany as the Thirty Years War.’7 That few historians would accept Wagner’s version of modern German history does not matter. It enjoyed wide popularity at the time. Nor does the reception of Hans Sachs’s speech after 1918 or 1933 have any bearing on Wagner’s realization of Friedrich Schiller’s aesthetic politics. As usual, if one’s intention is to understand what Wagner thought he was doing (rather than drawing up an indictment), it makes more sense to look back to his context, not forward to events long after his death.

7 Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dietrich Mack (eds.), trans. Geoffrey Skelton, Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, Volume Two: 1878–1883, (London: Collins, 1980), p. 32.

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The Beckmesser Problem Hans Rudolf Vaget Wagner’s notorious hostility towards Jews is an indelible trait of both his character and his world view. The fact that anti-Semitism was widespread in his time and place can no longer provide licence to treat the matter as negligible. The topic moved to the forefront of Wagner studies relatively late, in the 1980s, in the wake of the international debate about the significance of the Holocaust for our historical consciousness. Among the reasons why Wagner is routinely referred to as the most controversial artist in modern history, two stand out: his highly consequential anti-Semitism, magnified by the success of the music and the unique standing he came to enjoy in Germany; and the Hitler factor, that is, the German dictator’s claim that ‘the spiritual sword that we wield was forged in Bayreuth’, first by Wagner himself, then by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the composer’s son-in-law.1 Today, while there is broad consensus regarding Wagner’s obsessive Judaeophobia, there is no consensus at all regarding the anti-Semitic import of his works for the stage. Beckmesser, a traditional comedic figure but also one of Wagner’s most haunting creations, has emerged as arguably the most contested case in point. If Die Meistersinger is indeed, as Theodor Adorno observed, the ‘greatest testimony to Wagner’s self-awareness’ as an 1 Adolf Hitler, letter to Siegfried Wagner, 5th May 1924, in Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, 1905–1924, ed. Eberhard Jäckel and Axel Kuhn (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1980), p. 1234. Cf. H.R. Vaget, ‘Wagnerian SelfFashioning: The Case of Adolf Hitler’, New German Critique, Number 101 (Summer 2007), pp. 95–114.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg artist, a close examination of Beckmesser is certain to be particularly revealing.2 The chief, though by no means sole document of Wagner’s obsession with Jews is ‘Das Judentum in der Musik’ (‘Jewishness in Music’), the essay he published twice, first anonymously in 1850, and then again, in a substantially augmented version, in 1869.3 In the first instance, his decision to air his grievances was apparently made in response to the huge popular and critical success of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète; in the second, the unfriendly review of Die Meistersinger by the influential Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick seems to have been the catalyst. In both cases we must presuppose an incubation period of some length. As we know from a letter penned by his first wife Minna, Wagner had set his mind on making an anti-Jewish statement as early as 1848.4 However, the contempt and venom that fuel his article of 1850 must have been building in him for longer, probably since the Paris period of 1839–42, when he failed to make his mark in the French capital. At the Opéra, Meyerbeer was all the rage, and French musical life seemed to be controlled behind the scenes by another German Jew, the publisher Maurice Schlesinger. Both men were helpful to him, but Wagner resented owing them gratitude. Given this discouraging state of affairs, it could not possibly have escaped Wagner’s notice that part of the French press was hostile to 2 Theodor W. Adorno, In Search of Wagner, trans. Rodney Livingstone (London: NLB, 1981), p. 41. 3 See the new edition of the essay, with introduction, notes and a generous selection of contemporary reviews by Jens Malte Fischer, Richard Wagners ‘Das Judentum in der Musik’. Eine kritische Dokumentation als Beitrag zur Geschichte des Antisemitismus (Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 2000). A translation by Stewart Spencer of the essay’s original version of 1850, ‘Jewishness in Music’, can be found in Wagner VIII (1988), pp. 20–33; an English translation of the 1869 version by William Ashton Ellis is contained in Ellis (ed.), Richard Wagner’s Prose Works, vol. III (London: Kegan Paul, 1907), pp. 75–122. 4 Minna Wagner, letter to Richard Wagner, 8th May 1850, Letters of Richard Wagner. The Burrell Collection, ed. with notes by John N. Burk (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1950), pp. 289–92, in which (p. 291) Minna refers to an essay written ‘two years ago’, i.e. 1848.

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The Beckmesser Problem Meyerbeer.5 Some of their complaints would reappear in ‘Jewishness in Music’: these would include the composer’s supposed lack of originality, his penchant for spectacle and effects for their own sake, and his cultural rootlessness. The incubation period preceding the 1869 publication may be dated from 1854, the year Eduard Hanslick published Vom MusikalischSchönen (On the Musically Beautiful), his pioneering treatise on the aesthetics of music, which, at its core, is a thoroughly antiWagnerian statement of principle. Hanslick rejects the subordination of music to language, which he deems an aberration. His ban extends to the ‘so-called programme symphonies’ of Berlioz and Liszt. In particular, Hanslick condemns Wagner’s doctrine of ‘unendliche Melodie’ (‘never-ending melody’), denouncing it as ‘formlessness raised to a principle’.6 In the twenty-page addition of 1869, Wagner retaliated by ‘outing’ Hanslick as Jewish and portraying him as the head of an anti-Wagnerian Jewish conspiracy. All that Hanslick’s pamphlet does, Wagner claims, is to push the interests of Jewry in music. He goes so far as to hint at the possibility of removing Jews by force in order to put an end to their corrosive influence on German culture. This attack on ‘Dr Hanslick’ may rightly be seen as an act of ‘cultural terrorism’.7 In fact, Wagner went on a search-and-destroy mission against his enemies, real and imagined. Hanslick’s treatise delivered a sharp, albeit hidden sting to Wagner. By espousing ‘pure, absolute music’, independent of words, he rehabilitated the very term that Wagner had coined, and given a distinctly negative meaning, in his 1846 programme notes for 5 See Kerry R. Murphy, ‘Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and the Place of Jewishness in Criticism’, in Peter Bloom (ed.), Berlioz. Past, Present, Future (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2003), pp. 90–104. 6 Eduard Hanslick, On the Musically Beautiful. A Contribution towards the Revision of the Aesthetics of Music, trans. and ed. Geoffrey Payzant (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1986), p. xxiii. 7 Thomas S. Grey, ‘Masters and their Critics: Wagner, Hanslick, Beckmesser, and Die Meistersinger’, in Nicholas Vazsonyi (ed.), Wagner’s Meistersinger. Performance, History, Representation (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2003), pp. 165–89.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.8 In his lifelong effort to fashion his artistic pedigree and present himself as the sole legitimate heir to Beethoven, Wagner pointed to the carefully prepared ‘entrance of language and the human voice’ in the last movement of the Ninth as a pivotal event in music history. Wagner regarded this moment as the primal scene for the very fusion of music and poetry that would be the hallmark of his own work. He was merely continuing what Beethoven had begun. He was ‘transgressing the boundaries of absolute music’ and leaving behind the wordless ‘realm of infinite and indistinct expression’ of purely instrumental music.9 What Hanslick had done, then, was to turn the tables on Wagner in the attempt to counter the increasing popularity of programme music, and at the same time to strike at the heart of the Wagnerian enterprise. Although in Wagner’s eyes Hanslick’s aesthetics and racial identity were intertwined, it is reasonable to assume that the threat to the hegemonic position he was about to achieve weighed more heavily on him than his opponent’s alleged Jewishness and was therefore the primary motivating force behind the assault of 1869. In fact, Hanslick thought of himself as a Catholic, his Jewish mother having converted before marrying his father. It is hard to imagine that Wagner was unaware of the shakiness of his allegation, but, obsessed as he was, he played the race card, presuming that this would heighten the effect of his attack. At the beginning of his career, Hanslick had actually championed the creator of Tannhäuser as the great hope of German opera. To Wagner’s surprise, relations soon soured, especially when Hanslick panned Lohengrin after its Vienna premiere in 1858. Four years later Wagner retaliated with a malicious prank when, at a private reading of the libretto of Die Meistersinger to which the celebrated critic had been invited, the pedantic Marker and self-important 8 See ‘The Complete Program Notes of Richard Wagner’, trans., annotated and introduced by Thomas R. Grey, in Grey (ed.), Richard Wagner and His World (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), p. 486. See Mark Evan Bonds, Absolute Music. The History of an Idea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). 9 Grey, op. cit., pp. 486–87.

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The Beckmesser Problem arbiter of the Mastersingers guild appeared under the name Veit Hanslich. Having had the satisfaction of entrapping his critic and watching him squirm, Wagner thought better of his prank, withdrew the all-too transparent name and substituted for it Sixtus Beckmesser, a name he found in Wagenseil.10 It was an inspired choice, suggesting as it does something both ‘altdeutsch’ and (by means of the Latinate first name) academic about this character. Remarkably, the adjective ‘beckmesserisch’ later became current in German, denoting someone insufferably pedantic and self-important. Wagner must have realized that had he named the butt of his satire Hanslich, he would have diminished his high-stakes comedy about German art. The debate about Beckmesser took its cue from Adorno’s assertion that ‘all rejects’ in Wagnerian opera are ‘caricatures of Jews’,11 and thus focused on Beckmesser’s implied Jewishness – implied, because Wagner saw to it that the Marker carried no outward signs of Jewishness. After all, a Jewish ‘Stadtschreiber’ would have been a glaring anomaly in sixteenth-century Nuremberg. Two warring camps formed. One contends that anti-Semitism is woven into the fabric of the work and that the comedy is in reality a document of hatred. The other contends, with equal passion, that traces of antiSemitism can be found neither in this nor in any other of Wagner’s works for the stage, because, in the interest of preserving their nonpartisan appeal, he consciously barred them from entering the inner sanctum of his creative imagination. It would be too laborious to rehearse these rigid arguments in detail here.12 But two points need to be considered. The first is that soon after the premiere of the work, rumours began to circulate in Vienna that Beckmesser’s ill-fated Serenade in Act Two was meant as a parody 10 Johann Christoph Wagenseil, Buch von der Meister-Singer Holdseligen Kunst, ed. Horst Brunner (Göppingen: Alfred Kümmerle, 1975); first published in Altdorf, 1697. 11 Adorno, op. cit., p. 23. 12 See H.R. Vaget, ‘Du warst mein Feind von je. The Beckmesser Controversy Revisited’, in Vazsonyi op. cit., pp. 190–208.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg of cantorial chant.13 This argument, taken up most recently by Barry Millington and others, has not met with wide acceptance.14 There is, to begin with, little evidence that Wagner had much knowledge of Jewish liturgical music, and if that hilarious Serenade parodies anything, it is Italian, i.e. ‘wälsche’, music, with which a seasoned Kapellmeister such as Wagner was of course thoroughly familiar. Allied to this is the assertion, which has also failed to generate general support, expounded at length by Marc A. Weiner,15 that the unusually high (for a baritone) tessitura of Beckmesser’s role is intended by Wagner as a caricature of a feature that he discerned and disliked in Jewish speech. The second point is the matter of a subtext alluding to the fairy tale of ‘The Jew in the Thorn Bush’, a story in which a stereotypical Jew is outwitted by a good servant and ends up being disgraced and hanged. It was again Adorno who smelt a rat and identified Beckmesser as Wagner’s very own ‘Jew in the Thorn Bush’.16 To counter this notion, Dieter Borchmeyer claimed that there is no evidence that Wagner had any knowledge of the fairy tale.17 But in light of the popularity of the Grimm tales, which was second only to the Bible, and the affinity of Wagner’s imagination to the fairy tale, this particular argument carries little weight. When Wagner wrote what later became Siegfried, he realized to his own surprise the similarity to the Grimm tale about the ‘Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear’.18 Wagner obviously knew the fairy tales, even if he made no specific mention of them elsewhere. It is time to acknowledge, it seems to me, that on a purely textual basis, a certain measure of ambiguity will for ever be attached to the Beckmesser problem. However, if we take into account the performance aspect of the issue, and if we view Beckmesser primarily as the aesthetic 13 See Grey, op. cit., pp. 184–85, 14 Barry Millington, ‘Nuremberg Trial: Is There Anti-Semitism in Die Meistersinger?’, Cambridge Opera Journal III (1991), pp. 247–60. 15 See Marc A. Weiner, Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), pp. 117–23. 16 Adorno, op. cit, p. 21. 17 Dieter Borchmeyer, ‘Beckmesser – The Jew in the Brambles?’, Bayreuth Festival programme book 1996, pp. 100–9. 18 Letter to Theodor Uhlig, 10th May 1851, Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1987), p. 223.

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The Beckmesser Problem Other, rather than the racial Other, then two ways out of the interpretive cul-de-sac become open to us. The crux of the problem is located in Walther’s Trial Song in Act One (‘Fanget an’) and the reaction it provokes. This is a scene of exceptional sophistication, even by Wagner’s lofty standards, in which a near riot is provoked by two clashing musical sensibilities: academic pedantry versus genius; old versus new. When the first scratching of Beckmesser’s chalk is heard, Walther begins to improvise, thereby augmenting the first of the two Stollen and Abgesänge that comprise the Bar form (one of the chief organizing principles of the work). He imagines Old Man Winter lurking in a thorn bush (‘Dornenhecke’), and seeking to disrupt the joyful singing of the birds all around him. Neither Beckmesser nor the other Masters realize that Walther is embellishing the traditional Bar by letting his imagination and emotion flow freely; only Sachs has an inkling that we are in the presence of musical and poetic greatness. Very deliberately, the reference to the ‘Dornenhecke’ is repeated in the augmentation of the second Stollen. What is more, both Winter and, by implication, the Marker are said to be ‘Grimm-bewehrt’ – that is, ‘armed with wrath’, but also (in a clever double entendre) ‘armed with the Grimm tale’. We can be reasonably sure, then, that Walther’s Trial Song lets us glimpse a subtext referring to the anti-Semitic tale. It is important to note, however, that none of the protagonists on stage perceives such a subtext, or reacts to it. The arcane allusion to ‘The Jew in the Thorn Bush’ is not an explicit element of the proceedings on stage. It operates – like the leitmotifs of the Wagnerian orchestra – over the heads of the protagonists, and is intended to evoke recognition in all those who ‘get’ the reference. It is equally important to note that Walther’s improvised asides are not aimed at any of the tale’s popular stereotypes, but rather at the notion of the Jew as the enemy of music.19 Beckmesser’s patent inability to ‘read’ both Walther’s Trial Song and the Prize Song, his Hanslickian allergy to 19 See the translation of the tale by Ritchie Robertson in Robertson (ed.), The German-Jewish Dialogue. An Anthology of Literary Texts, 1749–1933 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 69–73. For an interpretation of the tale see H.R. Vaget, ‘Sixtus Beckmesser – A Jew in the Brambles?’, Opera Quarterly XII (1995), pp. 35–45.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg the torrent of words (‘der Worte Schwall’), his egregious failure to master prosody, his unwillingness to recognize genius and his all-out attempt to stop Walther in his tracks mark him as just such an enemy of music. This, coupled with a hefty dose of self-importance (‘Beckmesser, keiner besser’), throws into relief the anti-Hanslick animus that has shaped the construction of the Marker. What is at work here is the will to reject and ridicule the idea of music as defined by Hanslick. The concluding address provides the exclamation point to the aesthetic agenda of the work, as Sachs reminds Walther that he owes the fulfilment of his aspirations (‘höchstes Glück’) not to his aristocratic lineage but to his ability as a ‘Dichter’, i.e. as poet-composer of the sort that Wagner himself aspired to be – an advocate of the very fusion of poetry and music that Hanslick had declared anathema. A final word about the obliqueness of the anti-Semitic subtext. It renders untenable the view that any interpretation of Die Meistersinger that does not foreground the anti-Semitism is incomplete, or invalid. It is far too short-sighted to see in a complex and tortured figure such as Beckmesser a mere Jewish caricature, and far too blinkered to reduce Wagner’s operatic agenda to the propagation of a hatred of the Jews. I rather propose to see in Wagner’s indubitably malicious and (from the perspective of his milieu) very telling allusions to the Grimm tale a discreet attempt to bond with like-minded cognoscenti in the audience and to encourage the formation of a community united not only by its love of ‘heil’ge deutsche Kunst’ but also by dislike of Jews and a readiness to oppose them.

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The Performance Legacy of Die Meistersinger Áine Sheil Any production history of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is also, to an extent, an account of stagings of the work by several generations of the Wagner family. Even a selective production history has to consider the relationship between the work and certain fateful developments in Germany history. These two elements (family interpretations and historical imperatives) are closely intertwined, as will become clear. This article makes no claim to comprehensiveness, instead foregrounding the work of the Wagner family and a number of prominent, principally German directors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Die Meistersinger has resonated most deeply in Germany and has also caused most difficulty there; German stagings are therefore haunted by German history, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly, but often in fascinating and noteworthy ways.

The First Performance and Immediate Aftermath The first production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg took place at the Hof- und Nationaltheater in Munich on 21st June 1868. Richard Wagner himself acted as stage director, coaching the singers not just musically but also gesturally. His cast included Franz Betz as Sachs, Franz Nachbaur as Walther and Mathilde Mallinger as Eva; Hans von Bülow conducted, with many interjections from the composer during the rehearsal period. Although the Hof- und Nationaltheater had hired guest director Reinhard Hallwachs to oversee the production, contemporary accounts of the rehearsals and first performance 57

die meistersinger von nürnberg confirm Wagner’s central role in the proceedings. According to one observer of the rehearsals, ‘he accompanies every note with a corresponding movement that the singers imitate as closely as they can; only someone who has seen the composer working and gesticulating in this way can have any idea of the multitude of nuances that he himself has thought up’.1 Writing in the Viennese Neue Freie Presse, the critic Eduard Hanslick, despite being the target for some of Wagner’s attacks in the opera’s portrayal of Beckmesser and also being hostile towards the music,2 reported that ‘Wagner… who directed the rehearsals on stage and supervised the production down to the last detail, has once again proved himself a born operatic producer, and brilliantly vindicates his reputation for genius in the field of mise-en-scène’.3 Hanslick’s review also mentioned ‘dazzling scenes of colour and splendour’, and indeed the premiere was lavishly staged by the standards of the day. This was the period in which Wagner was still enjoying the full patronage of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who not only supported the composer financially, but remained utterly captivated by his works. Ludwig shared his royal box with Wagner during the first performance of Die Meistersinger, and the composer acknowledged the applause of the audience from there – a breach of royal protocol, but an unmistakable sign of the young king’s esteem. Ludwig had involved himself in preparations for the premiere, even sending the Hof- und Nationaltheater’s scenic painters Angelo II Quaglio and Heinrich Döll to Nuremberg to sketch the city’s churches and streets. Wagner was not, however, keen on exact reproductions of Nuremberg: instead he instructed Quaglio to create imaginary scenes combining elements from multiple sources. These sketches were then transformed into three-dimensional stage scenery, a notable departure from the usual painted backdrops of the time. This solid, heavy naturalism lent the stage sets an impression of reality; one critic writing in the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung remarked on the ‘buildings, copied from real 1 Stewart Spencer, Wagner Remembered (London: Faber and Faber, 2000), p. 186. 2 For more on this, see Hans Rudolf Vaget’s article in this guide. 3 Herbert Barth, Dietrich Mack and Egon Voss (eds), Wagner: A Documentary Study (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), p. 215.

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The Performance Legacy life, and streets, squares and perspectives so lifelike as to deceive one into thinking them real’.4 Die Meistersinger was alone of Wagner’s mature works in being rooted in a historical time and place (sixteenth-century Nuremberg). But despite Wagner’s homage to the historical figure of Hans Sachs and his study of the conventions of the actual Mastersingers, the world he created in Die Meistersinger was largely imaginary: it was his projection of an ideal Germany in which the artist would be afforded utmost respect. During the composition of the work, Wagner was preoccupied with the question of what it was to be German. His essays from this period included ‘Was ist Deutsch?’ (‘What is German?’) and ‘Deutsche Kunst und deutsche Politik’ (‘German Art and German Politics’), in which he argued that there was a true German spirit, and that it was nonmaterialist, conservative and most at home in the realm of art, music and philosophy. Die Meistersinger provided him with an opportunity to explore these ideas within an artistic context, and productions of the work thus became embroiled in the ideological question of what constitutes ‘Germanness’. Wagner was, it seems, highly satisfied with the idealized Germany presented at the premiere of Die Meistersinger – in a letter to Ludwig II on 14th October 1868 he described the opening night as the high point of his career – but he was also deeply cynical about the reality of German theatre, and feared that other opera houses would mutilate his work. He considered withholding performance permission from companies that would not undertake to perform Die Meistersinger complete, but for financial reasons this proved impossible, and the opera was soon performed with up to an hour’s worth of cuts. Dessau, Karlsruhe, Dresden, Mannheim and Weimar all staged the work in 1869, and in 1870 it was produced by the court operas of Berlin and Vienna. From 1871, it began to appear in the opera houses of Europe. The opera’s early reception was not uniformly positive: press criticism included some harsh rejections of Wagner’s so-called ‘music of the future’, and the Vienna, Berlin and Mannheim productions encountered hostility 4 See Patrick Carnegy, ‘Stage History’ in John Warrack (ed.), Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 137.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg on the part of some sections of the audience. But within decades, Die Meistersinger had established itself as a staple of the international operatic repertory.

Productions by Cosima and Siegfried Wagner Die Meistersinger was not staged at Bayreuth during Wagner’s lifetime, but its increasing popularity as a festive comedy ensured a place for it in the 1888 Bayreuth Festival. This was, in part, a strategic decision, calculated to help the finances of the Festival (demand for tickets proved unprecedented), but in many senses the work suited the national mood. This was a period in which Germany, having unified in 1871, was exploring its own identity as a nation, and Die Meistersinger provided an opportunity for audiences to reflect on Germany’s cultural heritage and self-understanding. By now, Wagner’s widow Cosima had taken control of the Festival and, as with other productions at the time, she directed this staging of Die Meistersinger herself. Her self-appointed mission at Bayreuth was to realize Wagner’s musical and dramatic intentions as faithfully as possible. For some works, the aim was to create a staging that corrected what Wagner had regarded as imperfections in earlier productions. In the case of Die Meistersinger, however, since Wagner had overseen the premiere in 1868 and was highly satisfied with it, Cosima felt she should reproduce the original staging as closely as possible. In the event, she incorporated some minor modifications into the 1888 production: the church interior of Act One was made plainer, and the serious elements in Beckmesser’s character were emphasized. Hans Richter, who had been involved with musical rehearsals for the original production, conducted; his reading of the score was rapturously received, and the production as a whole enjoyed a hugely positive reception, despite uneven standards of singing. It was revived the following year, but by now some of the novelty of comedy on stage at Bayreuth had worn off; the critics’ enthusiasm waned and reservations about Cosima’s static production style emerged. According to a Times review on 12th August 1889, the Apprentices sat ‘motionless as statues’ in Act One, and the chorus could not have stood more stiffly in the Festwiese scene. 60

The Performance Legacy Wagner’s only son, Siegfried, directed a new production of Die Meistersinger at the 1911 Bayreuth Festival, again conducted by Richter. Although he conserved all the usual visual traditions associated with the work, his lively crowd scenes were greeted as skilful modern stagecraft and he was credited with making the singers’ gestures more convincing than in Cosima’s version. The same production opened the Bayreuth Festival of 1924, conducted by Fritz Busch with Hermann Weil as Sachs, Carl Clewing as Walther and Lilly Hafgren-Dinkela as Eva, breaking a ten-year silence at the Festspielhaus that extended beyond World War One into the troubled early years and hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat and its humiliation in the Treaty of Versailles, it was perhaps inevitable that Hans Sachs’s closing speech in honour of German art began to resonate greatly with German opera audiences. Art (and music in particular) was now perceived as an indestructible national asset, and even as a substitute for former influence on the world stage. As the reopening performance of the 1924 Festival drew to an end, the audience stood up together for Hans Sachs’s final speech and the concluding chorus, and then broke into a rendition of ‘Deutschland über Alles’, singing it in its entirety. This was the year following Hitler’s abortive putsch in Munich, and General Erich Ludendorff, a fellow participant in the putsch, was among those present in the Festspielhaus. The Nazi slogan ‘Heil!’ then rang out repeatedly across the auditorium, revealing how politicized the Bayreuth audience had become. Although Siegfried Wagner was displeased with this intrusion of politics into the Festival and sought to quell further overt displays of nationalism, he and his British wife Winifred had at this point already given open support to Hitler and had welcomed many leading anti-Republicans to Bayreuth. Liberal opera critics were dismayed that German nationalists had apparently monopolized Wagner, and the writer Bernhard Diebold called on the left to embrace Die Meistersinger and promote it as a ‘festival of democracy’.5 In the turbulent interwar years, the work served as a beacon in Germany for different political factions, but productions remained largely untouched 5 Bernhard Diebold, Der Fall Wagner: Eine Revision (Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, 1928), p. 46. The title is a play on Nietzsche’s Der Fall Wagner (The Wagner Case) (1888).

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die meistersinger von nürnberg by the expressionist, constructivist and abstract staging styles that were emerging in progressive theatre at the time. To most opera production teams, the creation of naturalistic illusion was still an important principle, particularly when it came to Die Meistersinger. As the art historian Oskar Bie demanded in a review of a 1932 production at the Staatsoper Berlin, how was experimentation with such a piece possible, given the solidity of its realism and the precision of Wagner’s stage instructions? Designs that represented Nuremberg in less Romantic and quaint ways than usual were liable to provoke outrage, with the result that some experimental sketches by designers either went unrealized (e.g. Eduard Löffler’s expressionist design for Act Two, Mannheim 1930) or were modified to suit public taste (e.g. designs for the final scene by Karl Gröning for Nuremberg, 1927, and Lothar Schenck von Trapp for Darmstadt, 1928). Reviewers and audiences were generally less than responsive to productions that appeared to include elements of modern life deemed inappropriate, for example loss of social hierarchy between the characters, crowd scenes that appeared too uncontrolled and signs of independence in the character of Eva. Conservative operagoers of the period turned to the work for comfort, as the sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno noted in his 1932 essay ‘Zur gesellschaftlichen Lage der Musik’ (‘On the Social Situation of Music’). Reminders of contemporary social upheaval and artistic change were unwelcome; instead tradition, convention and non-experimentation were the order of the day.

Die Meistersinger during the Third Reich With the end of the Weimar Republic, Die Meistersinger became inextricably linked with the National Socialist regime and associated with politics in a newly overt way. On 21st March 1933, the opening of the new Reichstag coincided with the sixty-second anniversary of the foundation of the German Empire’s first Reichstag in 1871. The Nazis marked the day with parades through several German cities, torch-lit processions in the evening and a performance of Die Meistersinger at the Staatsoper Berlin, the third act of which Adolf Hitler attended. In August 1933, the first production at that year’s Bayreuth Festival was a performance of Die Meistersinger, again with Hitler in attendance. Directed by Heinz 62

The Performance Legacy Tietjen and designed by Emil Preetorius (both of whom were closely associated with the Staatsoper Berlin), the production took full advantage of Hitler’s financial support of the Festival, and included hundreds of choristers in the final scene. Tietjen was renowned for such chorus scenes, and for swelling the number of performers on stage in order to create overwhelming effects. Visitors to the Festival were, however, discouraged from standing and singing in response: cards distributed to the audience on behalf of Hitler asked them to refrain from singing the national or party anthem (the ‘Horst-Wessel-Lied’), since there was ‘no more splendid expression of the German spirit than the immortal work of the master himself’.6 The performance was broadcast on radio throughout Germany, along with a speech by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels about the significance of the work to Nazi culture. From 1935, Die Meistersinger was staged every year at the annual Nazi rallies in Nuremberg; Hitler commissioned and personally approved a new production with sets and costumes by Benno von Arent, who would shortly afterwards become the official Reich stage designer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the production bore some similarities to the party rallies themselves: the final scene was decorated with avenues of Nazi-style banners, and the massed chorus resembled the huge gatherings at political events of the time. As the Meistersinger choruses of the period grew out of proportion to anything that Wagner had known or could have afforded, the individuality of chorus members tended to get lost. Geoffrey Skelton notes of the 1933 Bayreuth production that Tietjen brought a ‘stylized mass approach’ to the chorus and that different groups within the chorus were costumed in a uniform way.7 Tietjen also directed a new production of Die Meistersinger for the 1943 and 1944 Bayreuth Festivals, with naturalistic designs by the young Wieland Wagner, the composer’s grandson. During these closing years of the war, Die Meistersinger was the only opera staged at Bayreuth; the performances were intended as a boost to wartime morale and were attended exclusively by ‘guests of 6 David B. Dennis, ‘“The Most German of all German Operas”: Die Meistersinger through the Lens of the Third Reich’, in Nicholas Vazsonyi (ed.), Wagner’s Meistersinger: Performance, History, Representation (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2003), p. 109. 7 Geoffrey Skelton, Wagner at Bayreuth (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1965), p. 152.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg the Führer’ (soldiers home from the front and civilians involved in the war effort). Given the outcome of World War Two and Bayreuth’s close links with the Nazi regime, no further festival was possible until 1951, when Wieland and his brother Wolfgang assumed control, initiating the post-war era known as ‘New Bayreuth’.

Post-war Rehabilitation and New Directions After the war, there was no immediate attempt to reposition Die Meistersinger, and many opera houses in Germany and elsewhere in the world continued to perform it in pre-war productions. At Bayreuth, a necessary break from the Festival’s compromised past was signalled by a new staging style, but one in which initially Die Meistersinger had no place. In 1951, Wieland Wagner directed and designed visually pared-back, symbolic productions of Parsifal and the Ring cycle, but the new production of Die Meistersinger that year was a conventional, naturalistic staging by director Rudolf Hartmann and designer Hans Reissinger, with Otto Edelmann as Sachs, Hans Hopf as Walther, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Eva and Herbert von Karajan conducting. At this point, Wieland Wagner still believed that Die Meistersinger required a naturalistic approach on account of its historical setting, but his position changed utterly by 1956, when he directed a new production of the opera for the Bayreuth Festival. With this production (Hans Hotter as Sachs, Wolfgang Windgassen as Walther, Gré Brouwenstijn as Eva, André Cluytens conducting), Wieland challenged many of the conventions that had accumulated in Meistersinger staging practice since 1868. True, Act One retained a stylized link with previous naturalistic and semi-naturalistic settings through quotations of Gothic church elements. These formed a harmonious stage picture that suggested the interior of a church without literal representation or denial of the set’s theatricality. The real break with tradition came in Act Two, which replaced the usual Nuremberg streetscape with an abstract scene suffused with violet-blue light. This was a setting that evoked Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, according to Wieland Wagner – a setting that created a magical otherworld and therefore the conditions in which Wagner’s idea of Wahn (madness, reversal of social norms) could 64

The Performance Legacy be explored. There were none of the usual signs of sixteenth-century Nuremberg: no half-timbered houses and no quaint laneways through which the townspeople could spill. Instead, there was a cobbled kidneyshaped acting area, a bench for Sachs and stylized, spherical representations of the lime and elder trees, the larger of which floated downstage above the cobbles with no apparent support (see plate 17). It was a strikingly beautiful stage picture, but one that challenged the critics and public. The Festwiese scene of Act Three further alienated those who expected to see Nuremberg in the background: instead, they were presented with a semicircle of steeply raked arena-style seating, on which the uniformly clad chorus was arranged. Banners behind the chorus bore representations of a single sprig of blossoms. It was a scene lacking in topographical and historical references, apart from some stylized allusions to the sixteenth century in the costumes, and even the entry of the guilds was reduced to a single dancer miming. ‘Die Meistersinger ohne [without] Nürnberg’ was a commonly heard phrase to describe it at the time. By now, Wieland’s abstract style was not unfamiliar and was even largely accepted in the case of the myth-based Wagner operas, but his 1956 treatment of Die Meistersinger was a shock to critics, many of whom felt it betrayed the ‘human’ spirit of this particular work and was thus unfaithful to the composer. Indeed, Wieland had swept away all possibility for sentimentality and nostalgia, and it was thus inevitable that his production would cause discomfort. But the director was also known for constantly reworking his own productions and never regarding them as final, and so the 1956 Meistersinger changed in subsequent years, sometimes in apparently mollifying directions. By 1957 Nuremberg started to appear in the background of Act Three, and the abstraction of Act Two was lessened by the appearance of some houses in the background. By 1960, a Times review noted that ‘[Act Two] now shows not only houses and railings but a statue of a golden Cupid. The tiered arena [of Act Three]… has been abandoned in favour of a return to something like the festival meadow… and with the perversity of a bold imagination Wieland Wagner paints the floor blue and the cyclorama green!’8 8 Anonymous, ‘Bayreuth Looks to the Future’, in The Times (28th July 1960), p. 5.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg A variation on this production incorporating some of the later modifications was staged at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, in 1962. By 1963, Wieland was ready to direct a completely new production for the Bayreuth Festival. This time, the emphasis was on historical specificity: the director wanted to present sixteenth-century Nuremberg not through the lens of Wagner and nineteenth-century Germany, but as far as possible on its own un-Romantic terms. A Shakespearean-style theatre with wooden galleries served as a unifying set throughout all the acts, with some largely naturalistic additions at various points – a triptych altarpiece in the Church; a giant scroll of the Mastersingers’ rules during Walther’s Trial Song; and a representation of Sachs’s (Otto Wiener at the premiere) cobbling workshop more akin to a booth than a room, but containing realistic furniture, half-made shoes, tools and books. Wieland’s approach to characterization constituted the biggest challenge to convention: the Mastersingers were no longer well-to-do members of the middle class, but mostly rough-edged artisans whose association with the guild did not disguise their vulgarity. Pogner (Kurt Böhme) was self-aggrandizing, organizing the song contest for social advantage; Beckmesser (Carlos Alexander) was arrogant but not a fool; and Eva (Anja Silja) was not a sweet young woman, as she commonly tended to be portrayed, but someone who knew what she wanted and was determined to get it. The riot scene in Act Two came across as particularly aggressive, closing with a drunk Nightwatchman stumbling over bodies. In Act Three, the procession of guilds was replaced by a Brueghelesque peasant dance and the somewhat kitsch arrival of the mythical Nine Muses. This scene eschewed all prettiness, and was criticized for lacking taste. Wieland had created a seemingly provincial, vulgar Volksfest, again denying audiences all possibility for sentimentality and nostalgia, and once again drawing boos from his audience on opening night. Having unsettled Bayreuth audiences for fifteen years, Wieland Wagner died aged only forty-nine in 1966. According to an article by Birgit Nilsson published in the New York Times on 6th November 1966, just hours before his death he was planning a new production of Die Meistersinger for the Bayreuth Festival in 1968. There was a new production that year – the centenary of the first performance in 66

The Performance Legacy Munich – but in the event his brother Wolfgang Wagner directed it. Wolfgang’s three productions of Die Meistersinger for the Festival in 1968, 1981 and 1996 are less well remembered today than Wieland’s, perhaps because they had a settling rather than unsettling effect: they avoided explicit questions of ideology, presenting the characters in a mostly positive and warm manner, and involved scenery that was stylized only to a moderate extent. These productions spanned decades of the so-called Regietheater era, but under Wolfgang Wagner the Bayreuth Meistersinger remained untouched by its effects.

Coming to Terms with the Past: Regietheater and Die Meistersinger The theatre theorist Marvin Carlson has described the term Regietheater (often translated as ‘director’s theatre’) as ‘one of the most familiar critical terms in German theatrical discourse’,9 and indeed Germany is inextricably linked with the type of theatre in which stage directors interpret actively, leaving their own distinctive artistic stamp on a production. Although Die Meistersinger has historically attracted surprisingly little high-profile Regietheater treatment, one can point to certain productions in more recent times that have interrogated the work in the light of German history in highly conspicuous ways. As an example of this, Hans Neuenfels’s 1994 production for Oper Stuttgart opened with images of Germany in ruins in 1945. The rest of his production depicted the ‘economic miracle’ of post-war Germany, but with an emphasis on philistinism and the ugliness of modern life. During the riot scene in Act Two, images of old Nuremberg hung upside down while leather-clad gangsters attacked other characters viciously, creating a bloodbath. At the end of the opera, by which point Germany was shown as having reached reunification, the Festwiese scene was played out not in Nuremberg, but at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. At the very close, Hans Sachs climbed into the iconic chariot from the top of the Gate and was borne upwards, as if towards heaven and a highly questionable apotheosis (see plate 21). The production offended many because of its representation of vulgarity and sleaze, but Klaus 9 Marvin A. Carlson, Theatre is More Beautiful than War: German Stage Directing in the Late Twentieth Century (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2009), p. x.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg Umbach, a music critic for Der Spiegel, declared it a ‘definitive deNazification’ of the work.10 German directorial engagement with Die Meistersinger often revolves around the issue of nationalism and whether or not Hans Sachs’s closing speech is politically suspect. Many commentators have made the point that Wagner’s Sachs values art above politics, and that the opera is thus apolitical. The belief that art is above politics was, however, a common idea within nineteenth and early twentieth-century German nationalist discourse: it was one way in which commentators sought to differentiate German values from those of other nations, and was thus not necessarily an apolitical stance. Director Peter Konwitschny tackled the discomfort Hans Sachs’s final speech has caused in an unusually direct manner in a production for the Hamburg Staatsoper in 2002. Act Three began not in Sachs’s workshop, but against the ruins of Nuremberg after World War Two; in the final scene, when Konwitschny’s Sachs began to praise German art and warn against foreign influence, another character made a spoken interjection, declaring that these sentiments were no longer acceptable. The music ground to a halt, and a debate about nationalism erupted among the singers onstage. Wolfgang Schöne, singing Sachs, explained that he too had a problem with the words, but that they were part of Wagner’s text. Another character insisted that the words weren’t meant to be nationalist back then; yet another character suggested cutting them, but was quickly rebuffed. Various attempts at explaining the text were made, and eventually the conductor Ingo Metzmacher intervened in order to continue with Wagner’s score. It would be easy to conclude that Konwitschny interrupted Wagner’s music in order to reject Hans Sachs’s speech and to distance himself from its sentiments. This was not, however, the purpose of the illusion-breaking intervention: instead, Konwitschny sought a genuine debate about the words and what they meant in Wagner’s day. Perhaps it was for that reason that the Mastersingers were all costumed like Wagner in a silk robe and beret, and that the Festwiese scene included recognizable characters from Wagner’s other operas (Lohengrin, Siegfried, the three Rhinemaidens, Tannhäuser). 10 Klaus Umbach, ‘Die Hymne der Spiesser’, Der Spiegel (20th June 1994), p. 162.

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The Performance Legacy Konwitschny also sought to distance the character of Hans Sachs from the idea of oppressive authority. When the townspeople greeted Sachs with excitement in the Festwiese scene and sang the words ‘Wach auf’, everyone on stage stared intensely towards the back of the auditorium, as if Sachs were to be found there. Instead, he made a quiet and unobtrusive entrance on stage, almost unnoticed and seemingly forgoing the recognition of the crowd. The trajectory of Hans Sachs in Katharina Wagner’s 2007 production for the Bayreuth Festival was entirely different, even though this too was an attempt to come to terms with the histories of Germany and Die Meistersinger. Wagner’s great-granddaughter set the action in an arts academy, with Hans Sachs (Franz Hawlata for the first two years, James Rutherford for the last two) depicted not as a cobbler but as a barefoot artist-rebel among reactionary conservatives. Walther (Klaus Florian Vogt for four of its five seasons) was an impulsive graffiti artist, while Beckmesser (Michael Volle for the first two years, Adrian Eröd for the last three) – at the start at least – fulfilled his role as the pedantic guardian of the academy’s rules. During the riot scene, Sachs sensed the dangers of chaos and the need for tradition: as he dressed for the Act Three festival, he put on shoes for the first time in the production and began his transition to a more conservative persona ready to uphold rather than question authority. In a similar manner, Walther shed his rebelliousness and embraced mainstream popular culture, allowing his artistry to be commodified and ultimately rewarded with a giant cheque. Quite the opposite happened in Beckmesser’s case. Transformed in the riot of Act Two, he took on the role of a performance artist in Act Three, becoming increasingly isolated and horrified by Sachs’s own transformation into an authoritarian figure. The production also dealt uncompromisingly with Germany’s fascist past and with conservative opposition to Regietheater. The entrance of the guilds in Act Three was replaced by a grotesque dance by twelve actors, each with a giant puppet head depicting an historical German cultural figure (including, for example, Wagner and Beethoven, see plate 24). These overbearing, self-important puppets turned out to be a play within a play, staged by an opera production team made up of a 69

die meistersinger von nürnberg conductor, director and designer, who came on to take a bow while the music carried on. Since, however, they were responsible for ‘Eurotrash’ (a derogatory term for Regietheater), these three opera practitioners were forcibly dumped into a large rubbish container, and at the moment the chorus began to sing ‘Wach auf’ – words that Goebbels had drawn attention to in 1933 – Hans Sachs set this container alight. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, adopting the bodily gestures of a fascist orator and lit from below to dramatic effect, he now assumed the role of a reactionary, authoritarian leader. During his final address, two giant bronze statues of Goethe and Schiller appeared behind him, providing an uncomfortable reminder of the Nazis’ overblown celebration of German culture they considered ‘healthy’ (as opposed to their desecration of art they considered ‘degenerate’). The musicologist Stephan Mösch has written about the moment in the production when Hans Sachs sets the container and the opera production team within it alight: here the audience encountered fascism, he suggests, not indirectly through a written commentary, but experientially, through the senses.11 The theatre theorist Clemens Risi has also written about this section of the production, noting the use of Leni Riefenstahl-type lighting and arguing that the compromised visual language of this scene was not just a reference to the past, but also a painfully potent realization of it.12 These two commentators were part of an academic symposium that took place in Bayreuth in 2007 to mark Katharina Wagner’s new production – a symposium that demonstrated the seriousness with which any new production at Bayreuth is taken and the level of debate that such a production can provoke. Interest surrounding a new production at the Salzburg Festival in 2013 was similarly high, for this was the first production of Die Meistersinger there since 1938, and it was the work of the Norwegian director Stefan Herheim, whose Bayreuth production of Parsifal in 2008 was highly acclaimed for its historically attuned treatment of Wagner’s 11 Stephan Mösch, ‘Störung, Verstörung, Zerstörung: Regietheater als Rezeptionsproblem’, in Robert Sollich, Clemens Risi, Sebastian Reus and Stephan Jöris (eds.) Angst vor der Zerstörung: Der Meister Künste zwischen Archiv und Erneuerung (Berlin: Verlag Theater der Zeit, 2008), pp. 229–30. 12 Clemens Risi, ‘Die neuen Meistersinger und die Angst vor der Zerstörung’, ibid., pp. 276–77.

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The Performance Legacy last work. The Salzburg Meistersinger was a co-production with the Paris Opéra and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, thus ensuring an international profile and guaranteed longevity. As seen in Salzburg, Herheim’s production (with Michael Volle as Sachs) concentrated on art rather than politics, and explored a world of dreams and fairy tales that might have existed in a nineteenth-century German imagination. The sets by Heike Scheele alluded in a variety of ways to the central image of a writing desk, playing with dimensions in a Nutcrackerlike manner, so that the cast at times appeared as doll-like figures. Characters from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales populated the riot scene, creating an eerie effect, rather than any sense of uncontrolled violence. Hans Sachs’s final speech was isolated from the rest of the action with a sudden shift in lighting and the consequent suggestion that the problematic words were out of character. The production unfolded in less over-determined circumstances than would have been the case in Bayreuth, but Herheim’s decision to avoid confronting Die Meistersinger’s problematic reception history nonetheless surprised some commentators, including the Salzburger Nachrichten critic, who described the staging as ‘naive’ and ‘harmless’.13

Die Meistersinger in Great Britain The staging and reception of any work of art is inevitably dependent on historical and cultural context, and while audiences and critics have grappled with the complexities of the work’s history in German-speaking countries, the ideological issues surrounding Die Meistersinger have never loomed particularly large outside them. Indeed, most productions even into the beginning of the twenty-first century, including those in Great Britain, have been largely traditional. There have been more innovative exceptions and these include stagings by Kurt Horres at La Monnaie in Brussels (1985), Claude Régy at the Châtelet in Paris (1990) and David Alden for Netherlands Opera (2013). Despite a moratorium on performances in Great Britain during the two World Wars (something that did not happen in the USA), Die 13 Karl Harb, ‘Meistersinger von Nürnberg: Wie aus dem Märchenbuch’, Salzburger Nachrichten (5th August 2013).

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die meistersinger von nürnberg Meistersinger is most often regarded by British practitioners and commentators as a work of humanity and warmth. As a Times reviewer at the Bayreuth Festival in 1952 asked: Do we, who are not German, misconceive Die Meistersinger when we love it as a comedy of human emotions? The Germans prize it as a soul-stirring patriotic opera. Where foreigners find the climax in the quintet, Wagner’s compatriots wait all the time for the big choruses in the last scene and for Sachs’s dissertation on ‘Was deutsch und echt’.14 It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that British productions have tended to be remembered for their musical qualities rather than for overtly political stage direction. The first British performance of Die Meistersinger was at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1882; the cast included Eugen Gura as Sachs, Hermann Winkelmann as Walther and Rosa Sucher as Eva, and was conducted by Hans Richter, all seasoned Bayreuth performers. The first production at Covent Garden was in 1884, and from that point the opera was seen there regularly apart from during the war periods. The first production there after World War Two, conducted by Karl Rankl and Reginald Goodall, was in 1948 and was performed in English; the pre-war scenery continued to be used that year, as well as in 1951 (a production in German conducted by Thomas Beecham and directed by Heinz Tietjen) and 1953. A new production directed by Erich Witte and designed by Georges Wakhévitch was introduced in 1957 and remained in the Covent Garden repertory until 1963. In 1968, the opera appeared at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, sung in English, to huge acclaim. Directed by Glen Byam Shaw and John Blatchley and, most notably, conducted by Reginald Goodall, and with Norman Bailey as Hans Sachs, the production moved to the London Coliseum later that year when Sadler’s Wells Opera (soon to become English National Opera) took up residence in St Martin’s Lane. The Royal Opera has seen two further productions in the intervening years: the first in 1969 was directed by Rudolf Hartmann (who had 14 Anonymous, ‘The Bayreuth Festival: Die Meistersinger’, The Times (6th August 1952), p. 2.

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The Performance Legacy directed the 1951 production at Bayreuth) and designed along largely traditional lines by Barry Kay. This production stayed in the repertory until 1990, but with some revisions to the Festwiese scenery in 1982 and 1990. The most recent production by Graham Vick with designs by Richard Hudson opened in 1993, with John Tomlinson as Sachs and Thomas Allen as Beckmesser, and was notable for bold colours, miniature buildings representing sixteenth-century Nuremberg and a riot scene in which acrobats dangled from trapdoors overhead and created a multi-dimensional sense of movement and chaos. The emphasis in this production was firmly on Personenregie (detailed characterization and interaction among characters) rather than any overarching concept, political or otherwise. The same was true of David McVicar’s 2011 production for Glyndebourne, the first there,15 with designs by Vicki Mortimer, which set the action around the time of Wagner’s birth in 1813 and studiously avoided any sense of historical baggage. Instead, it focused on creating a sense of warmth, not least at the end, when Hans Sachs (Gerald Finley) reached out to Beckmesser (Johannes Martin Kränzle) in a gesture of reconciliation and inclusion. Welsh National Opera staged its first Meistersinger in a 2010 production by Richard Jones with sets by Paul Steinberg. Bryn Terfel sang his first Sachs, Amanda Roocroft was Eva, Christopher Purves was Beckmesser and Lothar Koenigs conducted. The emphasis in the production was on ‘holy German art’, which was represented at the outset with a front cloth featuring centuries of German and Austrian artists. This was not a depiction of a closed canon of German composers: instead, the collage included artists from many disciplines and went up to contemporary times. These artists were seen again in the final scene, when cast members held up the portraits in chronological order. Their faces prompted an appreciation of the relationship between mould-breaking and tradition: each of these innovators made significant changes to their art forms and many of these changes were resisted, only for them to be absorbed later into general artistic practice. The scale and collective continuity of these German figures’ contribution to art came across 15 Although in 1928 (six years before the first festival) there had a been a concert performance, in costume, of Act Three, Scene One in the Organ Room (see plate 12).

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die meistersinger von nürnberg clearly, providing a context in which the opera’s exploration of artistic innovation and tradition could easily be grasped. Jones thus addressed the post-war awkwardness of Wagner’s lines about ‘holy German art’, but in an affirmative way that may well have been easier for a non-German director to conceive. A reworking by Richard Jones of his production appeared at English National Opera in 2015. The exploration of this opera with a uniquely troubled history looks set to continue well into the future with interpretations that examine the many issues that it raises in a myriad of ways.

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Thematic Guide Themes from the opera have been identified by the numbers in square brackets in the article on the music, pp. 26–39. These are also printed at corresponding points in the libretto, so that the words can be related to the musical themes. [1a]

  

   

[1b]

x

     

                                         x

[1c]

                                        x

[2] x

                   [3]

             

    

[4]

                   

75

die meistersinger von nürnberg

[5]

    

z

                    

[6]                

[7] WALTHER z of 5

cf 6

                        Mor - gen - lich leuch - tend

3 in

ro

-

si - gem Schein, von Blut und Duft

ge - schwellt die Luft

[8] CHORALE

    Da

zu

  dir

der

 

    Hei

-

land kam,

 

wil - lig

     dei - ne

Tau - fe

[9]

                                  [10] DAVID

         

     

Der Sing - er Mei - ster- schlag

Mein Herr!

[11]

  

       



[12] DAVID

      

Der Mei

     -

ster

Tön'

und

Wei

z

-

          sen gar viel an

[13] DAVID Song, Act Three, Scene One

                              

76

Nam'

und

Zahl.



nahm.

Thematic Guide

[14]

                                                

[15] POGNER

x                           Des schö - ne Fest,

Jo - han - nis - tag,

ihr wisst, be geh'n wir mor - gen.

[16a] ‘A theme of knightly character’

   

      

x                  

[16b] WALTHER

                    gilt es des Le - bens höch - sten Preis

[16c] WALTHER Spring Song

              3

[17]

x

          [18a]

  

 

 

              

     

[18b]

                     [19]

   

   

 

    

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

[20]

               [21a]

[21b]

           

    





   

[22b]

[22a]

     

      

          

    

[23]

                                         [24]

      

   

         

   

cf 16c

[25] Midsummer Eve                      

         

[26]

       

    

[27] SACHS

   

           

Mein Freund!

in hol

- der

Ju - gend zeit

[28]

        

  

                  x

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Thematic Guide

[29] SACHS

   









Je - rum!





Je - rum!

         Hal - la - hal - la - he!

[30] BECKMESSER

                            Den Tag seh' ich

er - schei - nen, der mir wohl ge - fall'n thut.

[31]

             [32]

   

          

  

 



[33] CHORALE

      Wach'

auf!

                 

Es

na - het

gen

den

Tag

[34]

   

  

          

[35]

                                           [36] BECKMESSER Prize Song

                     

      

       

[37]

             







      

Tris - tan

und I - sol - de

79

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Music Drama in Three Acts by Richard Wagner Libretto by the composer English translation by Peter Branscombe Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater, Munich, on 21st June 1868. It was first performed in Britain at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on 30th May 1882.The first performance in the United States was at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, on 4th January1886. The German libretto has been laid out in accordance with the one printed in volume 7 of Wagner’s Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen (Collected Writings) prepared under the composer’s supervision and first printed in Leipzig. The English translation follows the same layout.

}

THE CHARACTERS Hans Sachs, shoemaker bass Veit Pogner, goldsmith bass Kurz Vogelgesang, furrier tenor Konrad Nachtigall, tinsmith bass Sixtus Beckmesser, town clerk bass Fritz Kothner, baker bass Mastersingers Balthasar Zorn, pewterer tenor Ulrich Eisslinger, grocer tenor Augustin Moser, tailor tenor Hermann Ortel, soap-boiler bass Hans Schwartz, stocking-weaver bass Hans Foltz, coppersmith bass Walther von Stolzing, a young knight from Franconia tenor David, Sachs’s apprentice tenor Eva, Pogner’s daughter soprano Magdalene, Eva’s nurse soprano A Nightwatchman bass

Burghers and wives of all the guilds, journeymen. apprentices, girls, people Nuremberg around the middle of the sixteenth century

Vorspiel [1a–6] ERSTER AUFZUG Erste Szene Die Bühne stellt das Innere der Katharinenkirche in schrägem Durchschnitt dar; von dem Hauptschiff, welches links ab, dem Hintergrunde zu, sich ausdehnend anzunehmen ist, sind nur noch die letzten Reihen der Kirchenstühlbänke sichtbar: den Vordergrund nimmt der freie Raum vor dem Chor ein; dieser wird später durch einen schwarzen Vorhang gegen das Schiff zu gänzlich geschlossen. In der letzten Reihe der Kirchenstühle sitzen Eva und Magdalene; Walther von Stolzing steht, in einiger Entfernung, zur Seite an eine Säule gelehnt, die Blicke auf Eva heftend, die sich mit stummem Gebärdenspiel wiederholt zu ihm umkehrt. CHORAL DER GEMEINDE   Da zu dir der Heiland kam,

[8]

(Walther drückt durch Gebärde eine schmachtende Frage an Eva aus.)  

willig seine Taufe nahm,

(Evas Blick und Gebärde sucht zu antworten; doch beschämt schlägt sie das Auge wieder nieder)  

weihte sich dem Opfertod,

(Walther zärtlich, dann dringender)  

gab er uns des Heils Gebot:

(Eva Walthern schüchtern abweisend, aber schnell wieder seelenvoll zu ihm aufblickend)  

das wir durch sein’ Tauf’ uns weihn,

(Walther, entzückt, höchste Beteuerungen, Hoffnung)  

seines Opfers wert zu sein.

(Eva, selig lächelnd, dann beschämt die Augen senkend)

84

Prelude [1a–6] ACT ONE Scene One The scene represents the interior of the church of St Catherine in diagonal section; the nave is supposed to extend towards the back of the stage, to the left; only the last few rows of pews are visible. In front is the open space of the choir, which is later completely shut off from the nave by a black curtain. Eva and Magdalene are sitting in the last row of pews. Standing to one side by a pillar is Walther von Stolzing, at some distance from the women, gazing at Eva. Eva repeatedly turns round towards the knight. CONGREGATION   When the Saviour came to thee,

[8]

(Walther signals to Eva that he has an ardent question for her.)  

willingly accepted His baptism,

(Eva would like to respond with a glance and gesture, but bashfully lowers her gaze)  

dedicated Himself to a sacrificial death,

(Walther tenderly, then with more urgency)  

He gave the covenant for our salvation:

(Eva rejecting Walther shyly, but then quickly looking up again, giving him a soulful look)  

that we might be consecrated through His baptism

(Walther, enraptured, solemn assertions, hope)  

so as to be worthy of His sacrifice.

(Eva, smiling blissfully, then bashfully lowering her eyes)

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

 

Edler Täufer!

(Walther dringend, aber schnell sich unterbrechend)  

Christs Vorläufer!

(Er nimmt die dringende Gebärde wieder auf, mildert sie aber sogleich wieder, um dadurch um eine Unterredung zu bitten.)    

Nimm uns gnädig an, dort am Fluss Jordan!

(Die Gemeinde erhebt sich. Alles wendet sich dem Ausgange zu und verläßt unter dem Nachspiele allmählich die Kirche. Walther heftet in höchster Spannung seinen Blick auf Eva, welche ihren Sitz ebenfalls verlässt und, von Magdalene gefolgt, langsam in seine Nähe kommt. Da Walther Eva sich nähern sieht, drängt er sich gewaltsam durch die Kirchgänger zu ihr.) WALTHER (leise, doch feurig zu Eva) Verweilt! Ein Wort! – Ein einzig Wort! EVA (sich schnell zu Magdalene umwendend) Mein Brusttuch… schau! Wohl liegt’s im Ort! MAGDALENE Vergeßlich Kind! Nun heißt es: such’! (Sie geht nach den Kirchstühlen zurück.) WALTHER Fräulein, verzeiht der Sitte Bruch. Eines zu wissen, Eines zu fragen, was müsst’ ich nicht zu brechen wagen? Ob Leben oder Tod? Ob Segen oder Fluch? Mit einem Worte sei mir’s vertraut: mein Fräulein, – sagt… MAGDALENE (wieder zurückkommend) Hier ist das Tuch. EVA O weh! Die Spange… MAGDALENE Fiel sie wohl ab? (Sie geht abermals suchend nach hinten.)

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richard wagner

 

Noble Baptist!

(Walther urging but soon interrupting himself)  

Christ’s precursor!

(He continues urgently gesturing, but immediately softens to ask her for a meeting.)    

Receive us graciously there by the river Jordan.

(The congregation rises. All make their way towards the exit and during the following music gradually leave the church. Walther expectantly fixes his glance on Eva, who slowly leaves her pew and, followed by Magdalene, approaches him. As Walther sees Eva drawing near, he forces his way through the congregation in order to reach her.) WALTHER (to Eva, softly but passionately) Stay! A word! A single word! EVA (turning round quickly to Magdalene) My neckerchief!… See! It’s probably in our place! MAGDALENE Forgetful child! So that means: search! (She goes back to the pew.) WALTHER Young lady! Excuse this breach of custom! To know one thing, to ask one thing, what should I not dare to break? Whether life or death, blessing or curse – in one word let it be disclosed to me: young lady, say… MAGDALENE (returning) Here is the kerchief. EVA Oh dear! The brooch… MAGDALENE Has it fallen off? (She goes back again to look.)

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

WALTHER Ob Licht und Lust, oder Nacht und Grab? Ob ich erfahr’, wonach ich verlange, ob ich vernehme, wovor mir graut: – Mein Fräulein – sagt… MAGDALENE (wieder zurückkommend) Da ist auch die Spange. Komm, Kind! Nun hast du Spang’ und Tuch… O weh! da vergaß ich selbst mein Buch! (Sie geht nochmals eilig nach hinten.) WALTHER Dies eine Wort, ihr sagt mir’s nicht? Die Silbe, die mein Urteil spricht? Ja oder nein! – ein flücht’ger Laut: (entschlossen und hastig) mein Fräulein, sagt, seid ihr schon Braut? MAGDALENE (die wieder zurückgekehrt ist und sich vor Walther verneigt)   Sieh da! Herr Ritter?   Wie sind wir hochgeehrt:   mit Evchens Schutze   habt ihr euch gar beschwert!   Darf den Besuch des Helden   ich Meister Pogner melden? WALTHER (leidenschaftlich)   O, betrat ich doch nie sein Haus! MAGDALENE   Ei! Junker, was sagt ihr da aus? In Nürnberg eben nur angekommen, wart ihr nicht freundlich aufgenommen? Was Küch’ und Keller, Schrein und Schrank euch bot, verdient es keinen Dank? EVA Gut Lenchen, ach! das meint er ja nicht; doch von mir wohl wünscht er Bericht, – wie sag’ ich’s schnell? Versteh’ ich’s doch kaum! Mir ist, als wär’ ich gar wie im Traum – !   Er frägt, ob ich schon Braut?

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richard wagner

WALTHER Whether light and joy, or night and death? Whether I learn what I long for, whether I hear what I dread: young lady, tell me… MAGDALENE (returning again) There is the brooch, too. Come, child! Now you have brooch and kerchief… Oh dear! Now I’ve forgotten my own book! (She goes back once more.) WALTHER This one word, won’t you say it? The syllable which delivers my sentence. Yes or no! – a fleeting sound: (resolutely and hastily) young lady, tell me, are you already betrothed? MAGDALENE (who has returned again; curtseying to Walther)   Why look! Sir knight,   How very honoured we are:   young Eva’s protection   has become your concern!   May I announce our hero’s visit   to Master Pogner? WALTHER (passionately)   Oh, if only I had never entered his house! MAGDALENE   Why, sir! What are you saying? Just arrived in Nuremberg, were you not kindly received? What kitchen and cellar, chest and cupboard have offered you: does it deserve no thanks? EVA Good Lena! Ah, he doesn’t mean that. But from me he wishes to know – how can I put it briefly? I scarcely understand it myself! I feel as if I were in a dream!   He asks if I’m betrothed.

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

MAGDALENE (heftig erschrocken)   Hilf Gott! Sprich nicht so laut!   jetzt lass uns nach Hause gehn; –   wenn uns die Leut’ hier sehn! WALTHER   Nicht eh’r, bis ich alles weiß! EVA (zu Magdalene)   ’s ist leer, die Leut’ sind fort. MAGDALENE   Drum eben wird mir heiß!   Herr Ritter, an andrem Ort! WALTHER (dringend)   Nein! Erst dies Wort! EVA (bittend zu Magdalene)  

Dies Wort?

(Magdalene, die sich bereits umgewendet, erblickt David und hält an.) MAGDALENE (zärtlich, für sich)   David! Ei! David hier? EVA  

Was sag’ ich? Sag’ du’s mir!

MAGDALENE (wendet sich wieder zurück und zu Walther, zerstreut, öfter nach David sich umsehend) Herr Ritter, was ihr die Jungfer fragt, das ist so leichtlich nicht gesagt. Fürwahr ist Evchen Pogner Braut— EVA (lebhaft unterbrechend) Doch hat noch keiner den Bräut’gam erschaut! MAGDALENE Den Bräut’gam wohl noch niemand kennt, bis morgen ihn das Gericht ernennt, das dem Meistersinger erteilt den Preis… EVA (enthusiastisch) Und selbst die Braut ihm reicht das Reis. WALTHER (verwundert) Dem Meistersinger?

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richard wagner

MAGDALENE (looking about her apprehensively)   Oh Lord! Don’t speak so loud!   Let us go home now…   if people should see us here! WALTHER   Not before I know all! EVA (to Magdalene)   It’s empty, the people have gone. MAGDALENE   That’s what’s bothering me!   Sir knight, some other place! WALTHER (urgently)   No! First this word! EVA (urgently, to Magdalene)   This word? (Magdalene has already turned away, sees David and pauses.) MAGDALENE (aside, tenderly)   David? Ah! David here? EVA  

What shall I say? You tell me!

MAGDALENE (turns back again, distractedly, and looking round repeatedly at David) Sir knight, what you ask the maiden is not so easily answered. It is true that Eva Pogner is betrothed… EVA (briskly interrupting) But no one has yet seen the bridegroom. MAGDALENE No one even knows who the bridegroom is, until he is named tomorrow by the judges who award the Mastersinger his prize… EVA (enthusiastically) And the bride herself gives him the garland. WALTHER (surprised) The Mastersinger?

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

EVA (bang) Seid ihr das nicht? WALTHER Ein Werbgesang? MAGDALENE Vor Wettgericht. WALTHER Den Preis gewinnt? MAGDALENE Wen die Meister meinen. WALTHER Die Braut dann wählt?… EVA (sich vergessend) Euch –, oder keinen! (Walther wendet sich, in großer Aufregung auf und ab gehend, zur Seite.) MAGDALENE (sehr erschrocken) Was, Evchen! Evchen! Bist du von Sinnen? EVA Gut Lene, hilf mir den Ritter gewinnen! MAGDALENE Sahst ihn doch gestern zum ersten Mal? EVA Das eben schuf mir so schnelle Qual, dass ich schon längst ihn im Bilde sah: sag’, trat er nicht ganz wie David nah? MAGDALENE (höchst verwundert) Bist du toll! Wie David? EVA Wie David im Bild? MAGDALENE Ach! meinst du den König mit der Harfen und langem Bart in der Meister Schild?

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richard wagner

EVA (timidly) Are you not one? WALTHER A wooing song? MAGDALENE Before the judges of the contest. WALTHER Who wins the prize? MAGDALENE Whom the Masters approve. WALTHER The bride then chooses?… EVA (forgetting herself) You – or no one! (Walther turns aside and paces up and down in great excitement.) MAGDALENE (greatly shocked) What? Eva! Eva! Are you out of your mind? EVA Good Lena! Help me win the knight! MAGDALENE Didn’t you only see him yesterday for the first time? EVA What gave me such sudden anguish was the fact that I had long seen him in a picture: tell me, did he not approach just like David? MAGDALENE (astonished) Are you mad? Like David? EVA Like David in the picture. MAGDALENE Ah! You mean the king with the harp and long beard in the Masters’ coat of arms?

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die meistersinger von nürnberg

EVA Nein! der, des Kiesel den Goliath warfen, das Schwert im Gurt, die Schleuder zur Hand, das Haupt von lichten Locken umstrahlt, wie ihn uns Meister Dürer gemalt! MAGDALENE (laut seufzend) Ach, David! David! DAVID (der hinausgegangen und jetzt wieder zurückkommt, ein Lineal im Gürtel und ein großes Stück weißer Kreide an einer Schnur schwenkend) Da bin ich; wer ruft? MAGDALENE Ach, David! Was ihr für Unglück schuft! – (beiseite) Der liebe Schelm! Wüsst er’s noch nicht? – (laut) Ei, seht, da hat er uns gar verschlossen? DAVID (zärtlich) Ins Herz euch allein! MAGDALENE (feurig) Das treue Gesicht! – Ei, sagt! Was treibt ihr hier für Possen? DAVID Behüt es! Possen? Gar ernste Ding’: für die Meister hier richt’ ich den Ring. MAGDALENE Wie? Gäb’ es ein Singen? DAVID Nur Freiung heut’: der Lehrling wird da losgesprochen, der nichts wider die Tabulatur verbrochen. Meister wird, wen die Prob’ nicht reut. MAGDALENE Da wär’ der Ritter ja am rechten Ort! – Jetzt, Evchen, komm! Wir müssen fort.

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richard wagner

EVA No! The one whose pebbles felled Goliath, with his sword in his belt, his sling in his hand, his head shining with fair locks, as Master Dürer has painted him for us. MAGDALENE (sighing loudly) Ah, David! David! DAVID (who has gone out, and now returns with a rule stuck in his belt and swinging in his hand a large piece of chalk tied to a string) Here I am! Who’s calling? MAGDALENE Ah, David! What unhappiness you’ve caused! (aside) The dear rogue! Could he still not know? (aloud) Ah, look! He’s even locked us in! DAVID (tenderly) You alone, in my heart! MAGDALENE (fervently) His honest face! Ah, tell me! What nonsense are you up to here? DAVID Pardon me! Nonsense? Very serious matters! I’m preparing the ring here for the Masters. MAGDALENE What? Is there to be singing? DAVID Only a trial today: the apprentice will be declared free who in no way offends against the Tabulature; he who does not fail the test becomes a Master. MAGDALENE So the knight is in just the right place. Now Eva, come, we must away.

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WALTHER (schnell sich zu den Frauen wendend) Zu Meister Pogner lasst mich euch geleiten. MAGDALENE Erwartet den hier, er ist bald da. Wollt ihr Evchens Hand erstreiten, rückt Zeit und Ort das Glück euch nah. – (Zwei Lehrbuben kommen dazu und tragen Bänke herbei)  

Jetzt eilig von hinnen!

WALTHER   Was soll ich beginnen? MAGDALENE   Lasst David euch lehren,   die Freiung begehren. –   Davidchen! Hör’; mein lieber Gesell’:   den Ritter hier bewahr’ mir wohl zur Stell’!   Was Fein’s aus der Küch’   bewahr’ ich für dich,   und morgen begehr’ du noch dreister,   wird hier der Junker heut’ Meister!

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(Sie drängt Eva zum Fortgehen.) EVA (zu Walther) Seh’ ich euch wieder? WALTHER (sehr feurig) Heut’ Abend gewiss!   Was ich will wagen,   wie könnt’ ich’s sagen? Neu ist mein Herz, neu mein Sinn, neu ist mir alles, was ich beginn’!   Eines nur weiß ich,   eines begreif’ ich:   mit allen Sinnen   euch zu gewinnen! Ist’s mit dem Schwert nicht, muss es gelingen, gilt es als Meister euch zu ersingen.   Für euch Gut und Blut,   für euch Dichters heil’ger Mut!

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WALTHER (quickly turning to them) Let me accompany you to Master Pogner’s. MAGDALENE Wait for him; he’ll soon be here. If you want to win Eva’s hand, time and place are bringing fortune close to you. (Two Apprentices enter carrying benches.)  

Now quickly away!

WALTHER   What must I do? MAGDALENE   Let David teach you   how to seek trial.   Dear David! Listen, my dear friend,   look after this knight for me here!   I’ll save you   something good from the kitchen:   and you can make bolder demands tomorrow   if this knight becomes a Master today.

[9]

[3]

(She hurries Eva towards the door.) EVA (to Walther) Shall I see you again? WALTHER (ardently) This evening for sure!   What I will dare,   how could I express it? New is my heart, new my mind, new is everything I do.   One thing alone I know,   one thing I understand:   with all my senses   to win you! If not with the sword, I must succeed even if I have to win you by singing as a Master.   For you my possessions and blood!   For you the poet’s sacred resolve!

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EVA (mit großer Wärme)   Mein Herz, sel’ger Glut,   für euch   liebesheil’ge Hut!

[5a, 5b]

MAGDALENE   Schnell heim! Sonst geht’s nicht gut! (Magdalene zieht Eva eilig durch die Vorhänge nach sich fort.) DAVID (der Walther verwunderungsvoll gemessen)   Gleich Meister? Oho! Viel Mut! (Walther wirft sich, aufgeregt und brütend, in einen erhöhten, kathederartigen Lehnstuhl, welchen zuvor zwei Lehrbuben, von der Wand ab, mehr nach der Mitte zu gerückt hatten.) Zweite Szene (Noch mehrere Lehrbuben sind eingetreten; sie tragen und stellen Bänke und bereiten alles zur Sitzung der Meistersinger vor.) ZWEITER LEHRBUBE   David! Was stehst? ERSTE LEHRBUBE  

Greif ans Werk!

ZWEITER LEHRBUBE   Hilf uns richten das Gemerk! DAVID   Zu eifrigst war ich vor euch allen;   schafft nun für euch, hab’ ander Gefallen! LEHRBUBEN Was der sich dünkt! Der Lehrling’ Muster! Das macht, weil sein Meister ein Schuster! Beim Leisten sitzt er mit der Feder! Beim Dichten mit Draht und Pfriem! Sein’ Verse schreibt er auf rohes Leder. (mit entsprechender Gebärde) Das – dächt’ ich – gerbten wir ihm! (Sie machen sich lachend an die fernere Herrichtung.)

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EVA (with great warmth)   My heart, blessed glow,   for you   love’s holy protection!

[5a, 5b]

MAGDALENE   Quickly home, or it will not go well! (Magdalene takes Eva quickly out through the curtains.) DAVID (sizing up Walther in wonder)   Master straight away? Oh! what courage! (Agitated and brooding, Walther throws himself upon a raised ecclesiastical chair which has just been moved from the wall to the middle of the stage by two of the Apprentices.) Scene Two (Still more Apprentices have arrived, carrying and setting benches and making everything ready for the seating of the Mastersingers.) SECOND APPRENTICE   David, why are you standing there? FIRST APPRENTICE  

Get to work!

SECOND APPRENTICE   Help us prepare the Marker’s box! DAVID   I was too zealous for the lot of you:   do it yourselves; I’ve other pleasures! APPRENTICES How cocky he is! The model apprentice! That’s because his Master’s a cobbler! At his last he sits with a quill writing poetry, with thread and awl. His verse he writes on raw leather (with appropriate gestures) which, I think, we tanned for him! (They pursue their work elsewhere in the room, putting up seating, laughing.)

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DAVID (nachdem er den sinnenden Ritter eine Weile betrachtet, ruft sehr stark)   Fanget an! WALTHER (verwundert aufblickend) Was soll’s? DAVID (noch stärker) Fanget an! So ruft der Merker: – nun sollt ihr singen! Wisst ihr das nicht? WALTHER Wer ist der Merker? DAVID Wisst ihr das nicht? Wart ihr noch nie bei ’nem Singgericht? WALTHER Noch nie, wo die Richter Handwerker. DAVID Seid ihr ein „Dichter“? WALTHER Wär’ ich’s doch! DAVID Seid ihr „Singer“? WALTHER Wüßt’ ich’s noch! DAVID Doch „Schulfreund“ wart ihr, und „Schüler“ zuvor? WALTHER Das klingt mir alles fremd vorm Ohr! DAVID Und so grad’hin wollt ihr Meister werden? WALTHER Wie machte das so große Beschwerden? DAVID O Lene! Lene!

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DAVID (after observing the thoughtful knight for a while, very loudly)   ‘Begin!’ WALTHER (looking up surprised) What’s that? DAVID (more loudly) ‘Begin!’ – that’s what the Marker calls; now you are to sing. Don’t you know that? WALTHER Who is the Marker? DAVID Don’t you know that? Haven’t you ever been at a song contest? WALTHER Never one where the judges were artisans. DAVID Are you a ‘Poet’? WALTHER Would that I were! DAVID Are you a ‘Singer’? WALTHER If only I knew! DAVID But you’ve surely been a ‘Schoolfriend’, and a ‘Scholar’? WALTHER All that sounds strange to my ear. DAVID And yet you want to become a Master at once? WALTHER Why should that cause such great difficulties? DAVID Oh Lena! Lena!

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WALTHER Wie ihr doch tut! DAVID O Magdalene! WALTHER Ratet mir gut! DAVID Mein Herr! Der Singer Meisterschlag gewinnt sich nicht an einem Tag. In Nüremberg der größte Meister mich lehrt die Kunst Hans Sachs! Schon voll ein Jahr mich unterweist er, dass ich als Schüler wachs’. Schuhmacherei und Poeterei, die lern’ ich da alleinerlei; hab’ ich das Leder glatt geschlagen, lern’ ich Vokal und Konsonanz sagen; wichst’ ich den Draht erst fest und steif, was sich dann reimt, ich wohl begreif’.   Den Pfriemen schwingend   im Stich die Ahl’,   was stumpf, was klingend,   was Maß, was Zahl –   den Leisten im Schurz,   was lang, was kurz,   was hart, was lind,   hell oder blind,   was Waisen, was Milben,   was Klebsilben,   was Pausen, was Körner,   was Blumen, was Dörner, – das alles lernt’ ich mit Sorg’ und Acht: wie weit nun, meint ihr, dass ich’s gebracht? WALTHER Wohl zu ’nen Paar recht guter Schuh’? – DAVID Ja, dahin hat’s noch gute Ruh’! Ein „Bar“ hat manch’ Gesätz’ und Gebänd’; wer da gleich die rechte Regel fänd’, –   die richt’ge Naht

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WALTHER What are you doing? DAVID Oh Magdalene! WALTHER Advise me well! DAVID Sir, the touch which makes a Mastersinger is not to be gained in a day. Nuremberg’s greatest Master, Hans Sachs, is teaching me the art; for a full year already he’s been instructing me so that I may become a Scholar. Cobbling and poetry I learn both together: When I’ve beaten the leather smooth I learn to enunciate vowels and consonants; when I’ve waxed the thread till it’s firm and stiff, I well understand what makes a rhyme;   swinging the bodkin,   stitching with the awl,   what is meant by blunt, and ringing,   by measure, and number…   the last is my apron…   what is long, what short,   what hard, what soft,   bright or blind,   what orphans are, and mites,   affixes,   pauses, corns,   flowers, thorns… I’ve learnt all that with care and attention: how far do you think I’ve got? WALTHER As far as a pair of very good shoes? DAVID Yes, it takes time enough to get that far! A song has several sections and strophes; who might at once find the correct rule,   the right seam

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  und den rechten Draht,   mit gut gefügten „Stollen“   den Bar recht zu versohlen. Und dann erst kommt der „Abgesang“, dass er nicht kurz und nicht zu lang,   und auch keinen Reim enthält,   der schon im Stollen gestellt. Wer alles das merkt, weiß und kennt, wird doch immer noch nicht Meister genennt. WALTHER Hilf Gott! Will ich denn Schuster sein? In die Singkunst lieber führ’ mich ein! DAVID Ja – hätt’ ich’s nur selbst schon zum Singer gebracht! Wer glaubt wohl, was das für Mühe macht?   Der Meister Tön’ und Weisen,   gar viel an Nam’ und Zahl,   die starken und die leisen,   wer die wüsste allzumal! Der kurze, lang’ und überlang’ Ton, die Schreibpapier-, Schwarztintenweis’; der rote, blau’ und grüne Ton; die Hageblüh-, Strohhalm-, Fenchelweis’; der zarte, der süße, der Rosenton; die Rosmarin-, Gelbveigleinweis’, die Regenbogen-, die Nachtigallweis’; die englische Zinn-, die Zimmtröhrenweis’; frisch Pomeranzen-, grün Lindenblühweis’; die Frösch’-, die Kälber, die Stieglitzweis’, die abgeschied’ne Vielfraß weis’, der Lerchen-, der Schnecken-, der Bellerton, die Melissenblümlein-, die Mairanweis’, (gefühlvoll) Gelblöwenhaut, treu Pelikanweis’, (prunkvoll) die buntglänzende Drahtweis’! WALTHER Hilf Himmel! Welch endlos Tönegeleis’!

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  and the correct thread,   with well-fitted stanzas   to sole the song properly? And only then does the Aftersong come, let it not be short, and not too long,   and let it contain no rhyme   which has already occurred in the stanza. Anyone who marks, knows and is familiar with all that is still not yet called Master. WALTHER Heaven help me! Do I want to be a cobbler? Rather introduce me to the art of singing. DAVID If only I myself had already got as far as Singer! Who would believe how much trouble it is?   The Masters’ tones and melodies,   so many in name and number,   the strong and the gentle,   who could know them all at once? The short, long and overlong tones; the writing-paper and black-ink melodies; the red, blue and green tones; the hawthorn, straw and fennel melodies; the tender, the sweet, the rose tones; the rosemary and wallflower melodies; the rainbow and nightingale melodies; the pewter and cinnamon-stick melodies; fresh orange, green-lime-blossom melodies; the frog, the calf, the goldfinch melodies; the departed-glutton melody; the lark, the snail, the barker tones; the little-melissa-bloom, the marjoram melodies; (sentimentally) tawny lion-skin, true-pelican melodies; (pompously) the brightly-gleaming-thread melody! WALTHER Heavens! What an endless string of tones!

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DAVID Das sind nur die Namen; nun lernt sie singen, recht, wie die Meister sie gestellt. Jed’ Wort und Ton muss klärlich klingen, wo steigt die Stimm’, und wo sie fällt; fangt nicht zu hoch, zu tief nicht an, als es die Stimm’ erreichen kann. Mit dem Atem spart, dass er nicht knappt, und gar am End’ ihr überschnappt; vor dem Wort mit der Stimme ja nicht summt, nach dem Wort mit dem Mund auch nicht brummt. Nicht ändert an Blum’ und Koloratur, jed’ Zierat fest nach des Meisters Spur. Verwechseltet ihr, würdet gar irr, verlört ihr euch und kämt ins Gewirr: –   wärt ihr euch alles auch gelungen,   da hättet ihr gar „versungen“! – Trotz großem Fleiß und Emsigkeit, ich selbst noch bracht’ es nicht so weit. So oft ich’s versuch’ und’s nicht gelingt, die Knieriemschlagweis’ der Meister mir singt. (sanft) Wenn dann Jungfer Lene nicht Hilfe weiß, (greinend) sing’ ich die eitel Brot- und Wasserweis’!’   Nehmt euch ein Beispiel dran,   und lasst vom Meisterwahn! Denn „Singer“ und „Dichter“ müsst ihr sein, eh’ ihr zum „Meister“ kehret ein. WALTHER Wer ist nun „Dichter“? LEHRBUBEN (während der Arbeit) David! Kommst her? DAVID (zu den Lehrbuben) Wartet nur – Gleich! (schnell wieder zu Walther sich wendend)

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DAVID Those are just the names: now learn to sing them just as the Masters have ordained them! Every word and tone must ring out clearly where the voice rises and where it falls. Begin neither higher nor lower than the voice can reach. Be sparing with your breath, lest it run out and you even crack at the end. Don’t hum with your voice before the word, and don’t let your mouth rumble on after the word. Don’t alter the ‘flower’ and ‘coloratura’; let each ornament be in the Master’s footsteps; if you were to change you’d go astray, lose your place and get into a muddle –   even if everything else had gone well for you   you would have sung your chance away! Despite great industry and zeal I myself haven’t yet got so far. Whenever I attempt it and don’t succeed my Master sings me the ‘knee-strap’ melody. (softly) And if Mistress Lena doesn’t then come to my aid, (lamentingly) I sing the ‘plain bread and water’ melody!   Let this be an example to you,   and forget your dreams of Master! For you must be a ‘Singer’ and ‘Poet’ before you reach the goal of ‘Master’. WALTHER What is a ‘Poet’? APPRENTICES (while at work) David! Are you coming? DAVID (to the Apprentices) Wait, just a minute! (turning quickly to Walther again)

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Wer Dichter wär’? Habt ihr zum „Singer“ euch aufgeschwungen und der Meister Töne richtig gesungen, fügtet ihr selbst nun Reim’ und Wort’, dass sie genau an Stell’ und Ort passten zu eines Meisters Ton, – dann trügt ihr den Dichterpreis davon.

[3]

LEHRBUBEN He! David! Soll man’s dem Meister klagen? Wirst dich bald deines Schwatzens entschlagen? DAVID Oho! Jawohl! denn helf’ ich euch nicht, ohne mich wird alles doch falsch gericht’! (Er will sich zu ihnen wenden.) WALTHER (ihn zurückhaltend) Nur dies noch: wer wird „Meister“ genannt? DAVID (schnell wieder umkehrend) Damit, Herr Ritter, ist’s so bewandt: – (mit sehr tiefsinniger Miene) Der Dichter, der aus eig’nem Fleiße zu Wort’ und Reimen, die er erfand, aus Tönen auch fügt eine neue Weise: der wird als Meistersinger erkannt. WALTHER So bleibt mir einzig der Meisterlohn!   Muss ich singen   kann’s nur gelingen, find’ ich zum Vers auch den eig’nen Ton. DAVID (der sich zu den Lehrbuben gewendet hat) Was macht ihr denn da? Ja, fehl’ ich beim Werk, verkehrt nur richtet ihr Stuhl und Gemerk!

[2]

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(Er wirft polternd und lärmend die Anordnungen der Lehrbuben in Betreff des Gemerkes um.) Ist denn heut’ Singschul’? Dass ihr’s wisst! Das kleine Gemerk’! Nur Freiung ist.

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What might a Poet be? When you have risen to the rank of Singer and sung the Masters’ tones correctly, and have yourself added rhymes and words which you have yourself fitted correctly to a Master’s tone, then you might carry off the Poet’s prize.

[3]

APPRENTICES Here, David! Shall we complain to your Master? Or are you almost through with your chatter? DAVID Oho! Indeed! For if I don’t help you, without me everything gets done wrong! (He wants to turn to them.) WALTHER (holding David back) Only one thing more: who is called ‘Master’? DAVID (quickly turning back to Walther) Sir knight, this is how it is! (with a profound look) The Poet who, of his own endeavour, to words and rhymes of his own invention fashions a new melody from the tones: he is recognized as a Mastersinger. WALTHER Then the Master’s reward alone shall be mine!   If I must sing   I can only succeed if I find the proper tone for the verse. DAVID (who has turned to the Apprentices) What are you doing there? Yes, if I’m not at work, you put the chair and the box up wrong!

[2]

[9]

(Annoyed, he noisily disrupts the arrangements the Apprentices have made for a box.) Is it a song-school today? Let me tell you, the small box! It’s only a trial!

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(Die Lehrbuben, welche in der Mitte der Bühne ein größeres Gerüste mit Vorhängen aufgeschlagen hatten, schaffen auf Davids Weisung dies schnell beiseite und stellen dafür ebenso eilig ein geringeres Brettergerüst auf; darauf stellen sie einen Stuhl, mit einem kleinen Pult davor, daneben eine große schwarze Tafel, daran die Kreide am Faden aufgehängt wird; um das Gerüst sind schwarze Vorhänge angebracht, welche zunächst hinten und an den beiden Seiten, dann auch vorn ganz zusammengezogen werden.) LEHRBUBEN (während der Herrichtung) Aller End’ ist doch David der Allergescheit’st, nach hohen Ehren ganz sicher er geizt.   ’s ist Freiung heut’,   gewiss er freit, als vornehmer Singer er schon sich spreizt! Die „Schlagreime“ fest er inne hat, „arm’ Hungerweise“ singt er glatt! Doch die „harte Trittweis’“, die kennt er am best’, (mit der Gebärde zweier Fußtritte) die trat ihm der Meister hart und fest. (Sie lachen.) DAVID Ja, lacht nur zu! Heut’ bin ich’s nicht. Ein andrer stellt sich zum Gericht: der war nicht „Schüler“, ist nicht „Singer“, den „Dichter“, sagt er, überspring’ er;   denn er ist Junker,   und mit einem Sprung er denkt, ohne weit’re Beschwerden heut’ hier „Meister“ zu werden.   Drum richtet nur fein   das Gemerk dem ein! (während die Lehrbuben vollends aufrichten) Dorthin! Hierher! Die Tafel an die Wand, – so dass sie recht dem Merker zur Hand! – (zu Walther sich umwendend) Ja, ja dem „Merker“! – Wird euch wohl bang? Vor ihm schon mancher Werber versang. Sieben Fehler gibt er euch vor,

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(The Apprentices, under the supervision of David, move quickly to one side the large construction which they had put up in the middle of the stage and erect a smaller planked rostrum just as quickly in its place. On this they put a stool with a little desk before it, next to it a large blackboard on which a piece of chalk is hung by a string. Around this rostrum black curtains are hung, which can be drawn behind, at the two sides, and finally also in front.) APPRENTICES (as they work) No doubt, David is certainly the cleverest! He’s certainly set his sights on high honours:   if there’s a trial today   he’s sure to take part, he already prides himself as a fine Singer! He’s got the ‘blow’ rhymes off pat, he sings the ‘poor and hungry’ melody smoothly; but the ‘hard kick’ is the one he knows best, (pretending to kick him twice) his Master has kicked that one well into him! (They laugh.) DAVID Yes, laugh away! Today it’s not me; someone else is facing the court: he was never ‘Scholar’, isn’t a ‘Singer’, he’ll miss out the ‘Poet’ grade, he says;   for he’s a knight,   and with one jump he thinks that without further difficulties he’ll become a ‘Master’ here today.   So set up the box   properly for him! (while the Apprentices finish setting up) That way! This way! The board against the wall so that it’s nice and handy for the Marker! (turning to Walther) Yes, yes! The ‘Marker’! Are you getting nervous? Before him many an applicant has sung his chance away. He allows you seven faults

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  die merkt er mit Kreide dort an; wer über sieben Fehler verlor,   hat versungen und ganz vertan!   Nun nehmt euch in acht:   der Merker wacht! (derb in die Hände schlagend) Glück auf zum Meistersingen! Mögt euch das Kränzlein erschwingen! Das Blumenkränzlein aus Seiden fein wird das dem Herrn Ritter beschieden sein? (Die Lehrbuben, welche zu gleicher Zeit das Gemerk geschlossen haben, fassen sich an und tanzen einen verschlungenen Reigen um dasselbe.) LEHRBUBEN (zusammen) Das Blumenkränzlein aus Seiden fein, wird das dem Herrn Ritter beschieden sein? (Die Lehrbuben fahren sogleich erschrocken auseinander, als die Sakristei aufgeht und Pogner mit Beckmesser eintritt; sie ziehen sich nach hinten zurück.) Dritte Szene (Die Einrichtung ist nun folgendermaßen beendigt: zur Seite rechts sind gepolsterte Bänke in der Weise aufgestellt, dass sie einen schwachen Halbkreis nach der Mitte zu bilden. Am Ende der Bänke, in der Mitte der Bühne, befindet sich das „Gemerk“ benannte Gerüste, welches zuvor hergerichtet worden. Zur linken Seite steht nur der erhöhte kathederartige Stuhl („der Singstuhl“) der Versammlung gegenüber. Im Hintergrunde, den großen Vorhang entlang, steht eine lange niedere Bank für die Lehrlinge. Walther, verdrießlich über das Gespött der Knaben, hat sich auf die vordere Bank niedergelassen. Pogner ist mit Beckmesser im Gespräch aus der Sakristei aufgetreten. Die Lehrbuben harren ehrerbietig vor der hinteren Bank stehend. Nur David stellt sich anfänglich am Eingang bei der Sakristei auf.) POGNER (zu Beckmesser) Seid meiner Treue wohl versehen, was ich bestimmt, ist euch zu Nutz: im Wettgesang müsst ihr bestehen, wer böte euch als Meister Trutz? BECKMESSER Doch wollt ihr von dem Punkt nicht weichen, der mich – ich sag’s – bedenklich macht:

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  which he marks up with chalk there; anyone incurring more than seven faults   has sung his chance away and is utterly undone!   Now take care!   The Marker is on the watch. (loudly clapping his hands) Good luck for the Mastersinging! May you win the garland! The flowered garland of fine silks – will it be awarded to the knight? (During this, the Apprentices have closed the box and now take hands and circle it in a round dance.) APPRENTICES (together) The flowered garland of fine silks – will it be awarded to the knight? (The Apprentices scatter in alarm as the sacristy door opens and Pogner and Beckmesser enter; they then go to their places at the back.) Scene Three (The stage has ended up in the following arrangement: on the right some cushioned benches are arranged in a crescent formation pointing towards the middle. The rostrum, now called the Marker’s box, which was placed there before, is at centre stage; on its own on the left and facing the assembly is the raised ecclesiastical chair – the ‘Singer’s chair’. At the back there is a long, low bench for the Apprentices in front of a large curtain. Walther, angered by the boys’ mockery, has slumped down on the front bench. Pogner and Beckmesser have entered from the sacristy, in conversation; the Apprentices wait respectfully standing by the bench. To begin with, only David stands by the entrance to the sacristy.) POGNER (to Beckmesser) Be assured of my good faith; what I have ordained is to your advantage: you must win the song contest: who might defy your Mastery? BECKMESSER But will you give way on the point which – I must confess – makes me doubtful;

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kann Evchens Wunsch den Werber streichen, was nützt mir meine Meisterpracht? POGNER Ei, sagt, ich mein’, vor allen Dingen sollt’ euch an dem gelegen sein? Könnt ihr der Tochter Wunsch nicht zwingen, wie möchtet ihr wohl um sie frei’n? BECKMESSER Ei ja! Gar wohl! Drum eben bitt’ ich, dass bei dem Kind ihr für mich sprecht, wie ich geworben zart und sittig, und wie Beckmesser grad’ euch recht. POGNER Das tu’ ich gern. BECKMESSER (beiseite) Er lässt nicht nach. Wie wehrt’ ich da ’nem Ungemach? WALTHER (der, als er Pogner gewahrt, aufgestanden und ihm entgegen gegangen ist, verneigt sich vor ihm) Gestattet, Meister! POGNER Wie, mein Junker? Ihr sucht mich in der Singschul’ hie? (Pogner und Walther wechseln Begrüßungen.) BECKMESSER (immer beiseite) Verstünden’s die Frau’n; doch schlechtes Geflunker gilt ihnen mehr als all’ Poesie! (Er geht verdrießlich im Hintergrunde auf und ab.) WALTHER Hier eben bin ich am rechten Ort: gesteh’ ich’s frei, vom Lande fort   was mich nach Nürnberg trieb,   war nur zur Kunst die Lieb’. Vergaß ich’s gestern euch zu sagen, heut’ muss ich’s laut zu künden wagen: ein Meistersinger möcht’ ich sein!

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if Eva’s wish can dismiss a wooer, what is the use of my Master’s glory? POGNER But look! I mean, of all things should you worry about that? If you cannot command my daughter’s wishes, how could you be wooing her at all? BECKMESSER Oh yes! Indeed! That’s precisely why I’m asking you to speak to the child on my behalf: how tenderly and modestly I’ve wooed, and how Beckmesser seems to you to be the right man. POGNER I’ll gladly do that. BECKMESSER (aside) He won’t give way! How should I fend off disaster? WALTHER (who, on seeing Pogner, has risen and advanced to meet him and now bows to him) Permit me, Master! POGNER What! Sir knight! You seek me in the Song School here? (Pogner and Walther exchange greetings.) BECKMESSER (still to himself) If only women understood! But worthless bragging counts for more with them than all poetry. (He walks angrily up and down in the background.) WALTHER This is just the right place for me. I freely admit, what drove me   from the country to Nuremberg   was only my love of Art. If I forgot to tell you that yesterday, I must today be bold and proclaim it out loud: I should like to be a Mastersinger.

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(sehr innig) Schließt, Meister, in die Zunft mich ein! (Kunz Vogelgesang und Konrad Nachtigall sind eingetreten.) POGNER (freudig zu den Hinzutretenden sich wendend) Kunz Vogelgesang! Freund Nachtigall! Hört doch, welch ganz besond’rer Fall: der Ritter hier, mir wohlbekannt, hat der Meisterkunst sich zugewandt. (Vorstellungen und Begrüßungen; andre Meistersinger treten noch hinzu.) BECKMESSER (wieder in den Vordergrund tretend, für sich) Noch such’ ich’s zu wenden; doch sollt’s nicht gelingen, versuch’ ich des Mädchens Herz zu ersingen: in stiller Nacht, von ihr nur gehört, erfahr’ ich, ob auf mein Lied sie schwört. (Walther erblickend) Wer ist der Mensch? – POGNER (sehr warm zu Walther fortfahrend) Glaubt, wie mich’s freut! Die alte Zeit dünkt mich erneut. BECKMESSER (immer noch für sich) Er gefällt mir nicht! POGNER Was ihr begehrt, soviel an mir, sei’s euch gewährt. BECKMESSER Was will er hier? Wie der Blick ihm lacht! POGNER Half ich euch gern bei des Guts Verkauf, in die Zunft nun nehm’ ich euch gleich gern auf. BECKMESSER Holla! Sixtus! Auf den hab’ acht! WALTHER (zu Pogner)   Habt Dank der Güte   aus tiefstem Gemüte!

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(very heartfelt) Admit me, Master, to your guild! (Kunz Vogelgesang and Konrad Nachtigall have entered.) POGNER (joyfully turning to the newcomers) Kunz Vogelgesang! Friend Nachtigall! Just listen; here’s something quite special! This knight, well known to me, has turned to the Master’s art. (Greetings and introductions; other Masters arrive.) BECKMESSER (returning downstage, aside) I’ll still try to avert it: but if I don’t succeed I’ll try to win the girl’s heart with my singing; in the silence of the night, heard only by her, I’ll learn whether she sets store by my song. (noticing Walther) Who is that man? POGNER (continuing very warmly to Walther) Believe me, how glad I am! The old days seem to have returned. BECKMESSER (still aside) I don’t like him! POGNER What you desire as far as I am concerned, is granted to you. BECKMESSER What does he want here? What a smiling air! POGNER I gladly helped you with the sale of the estate; now I’ll equally gladly receive you into the guild. BECKMESSER Oho, Sixtus! Keep your eye on him! WALTHER (to Pogner)   Thank you for your kindness   from the bottom of my heart!

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  Und darf ich denn hoffen,   steht heut’ mir noch offen, zu werben um den Preis, dass Meistersinger ich heiß’? BECKMESSER Oho! Fein sacht! Auf dem Kopf steht kein Kegel! POGNER Herr Ritter, dies geh’ nun nach der Regel. Doch heut’ ist Freiung, ich schlag’ euch vor, mir leihen die Meister ein willig Ohr. (Die Meistersinger sind nun alle angelangt, zuletzt auch Hans Sachs.) SACHS Gott grüß’ euch, Meister! VOGELGESANG Sind wir beisammen? BECKMESSER Der Sachs ist ja da! NACHTIGALL So ruft die Namen! KOTHNER (zieht eine Liste hervor, stellt sich zur Seite auf und ruft laut) Zu einer Freiung und Zunftberatung [14] ging an die Meister ein’ Einladung:   bei Nenn’ und Nam’,   ob jeder kam, ruf’ ich nun auf als Letztentbot’ner, der ich mich nenn’ und bin Fritz Kothner. – Seid ihr da, Veit Pogner? POGNER Hier zur Hand! (setzt sich) KOTHNER Kunz Vogelgesang? VOGELGESANG Ein sich fand. (setzt sich) KOTHNER Hermann Ortel?

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  And may I then hope,   if I am still this day allowed to compete for the prize, to be called a Mastersinger? BECKMESSER Oho! Gently now! A skittle can’t stand on its head! POGNER Sir knight, this must all follow the rules. But today there’s a trial: I’ll propose you; the Masters will lend me a willing ear. (The Mastersingers have now all assembled, Hans Sachs the last.) SACHS God be with you, Masters! VOGELGESANG Are we all met? BECKMESSER Sachs is there all right! NACHTIGALL Call the names then! KOTHNER (producing a list, he stands apart from the rest and calls) To a trial and a guild meeting an invitation has gone out to the Masters:   by their names,   to see if everyone has come, I shall now call them; as the last to be admitted I name myself: I am Fritz Kothner. Are you here, Veit Pogner? POGNER Here at hand. (sits) KOTHNER Kunz Vogelgesang? VOGELGESANG He’s certainly here. (sits) KOTHNER Hermann Ortel?

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ORTEL

Immer am Ort.

(setzt sich) KOTHNER Balthasar Zorn? ZORN

Bleibt niemals fort.

(setzt sich) KOTHNER Konrad Nachtigall? NACHTIGALL

Treu seinem Schlag.

(setzt sich) KOTHNER Augustin Moser? MOSER

Nie fehlen mag.

(setzt sich) KOTHNER Niklaus Vogel? – Schweigt? LEHRBUBE (von der Bank aufstehend) Ist krank! KOTHNER Gut Bess’rung dem Meister! ALLE MEISTER

Walt’s Gott!

LEHRBUBE

Schön’ Dank!

(Er setzt sich wieder nieder.) KOTHNER Hans Sachs? DAVID (vorlaut sich erhebend und auf Sachs zeigend) Da steht er! SACHS (drohend zu David) Juckt dich das Fell? Verzeiht, Meister! – Sachs ist zur Stell’!

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ORTEL

Always in his place.

(sits) KOTHNER Balthasar Zorn? ZORN

Would never stay away.

(sits) KOTHNER Konrad Nachtigall? NACHTIGALL

True to his call.

(sits) KOTHNER Augustin Moser? MOSER

Never likes to be absent.

(sits) KOTHNER Niklaus Vogel? Is he silent? AN APPRENTICE (jumping up from the bench) He’s ill. KOTHNER A speedy recovery to the Master! ALL THE MASTERS

May God will it!

AN APPRENTICE

Thank you!

(He sits down again.) KOTHNER Hans Sachs? DAVID (jumping up and pointing to Sachs) There he is! SACHS (threateningly to David) You’re asking for a hiding? Forgive me, Masters! Sachs is present!

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(setzt sich) KOTHNER Sixtus Beckmesser? BECKMESSER (während er sich setzt) Immer bei Sachs, dass den Reim ich lern von „blüh’ und wachs’“. (Sachs lacht) KOTHNER Ulrich Eisslinger? EISSLINGER Hier. (setzt sich) KOTHNER Hans Foltz? FOLTZ Bin da. (setzt sich) KOTHNER Hans Schwarz? SCHWARZ Zuletzt: Gott wollt’s. (setzt sich) KOTHNER Zur Sitzung gut und voll die Zahl. Beliebt’s, wir schreiten zur Merkerwahl? VOGELGESANG Wohl eh’r nach dem Fest? BECKMESSER (zu Kothner) Pressiert’s den Herrn? Mein’ Stell’ und Amt lass’ ich ihm gern. POGNER Nicht doch, ihr Meister, lasst das jetzt fort. Für wicht’gen Antrag bitt’ ich ums Wort. (Die Meister stehen auf, nicken Kothner zu und setzen sich wieder.) KOTHNER Das habt ihr; Meister, sprecht!

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(He sits.) KOTHNER Sixtus Beckmesser? BECKMESSER (taking his seat) Always near Sachs, so that I may learn the rhyme of ‘bloom and wax’. (Sachs laughs.) KOTHNER Ulrich Eisslinger? EISSLINGER Here. (sits) KOTHNER Hans Foltz? FOLTZ I’m here. (sits) KOTHNER Hans Schwarz? SCHWARZ The last: God willing! (sits) KOTHNER For our session the number is good and full. If it please you, shall we elect the Marker? VOGELGESANG Better after the festival? BECKMESSER (to Kothner) Is the gentleman in a hurry? I’ll gladly let him have my position and office. POGNER Not so, Masters! Leave that for now. I ask leave to speak on an important proposal. (All the Masters rise, nod to Kothner, then reseat themselves.) KOTHNER It is granted you, Master. Speak!

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POGNER   Nun hört und versteht mich recht! – Das schöne Fest, Johannistag,   ihr wisst, begeh’n wir morgen; auf grüner Au’, am Blumenhag, bei Spiel und Tanz im Lustgelag,   an froher Brust geborgen,   vergessen seiner Sorgen, ein jeder freut sich, wie er mag. Die Singschul’ ernst im Kirchenchor   die Meister selbst vertauschen, mit Kling und Klang hinaus zum Tor, auf off’ne Wiese zieh’n sie vor;   bei hellen Festes Rauschen   das Volk sie lassen lauschen dem Freigesang mit Laienohr. Zu einem Werb- und Wettgesang   gestellt sind Siegespreise, und beide rühmt man weit und lang,   die Gabe wie die Weise. Nun schuf mich Gott zum reichen Mann; und gibt ein jeder, wie er kann,   so musste ich wohl sinnen,   was ich gäb’ zu gewinnen,   dass ich nicht käm’ zu Schand’: –   so hört denn, was ich fand. In deutschen Landen viel gereist,   hat oft es mich verdrossen, dass man den Bürger wenig preist,   ihn karg nennt und verschlossen. An Höfen, wie an nied’rer Statt,   des bitt’ren Tadels ward’ ich satt,   dass nur auf Schacher und Geld sein Merk der Bürger stellt’. Dass wir im weiten deutschen Reich   die Kunst einzig noch pflegen,   dran dünkt ihnen wenig gelegen. Doch wie uns das zur Ehre gereich’,   und dass mit hohem Mut   wir schätzen, was schön und gut, was wert die Kunst, und was sie gilt, das ward ich der Welt zu zeigen gewillt,   drum hört, Meister, die Gab’,   die als Preis bestimmt ich hab’!

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POGNER   Hear then, and understand me aright! That beautiful festival, St John’s Day,   as you know, we celebrate tomorrow: on the green meadow, by the flowery grove, with games and dancing at the feast;   secure in a joyous heart,   all cares forgotten, everyone enjoys himself as he pleases. Their solemn Song School in the church nave   the Masters themselves give up; with merry music out of the gate and on to the open meadow they proceed,   in the din of the brilliant festival;   they permit the people to listen to the open singing with their laymen’s ears. Victors’ prizes are awarded   for trial and competitive singing, and both are praised far and wide,   the gift and also the melody. Now, God has made me a rich man, and everyone gives what he can,   so I had to think carefully   what I might give to be won   and not come into dishonour:   so hear what I have decided. Widely travelled in German lands,   I have often been vexed that people honour the burgher so little,   call him stingy and peevish: at courts and in meaner places   I grew tired of the bitter reproach   that only in usury and money was the burgher interested. That we alone in the broad German empire   still cherish art –   by that they set little store: but how this may rebound to our honour,   and that with high resolve   we treasure what is beautiful and good, the value of art, what it is worth, this I became resolved to show the world.   So hear, Masters, the gift   which I have decreed as prize:

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Dem Singer, der im Kunstgesang vor allem Volk den Preis errang   am Sankt Johannistag,   sei er, wer er auch mag,   dem geb’ ich, ein Kunstgewog’ner,   von Nürenberg Veit Pogner, mit all meinem Gut, wie’s geh’ und steh’,   Eva, mein einzig Kind, zur Eh’!

[15, 14]

DIE MEISTER (sich erhebend und sehr lebhaft durcheinander) Das heißt ein Wort, ein Wort, ein Mann! Da sieht man, was ein Nürnberger kann! Drob preist man euch noch weit und breit, den wack’ren Bürger, Pogner Veit! LEHRBUBEN (lustig aufspringend) Alle Zeit! Weit und breit!   Pogner Veit! VOGELGESANG Wer möchte da nicht ledig sein! SACHS Sein Weib gäb’ mancher gern wohl drein! KOTHNER   Auf, ledig’ Mann!   jetzt macht euch ran! (Die Meister setzen sich allmählich wieder nieder, die Lehrbuben ebenfalls.) POGNER Nun hört noch, wie ich’s ernstlich mein’! Ein’ leblos’ Gabe stell’ ich nicht; ein Mägdlein sitzt mit zum Gericht: den Preis erkennt die Meisterzunft; doch, gilt’s der Eh’, so will’s Vernunft,   dass ob der Meister Rat   die Braut den Ausschlag hat. BECKMESSER (zu Kothner gewandt) Dünkt euch das klug? KOTHNER Versteh’ ich gut, Ihr gebt uns in des Mägdleins Hut?

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to the singer who in the art of song before all the people wins the prize   on St John’s Day,   be he who he may,   to him I, a friend of art,   Nuremberg’s Veit Pogner, give with all my goods, such as they are,   Eva, my only child, in marriage. THE MASTERS (rising to their feet and animatedly, to one another) That was some word! And the man’s as good as his word! Now they’ll see what a Nuremberger can do! For that people will praise you far and wide, you, the worthy burgher Veit Pogner! THE APPRENTICES (jumping up gaily) At all times, far and wide:   Veit Pogner! VOGELGESANG Who would not gladly be single! SACHS Many a man would gladly give up his wife! KOTHNER   Up, single men!   Now, get to work! (The Masters eventually take their seats again, as do the Apprentices.) POGNER But hear how seriously I intend it! I give no lifeless gift: a young girl also sits among judges. The Masters’ guild is responsible for the prize: but where it’s a question of marriage, reason   demands that over the Masters’ opinion   the bride has the casting vote. BECKMESSER (to Kothner) Do you think that wise? KOTHNER If I understand aright, you are placing us in the girl’s charge?

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BECKMESSER Gefährlich das! KOTHNER

Stimmt es nicht bei, wie wäre dann der Meister Urteil frei?

BECKMESSER Lasst’s gleich wählen nach Herzensziel, und lasst den Meistergesang aus dem Spiel! POGNER Nicht so! Wie doch? Versteht mich recht! Wem ihr Meister den Preis zusprecht,   die Maid kann dem verwehren,   doch nie einen andren begehren. Ein Meistersinger muss er sein, nur wen ihr krönt, den soll sie frei’n. SACHS   Verzeiht, vielleicht schon ginget ihr zu weit. Ein Mädchenherz und Meisterkunst erglüh’n nicht stets in gleicher Brunst: der Frauen Sinn, gar unbelehrt, dünkt mich dem Sinn des Volks gleich wert. Wollt ihr nun vor dem Volke zeigen,   wie hoch die Kunst ihr ehrt, und lasst ihr dem Kind die Wahl zu eigen,   wollt nicht, dass dem Spruch es wehrt, – so lasst das Volk auch Richter sein, mit dem Kinde sicher stimmt’s überein. DIE MEISTER Oho! Das Volk? Ja, das wäre schön! Ade dann Kunst und Meistertön’! KOTHNER Nein, Sachs! Gewiss, das hat keinen Sinn! Gäb’t ihr dem Volk die Regeln hin? SACHS Vernehmt mich recht! Wie ihr doch tut! Gesteht, ich kenn’ die Regeln gut, und dass die Zunft die Regeln bewahr’, bemüh’ ich mich selbst schon manches Jahr.

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BECKMESSER Dangerous, that! KOTHNER

If she doesn’t agree how could the Masters’ judgement be free?

BECKMESSER Let her choose straight out as her heart desires and leave the Mastersinging out of it! POGNER Ah no! Why? Understand me correctly! The man to whom you Masters award the prize   the maid can refuse,   but never solicit another: it must be a Mastersinger; only the man whom you crown may she take. SACHS   Forgive me, perhaps you have already gone too far. A girl’s heart and the Masters’ art do not always glow with equal ardour; a woman’s opinion, quite untutored, seems to me to be as valid as popular opinion. If you wish to show the people   how highly you honour art; if you let the girl choose for herself,   but do not want her to oppose the verdict: then let the people be judges too; they will assuredly agree with the child. THE MASTERS Oho! The people? Yes, that would be fine! Farewell then, art and Mastertones! KOTHNER No, Sachs! Certainly there’s no sense in that! Would you abandon the rules to the people? SACHS Understand me aright! What a fuss! You’ll admit I know the rules as well; and to see that the guild preserves the rules I have busied myself this many a year.

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Doch einmal im Jahre fänd’ ich’s weise, dass man die Regeln selbst probier’, ob in der Gewohnheit trägem Gleise ihr’ Kraft und Leben nicht sich verlier’!   Und ob ihr der Natur   noch seid auf rechter Spur,   das sagt euch nur, wer nichts weiß von der Tabulatur.

[14]

(Die Lehrbuben springen auf und reiben sich die Hände.) BECKMESSER Hei! wie sich die Buben freuen! SACHS (eifrig fortfahrend)   Drum möcht’ es euch nie gereuen, dass jährlich am Sankt Johannisfest, statt dass das Volk man kommen lässt, herab aus hoher Meisterwolk’ ihr selbst euch wendet zu dem Volk.   Dem Volke wollt ihr behagen;   nun dächt’ ich, läg’ es nah:   ihr ließt es selbst euch auch sagen,   ob das ihm zur Lust geschah. Dass Volk und Kunst gleich blüh’ und wachs’ bestellt ihr so, mein’ ich, Hans Sachs! VOGELGESANG Ihr meint’s wohl recht! KOTHNER

[1b]

Doch steht’s drum faul.

NACHTIGALL Wenn spricht das Volk, halt’ ich das Maul. KOTHNER Der Kunst droht allweil Fall und Schmach, läuft sie der Gunst des Volkes nach. BECKMESSER Drin bracht’ er’s weit, der hier so dreist: Gassenhauer dichtet er meist. POGNER Freund Sachs! Was ich mein’, ist schon neu; zu viel auf einmal brächte Reu’.

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But once a year I should find it wise to test the rules themselves, to see whether in the dull course of habit their strength and life doesn’t get lost:   and whether you are still   on the right track of Nature   will only be told you by someone who knows nothing of the Tabulature.

[14]

(The Apprentices jump up and rub their hands.) BECKMESSER Ha! how the boys rejoice! SACHS (earnestly continuing)   For that reason you might never regret that each year on St John’s Day, instead of letting the people come to you, from your high Masters’ clouds you yourselves should turn to the people.   You want to please the people;   well, I should have thought it in your interest   to let them tell you themselves   whether they took delight in it. So that people and art may bloom and wax equally do it in this way, say I, Hans Sachs. VOGELGESANG Your intentions are good! KOTHNER

[1b] And yet it’s all wrong.

NACHTIGALL When the people speak, I hold my tongue. KOTHNER Art is threatened with downfall and disgrace if it runs after the favours of the people. BECKMESSER This impudent fellow’s gone far in that direction: he mainly writes street songs. POGNER Friend Sachs, my intent is itself new: too much at one go we might regret.

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(Er wendet sich zu den Meistern.) So frag’ ich, ob den Meistern gefällt Gab’ und Regel, so wie ich’s gestellt? (Die Meister erheben sich beistimmend.) SACHS Mir genügt der Jungfer Ausschlagstimm’. BECKMESSER Der Schuster weckt doch stets mir Grimm! KOTHNER   Wer schreibt sich als Werber ein?   Ein Junggesell muss es sein. BECKMESSER Vielleicht auch ein Witwer? Fragt nur den Sachs! SACHS Nicht doch, Herr Merker! Aus jüng’rem Wachs, als ich und ihr, muss der Freier sein, soll Evchen ihm den Preis verleih’n. BECKMESSER Als wie auch ich? Grober Gesell’! KOTHNER Begehrt wer Freiung, der komm’ zur Stell’! Ist jemand gemeld’t, der Freiung begehrt? POGNER Wohl, Meister, zur Tagesordnung kehrt   und nehmt von mir Bericht,   wie ich auf Meisterpflicht   einen jungen Ritter empfehle,   der will, dass man ihn wähle, und heut’ als Meistersinger frei’. Mein Junker Stolzing, – kommt herbei! (Walther tritt hervor und verneigt sich.) BECKMESSER (beiseite) Dacht’ ich mir’s doch! Geht’s da hinaus, Veit? – (laut)

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(turning to the Masters) So I ask if the Masters are pleased to accept the gift and rules as I have stated them? (The Masters rise in assent.) SACHS The girl’s casting vote satisfies me. BECKMESSER The cobbler always rouses my anger! KOTHNER   Who will enter his name as competitor?   He must be a bachelor. BECKMESSER Perhaps a widower too? Just ask Sachs! SACHS Oh no, Herr Marker! Of younger wax than you and me the wooer must be if Eva is to bestow the prize on him. BECKMESSER Than me too? Rude fellow! KOTHNER If anyone seeks trial, let him step forward! Has anyone seeking trial announced himself? POGNER Yes, Masters! Back to the agenda for the day!   And hear me report   that I, following a Master’s duty,   recommend a young knight   who wishes to be elected, and this day seeks to become a Mastersinger! The knight von Stolzing, come hither!

[16a]

(Walther advances and bows.) BECKMESSER (aside) Just as I thought! Is that the way it’s heading, Veit? (aloud)

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Meister, ich mein’, zu spät ist’s der Zeit! DIE MEISTER Der Fall ist neu: – Ein Ritter gar? Soll man sich freu’n? Wäre Gefahr? Immerhin hat’s ein groß Gewicht, dass Meister Pogner für ihn spricht. KOTHNER Soll uns der Junker willkommen sein; zuvor muss er wohl vernommen sein. POGNER Vernehmt ihn wohl! Wünsch’ ich ihm Glück, nicht bleib’ ich doch hinter der Regel zurück.   Tut, Meister, die Fragen! KOTHNER   So mög’ uns der Junker sagen:   ist er frei und ehrlich geboren? POGNER   Die Frage gebt verloren, da ich euch selbst dess’ Bürge steh’, dass er aus frei’ und edler Eh’: Von Stolzing Walther aus Frankenland, nach Brief und Urkund mir wohlbekannt. Als seines Stammes letzter Spross, verließ er neulich Hof und Schloss   und zog nach Nürnberg her,   dass er hier Bürger wär’. BECKMESSER Neu Junkerunkraut – tut nicht gut! NACHTIGALL Freund Pogners Wort Genüge tut. SACHS Wie längst von den Meistern beschlossen ist, ob Herr, ob Bauer, hier nichts beschließt; hier fragt sich’s nach der Kunst allein, wer will ein Meistersinger sein. KOTHNER   Drum nun frag’ ich zur Stell’:   welch Meister seid ihr Gesell’?

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Masters, I think it’s too late now. THE MASTERS This is something new. A knight? Should we be glad? Or is there a danger? In any case it carries much weight that Master Pogner speaks for him. KOTHNER If we are to welcome the knight, he must first be heard. POGNER Then hear him! Though I wish him good fortune, I do not overlook the rules.   Masters, put the questions! KOTHNER   So may the knight tell us:   is he free and honourably born? POGNER   That question may be put aside, as I myself stand witness that he was born in free and noble wedlock: von Stolzing, Walther, from Franconia, well known to me from letters and documents. The last of his line, he recently left his estate and castle   and came hither to Nuremberg   to become a burgher here. BECKMESSER An upstart knightly weed! That’s not good! NACHTIGALL Friend Pogner’s word is enough. SACHS As was long since decided by the Masters, whether lord or peasant does not matter: here it is only a question of art, when someone desires to be a Mastersinger. KOTHNER   Therefore I ask you forthwith:   what Master’s pupil are you?

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WALTHER Am stillen Herd in Winterszeit, wann Burg und Hof mir eingeschneit, – wie einst der Lenz so lieblich lacht’, und wie er bald wohl neu erwacht, – ein altes Buch, vom Ahn’ vermacht,   gab das mir oft zu lesen: Herr Walther von der Vogelweid’,   der ist mein Meister gewesen. SACHS Ein guter Meister! BECKMESSER Doch lang schon tot: wie lehrt’ ihm der wohl der Regel Gebot? KOTHNER   Doch in welcher Schul’ das Singen   mocht’ euch zu lernen gelingen? WALTHER Wann dann die Flur vom Frost befreit und wiederkehrt die Sommerszeit; was einst in langer Wintersnacht das alte Buch mir kundgemacht, das schallte laut in Waldes Pracht,   das hört’ ich hell erklingen: im Wald dort auf der Vogelweid’,   da lernt’ ich auch das Singen. BECKMESSER   Oho! Von Finken und Meisen   lerntet ihr Meisterweisen? Das wird denn wohl auch danach sein! VOGELGESANG Zwei art’ge Stollen fasst’ er da ein. BECKMESSER Ihr lobt ihn, Meister Vogelgesang, wohl weil vom Vogel er lernt’ den Gesang? KOTHNER (beiseite zu den Meistern) Was meint ihr, Meister, frag’ ich noch fort? Mich dünkt, der Junker ist fehl am Ort.

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WALTHER At the quiet hearth in wintertime, when castle and courtyard were snowed up, I often read in an old book left to me by my ancestor how once Spring so sweetly laughed,   and how it then soon awoke anew. Walther von der Vogelweide   he was my master. SACHS A good master! BECKMESSER But long since dead; how could he have taught him the rules’ command? KOTHNER   But in which school   did you succeed in learning singing? WALTHER When the meadow was free from frost and summertime returned, what previously in long winter nights the old book had told me now resounded loudly in the forests’ splendour,   I heard it ring out brightly: in the forest on the birds’ meadow   I also learnt how to sing. BECKMESSER   Oho! from finches and titmice   you learnt the Master’s melodies? So your song will be in this vein? VOGELGESANG He has already framed two nice stanzas there. BECKMESSER You praise him, Master Vogelgesang because he has learnt singing from the birds? KOTHNER (aside to the Masters) What is your opinion, Masters? Shall I continue? I think the knight is in the wrong place.

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SACHS   Das wird sich bäldlich zeigen:   wenn rechte Kunst ihm eigen   und gut er sie bewährt,   was gilt’s, wer sie ihn gelehrt? KOTHNER (zu Walther) Seid ihr bereit, ob euch geriet mit neuer Find’ ein Meisterlied,   nach Dicht’ und Weis’ eu’r eigen,   zur Stunde jetzt zu zeigen? WALTHER   Was Winternacht,   was Waldespracht,   was Buch und Hain mich wiesen,   was Dichtersanges Wundermacht   mir heimlich wollt’ erschließen;   was Rosses Schritt   beim Waffenritt,   was Reihentanz   bei heit’rem Schanz   mir sinnend gab zu lauschen: gilt es des Lebens höchsten Preis   um Sang mir einzutauschen, zu eig’nem Wort und eigner Weis’   will einig mir es fließen, als Meistersang, ob den ich weiß,   euch Meistern sich ergießen. BECKMESSER Entnahmt ihr was der Worte Schwall? VOGELGESANG Ei nun, er wagt’s! NACHTIGALL Merkwürd’ger Fall! KOTHNER   Nun, Meister! Wenn’s gefällt,   werd’ das Gemerk bestellt. (zu Walther) Wählt der Herr einen heil’gen Stoff?

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SACHS   That will soon become clear:   if he has true art   and is a good guardian of it,   what does it matter who taught him? KOTHNER (to Walther) Are you ready to show us now if you have succeeded in creating a Mastersong   new in invention, both poem and melody   of your own composition? WALTHER   What winter night,   what forest splendour,   what book and grove taught me;   what the wondrous power of the poet’s song   tried in secret to disclose to me;   what my horse’s step   at a trial of arms,   what a round dance   at a merry gathering   gave me to attend to thoughtfully: if I must gain life’s   highest prize through song, in my own words and to my own melody   it will flow into a unity for me as a Mastersong, if I understand aright,   and pour out before you Masters. BECKMESSER Can you make anything of this torrent of words? VOGELGESANG Ah well, he’s trying! NACHTIGALL A remarkable case! KOTHNER   Now Masters, if you please,   let the Marker’s box be made ready. (to Walther) Does the gentleman choose a sacred theme?

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WALTHER   Was heilig mir,   der Liebe Panier, schwing’ und sing’ ich, mir zu Hoff’! KOTHNER Das gilt uns weltlich. Drum allein, Meister Beckmesser, schließt euch ein! BECKMESSER (erhebt sich und schreitet wie widerwillig dem Gemerk zu) Ein saures Amt, und heut’ zumal! Wohl gibt’s mit der Kreide manche Qual. (Er verneigt sich gegen Walther.)   Herr Ritter, wisst: Sixtus Beckmesser Merker ist;   hier im Gemerk verrichtet er still sein strenges Werk. Sieben Fehler gibt er euch vor, die merkt er mit Kreide dort an: – wenn er über sieben Fehler verlor, dann versang der Herr Rittersmann. (Er setzt sich im Gemerk.)   Gar fein er hört; doch, dass er euch den Mut nicht stört,   säht ihr ihm zu,   so gibt er euch Ruh’,   und schließt sich gar hier ein, –   lässt Gott euch befohlen sein.

[16a]

(Er streckt den Kopf, höhnisch freundlich nickend, heraus und verschwindet hinter dem zugezogenen Vorhange des Gemerkes gänzlich.) KOTHNER (zu Walther) Was euch zum Liede Richt’ und Schnur, vernehmt nun aus der Tabulatur!

[1a]

(Die Lehrbuben haben die an der Wand aufgehängte Tafel der „Leges Tabulaturæ“ herabgenommen und halten sie Kotbner vor; dieser liest daraus.) „Ein jedes Meistergesanges Bar stell’ ordentlich ein Gemäße dar aus unterschiedlichen Gesätzen, die keiner soll verletzen.

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WALTHER   Something sacred to me:   love’s banner I shall wave, and sing in high hopes. KOTHNER We call that profane. Therefore, Master Beckmesser, shut yourself in alone! BECKMESSER (rising and going as if reluctantly to the Marker’s box) A bitter task, and especially today; there’ll be much painful work with the chalk! (bowing towards Walther)   Sir knight, know: Sixtus Beckmesser is the Marker;   here in the box he silently performs his strict task. Seven faults he allows you, he marks them up with chalk there: if he incurs more than seven faults, then the knightly gentleman has sung his chance away. (He seats himself in the box)   He listens very carefully; but so that he doesn’t undermine your courage,   as might happen if you saw him,   he leaves you in peace   and shuts himself up here.   May God be with you.

[16a]

(With the last words he stretches his head out with a scornfully familiar nod, then pulls across the curtains, so that he becomes invisible.) KOTHNER (to Walther) What the guiding principles of your song should be, learn from the Tabulature.

[1a]

(The Apprentices have taken the Leges Tabulaturæ down from the wall and are holding it out to Kothner, who reads from it.) ‘Each unit of a Mastersong shall present a proper balance of its different sections, against which no one shall offend.

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Ein Gesätz besteht aus zweenen Stollen, die gleiche Melodei haben sollen; der Stoll’ aus etlicher Vers’ Gebänd’, der Vers hat einen Reim am End’. Darauf so folgt der Abgesang, der sei auch etlich’ Verse lang, und hab’ sein’ besond’re Melodei, als nicht im Stollen zu finden sei. Derlei Gemäßes mehre Baren soll ein jed’ Meisterlied bewahren; und wer ein neues Lied gericht’, das über vier der Silben nicht eingreift in andrer Meister Weis’, des Lied erwerb’ sich Meisterpreis!“ (Er gibt die Tafel den Lehrbuben zurück; diese hängen sie wieder auf.) – Nun setzt euch in den Singestuhl. WALTHER (mit einem Schauer) Hier – in den Stuhl? KOTHNER Wie’s Brauch der Schul’! WALTHER (Er besteigt den Stuhl und setzt sich mit Widerstreben. Beiseite) Für dich, Geliebte, sei’s getan! KOTHNER (sehr laut) Der Sänger sitzt. BECKMESSER (unsichtbar im Gemerk, sehr grell) Fanget an! WALTHER   „Fanget an!“ –   So rief der Lenz in den Wald,   dass laut es ihn durchhallt:   und wie in fern’ren Wellen   der Hall von dannen flieht,   von weither naht ein Schwellen,   das mächtig näher zieht.   Es schwillt und schallt,   es tönt der Wald   von holder Stimmen Gemenge;   nun laut und hell,   schon nah zur Stell’,   wie wächst der Schwall!

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A section consists of two stanzas, which shall have the same melody; the stanza is a group of so many lines, the line has its rhyme at the end. Thereupon follows the Aftersong which is also to be so many lines long and have its own special melody which is not to occur in the stanza. Each Mastersong shall have several units in this ratio; and whoever composes a new song which does not for more than four syllables encroach upon other Masters’ melodies – his song may win a Master’s prize.’ (He returns the Table of Rules to the Apprentices; they hang it on the wall again.) Now seat yourself in the Singer’s chair! WALTHER (with a shiver) Here – in this chair? KOTHNER As is the custom of the school. WALTHER (He sits on the chair reluctantly. Aside) For you, beloved, it shall be done! KOTHNER (very loudly) The singer sits. BECKMESSER (invisible from his box, very stridently) Begin! WALTHER   ‘Begin!’   Thus Spring cried to the forest   so that it re-echoed loudly:   and as in more distant waves   the sound flees thence,   from farther off there comes a swelling   which powerfully draws nearer;   it swells and resounds,   the forest rings   with the host of lovely voices;   now loud and bright   and near at hand –   how the sound grows!

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Wie Glockenhall ertost des Jubels Gedränge! Der Wald, wie bald antwortet er dem Ruf, der neu ihm Leben schuf: stimmte an das süße Lenzeslied! –

(Man hört aus dem Gemerk unmutige Seufzer des Merkers und heftiges Anstreichen mit der Kreide. Auch Walther hat es bemerkt; nach kurzer Störung fährt er fort.)                

In einer Dornenhecken, von Neid und Gram verzehrt, musst’ er sich da verstecken, der Winter, grimmbewehrt: von dürrem Laub umrauscht, er lauert da und lauscht wie er das frohe Singen zu Schaden könnte bringen. –

(Er steht vom Stuhle auf.)   Doch: fanget an!   So rief es mir in der Brust,   als noch ich von Liebe nicht wusst’.   Da fühlt’ ich’s tief sich regen,   als weckt’ es mich aus dem Traum;   mein Herz mit bebenden Schlägen   erfüllte des Busens Raum:   das Blut, es wallt   mit Allgewalt,   geschwellt von neuem Gefühle,   aus warmer Nacht,   mit Übermacht,   schwillt mir zum Meer   der Seufzer Heer   in wildem Wonnegewühle.   Die Brust   mit Lust antwortet sie dem Ruf,   der neu ihr Leben schuf;   stimmt nun an   das hehre Liebeslied!

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Like the clanging of bells the throng of jubilation roars out! The forest, how soon it answers to the call which brought it new life, and struck up the sweet song of Spring!

(During this, repeated groans of discouragement and hefty scratchings of the chalk are heard from the Marker. Walther hears them too, and after a momentary pause of discomposure continues.)                

In a thorn hedge, consumed with jealousy and grief, Winter, grimly armed, had to hide himself away: with dry leaves rustling about him he lies in wait and plans how he might harm this joyful singing.

(rising from the stool)   But: begin!   That was the call in my breast   when it was still ignorant of love.   I felt it rising deep within me   as if it were waking me from a dream;   my heart with its quivering beats   filled my whole bosom:   my blood pounds   all-powerfully,   swollen by this new feeling;   from a warm night   and with superior strength   this host of sighs   swells to a sea   in a wild tumult of bliss:   the breast,   how soon it answers the call   which brought it new life:   strike up   the majestic song of love!

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BECKMESSER (den Vorhang aufreißend) Seid ihr nun fertig? WALTHER Wie fraget Ihr? BECKMESSER Mit der Tafel ward ich fertig schier. (Er hält die ganz mit Kreidestrichen bedeckte Tafel heraus; die Meister brechen in ein Gelächter aus.) WALTHER Hört doch, zu meiner Frauen Preis gelang’ ich jetzt erst mit der Weis’. BECKMESSER (das Gemerk verlassend) Singt, wo ihr wollt! Hier habt ihr vertan! – Ihr Meister, schaut die Tafel euch an: so lang ich leb’, ward’s nicht erhört! Ich glaubt’s nicht, wenn ihr’s all auch schwört! WALTHER Erlaubt ihr’s, Meister, dass er mich stört? Blieb’ ich von Allen ungehört? POGNER Ein Wort, Herr Merker! ihr seid gereizt. BECKMESSER Sei Merker fortan, wer danach geizt. Doch dass der Junker hier versungen hat, beleg’ ich erst noch vor der Meister Rat. Zwar wird’s ’ne harte Arbeit sein: wo beginnen, da wo nicht aus noch ein? Von falscher Zahl, und falschem Gebänd’ –   schweig’ ich schon ganz und gar: zu kurz, zu lang – wer ein End’ da fänd’!   Wer meint hier im Ernst einen Bar? Auf „blinde Meinung“ klag’ ich allein, – Sagt, konnt’ ein Sinn unsinniger sein? MEHRERE MEISTER Man ward nicht klug; ich muss gestehn, Ein Ende konnte keiner erseh’n.

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BECKMESSER (tearing open the curtains) Have you finished yet? WALTHER What do you mean? BECKMESSER There’s no more room on the board. (He holds out the board, completely covered with chalk marks. The Masters cannot restrain their laughter.) WALTHER But listen! My lady’s praises am I only now reaching with my melody. BECKMESSER (leaving his box) Sing where you like! You’re finished here! Masters, look at the slate: in all my life there has been nothing like it! I shouldn’t believe it, even if you all swear to it! WALTHER Will you allow him to interrupt me, Masters? Am I to remain unheard by all? POGNER A word, Herr Marker! You are angry. BECKMESSER Let him forthwith be Marker who covets it! But that the knight has sung his chance away, I’ll first show before the Masters’ assembly. To be sure, it will be a hard task: where begin, when there was no beginning nor end to it? Of false number and false grouping   I’ll make absolutely no mention: too short, too long, who might find an end there?   Who would seriously call this a unit? I’ll accuse him only of ‘Obscure Meaning’; say, could a meaning be more meaningless? SEVERAL MASTERS It meant nothing! I must admit no one could find its end.

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BECKMESSER Und dann die Weis’, welch tolles Gekreis’ aus „Abenteuer-“, „blau-Ritterspornweis’“, „hoch-Tannen-“, „stolz-Jünglingston“! KOTHNER Ja, ich verstand gar nichts davon. BECKMESSER Kein Absatz wo, kein’ Koloratur; von Melodei auch nicht eine Spur! (Die Meister sind im wachsenden Aufstand begriffen.) MEHRERE MEISTER   Wer nennt das Gesang?   Es ward einem bang!

[6a, 6b]

VOGELGESANG   Eitel Ohrgeschinder! ZORN   Auch gar nichts dahinter! KOTHNER Und gar vom Singstuhl ist er gesprungen! BECKMESSER Wird erst auf die Fehlerprobe gedrungen? Oder gleich erklärt, dass er versungen? SACHS (der vom Beginn an Walther mit wachsendem Ernst zugehört hat, schreitet vor) Halt, Meister! Nicht so geeilt! Nicht jeder eure Meinung teilt. –   Des Ritters Lied und Weise, [21a] sie fand ich neu, doch nicht verwirrt;   verließ er unsre Gleise, schritt er doch fest und unbeirrt.   Wollt ihr nach Regeln messen, was nicht nach eurer Regeln Lauf,   der eig’nen Spur vergessen, sucht davon erst die Regeln auf! BECKMESSER Aha, schon recht! Nun hört ihr’s doch: den Stümpern öffnet Sachs ein Loch,

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BECKMESSER And then the melody! What a mad jumble of ‘Adventure’ and ‘Blue Larkspur’ melodies, ‘High Fir Tree’ and ‘Proud Youth’ tones! KOTHNER Yes, I understood nothing of it! BECKMESSER No pause anywhere, no coloratura, and not a trace of melody! (Increasing uproar ensues among the Masters.) SEVERAL MASTERS   Who calls that singing?   It made one uneasy!

[6a, 6b]

VOGELGESANG   Nothing but ear-splitting din! ZORN   And nothing behind it! KOTHNER And he even jumped up from the Singer’s chair! BECKMESSER Will you press for proof of his faults? Or declare outright that he has sung his chance away? SACHS (who has listened to Walther from the first with serious interest, steps forward) Stay, Masters! Not so fast! Not everyone shares your opinion.   The knight’s song and melody [21a] I found new, but not confused;   if he left our paths he at least strode firmly and surely.   If you wish to measure according to rules something which does not agree with your rules,   forget your own ways, and first seek its rules! BECKMESSER Aha! That’s right! Now you hear it: Sachs is opening a loophole for bunglers

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  da aus und ein nach Belieben   ihr Wesen leicht sie trieben! – Singet dem Volk auf Markt und Gassen! Hier wird nach den Regeln nur eingelassen. SACHS Herr Merker, was doch solch ein Eifer?   Was doch so wenig Ruh’! Eu’r Urteil, dünkt mich, wäre reifer,   hörtet ihr besser zu. Darum so komm’ ich jetzt zum Schluss, dass den Junker man zu End’ hören muss. BECKMESSER Der Meister Zunft, die ganze Schul’, gegen den Sachs da sind wir Null! SACHS Verhüt’ es Gott, was ich begehr’, dass das nicht nach den Gesetzen wär’!   Doch da nun steht geschrieben: „Der Merker werde so bestellt,   dass weder Hass noch Lieben das Urteil trübe, das er fällt.“ Geht er nun gar auf Freiers Füßen, wie sollt’ er da die Lust nicht büßen, den Nebenbuhler auf dem Stuhl’ zu schmähen vor der ganzen Schul’? (Walther flammt auf.) NACHTIGALL Ihr geht zu weit! KOTHNER Persönlichkeit. POGNER Vermeidet, Meister, Zwist und Streit! BECKMESSER Ei! Was kümmert’s doch Meister Sachsen,   auf was für Füßen ich geh’? Ließ’ er doch lieber Sorge sich wachsen,   dass mir nichts drück’ die Zeh’! Doch seit mein Schuster ein großer Poet,

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  who come and go as they please   and follow their own frivolous course. Sing to the people on the marketplace and in the streets; here admittance is only by the rules. SACHS Herr Marker, why such zealousness?   Why so little calm? Your judgement, it seems to me, would be   more mature if you listened more carefully. That’s why I’ll finish by saying that we must hear the knight to the end. BECKMESSER The Masters’ guild, the whole School count for nothing against Sachs. SACHS God forbid that what I ask should not be according to the laws!   But it is written: ‘The Marker shall be so disposed   that neither hatred nor love obscure the judgement which he gives.’ Since he is going a-wooing, why should he not satisfy his desire to disgrace a rival in the chair before the whole School? (Walther is enraged.) NACHTIGALL You go too far! KOTHNER You’re being personal! POGNER Avoid, Masters, discord and strife! BECKMESSER And what does it concern Master Sachs   where or how I go? Rather should he take care   that nothing pinches my toes! But since my cobbler is a great poet,

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gar übel es um mein Schuhwerk steht:   da seht, wie’s schlappt   und überall klappt!   All’ seine Vers’ und Reim’   ließ’ ich ihm gern daheim, Historien, Spiel’ und Schwänke dazu, brächt’ er mir morgen die neuen Schuh’!

[22a]

SACHS (kratzt sich hinter den Ohren)   Ihr mahnt mich da gar recht:   doch schickt sich’s, Meister, sprecht, dass, – find’ ich selbst dem Eseltreiber   ein Sprüchlein auf die Sohl’, dem hochgelahrten Herrn Stadtschreiber   ich nichts drauf schreiben soll? (Walther steigt in großer Aufregung auf den Singstuhl und blickt stehend herab.) Das Sprüchlein, das eu’r würdig sei, mit all meiner armen Poeterei,   fand ich noch nicht zur Stund’;   doch wird’s wohl jetzt mir kund, wenn ich des Ritters Lied gehört: drum sing’ er nun weiter ungestört! BECKMESSER Nicht weiter! Zum Schluss! DIE MEISTER (außer Sachs und Pogner) Genug! Zum Schluss! SACHS (zu Walther) Singt, dem Herrn Merker zum Verdruss! BECKMESSER   Was sollte man da noch hören?   Wär’s nicht, euch zu betören? (Er holt aus dem Gemerk die Tafel herbei und hält sie, während des Folgenden, von einem zum andern sich wendend, den Meistern zur Prüfung vor.) Jeden Fehler, groß und klein, seht genau auf der Tafel ein. „Falsch“ Gebänd’, „unredbare Worte“, – „Klebsilben“, hier „Laster“ gar!

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things look bad for my footwear!   Look how sloppy they are;   they flap everywhere!   All his verses and rhymes   I’d gladly have him leave at home histories, plays, and farces too if he’d bring me my new shoes tomorrow!

[22a]

SACHS (scratching himself behind his ears)   You do right to remind me;   but is it fitting, Masters, tell me, that, if I even make a little verse   for the donkey driver’s soles, I should write nothing on those   of our highly learned town clerk? (Walther in great excitement climbs on top of the Singer’s chair and remains standing there.) The little verse which would be worthy of you I with all my humble poetic gifts   have not yet found;   but it will surely come to me now, when I’ve heard the knight’s song so let him sing on undisturbed! BECKMESSER No more! An end! THE MASTERS (except Sachs and Pogner) Enough! An end! SACHS (to Walther) Sing, in defiance of Herr Marker! BECKMESSER   What more should we hear?   Unless it were to make fools of you? (He fetches out his board from the box and shows it during the following – first to one and then to another – to convince the Masters.) Each mistake, great and small, see it recorded exactly on the slate. ‘False Grouping’, ‘Unspeakable Words’, ‘Affixes’, here ‘Vices’, even!

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„Aequivoca“, „Reim am falschen Orte“. „Verkehrt“, „verstellt“ der ganze „Bar“! Ein „Flickgesang“ hier zwischen den Stollen! „Blinde Meinung“ all überall! „Unklare Wort’“, „Differenz“, hier „Schrollen“! Da „falscher Atem“, hier „Überfall!“ Ganz unverständliche Melodei! Aus allen Tönen ein Mischgebräu! Scheutet ihr nicht das Ungemach, Meister, zählt mir die Striche nach! Verloren hätt’ er schon mit dem acht’, doch so weit wie der hat’s noch keiner gebracht: wohl über fünfzig, schlecht gezählt! Sagt, ob ihr euch den zum Meister wählt? DIE MEISTER Jawohl, so ist’s; ich seh’ es recht: mit dem Herrn Ritter steht es schlecht! Mag Sachs von ihm halten, was er will, Hier in der Singschul’ schweig’ er still! Bleibt einem jeden doch unbenommen,   wen er sich zum Genossen begehrt? Wär uns der erste Best’ willkommen, –   was blieben dann die Meister noch wert?   Hei! Wie sich der Ritter da quält!   Der Sachs hat sich ihn erwählt! ’s ist ärgerlich gar! Drum macht ein End’! Auf, Meister! Stimmt, und erhebt die Händ! POGNER Ja wohl, ich seh’s, was mir nicht recht: mit meinem Junker steht es schlecht! Weich’ ich hier der Übermacht, mir ahnet, dass mir’s Sorge macht. Wie gern säh ich ihn angenommen! Als Eidam wär’ er mir gar wert: nenn’ ich den Sieger jetzt willkommen, wer weiß, ob ihn mein Kind begehrt?   Gesteh’ ich’s, dass mich’s quält,   ob Eva den Meister wählt? WALTHER   Aus finst’rer Dornenhecken   die Eule rauscht hervor,   tät’ rings mit Kreischen wecken

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‘Aequivoca’, ‘Rhymes in the Wrong Place’, ‘Inverted’ and ‘Misplaced’ the whole ‘Unit’! A ‘Patch Song’ here between the stanzas! ‘Obscure Meaning’ absolutely everywhere! ‘Unclear Words’, ‘Disagreement’, ‘Clods’ here! ‘Wrong Breathing’ there, ‘Surprise’ here! A quite incomprehensible melody! A confused brew of all the tones! If you aren’t put off by the toil, Masters, count the faults with me! He’d have failed with his eighth, but no one has yet got as far as he: certainly over fifty, at a rough count! Say, do you elect him Master? THE MASTERS Yes indeed, that’s it! I see it clearly! It looks bad for the knight! Let Sachs think of him what he will, he must be silent here in the Singing School! Is every one of us not at liberty to decide   whom he wishes as colleague? If every stranger were welcomed,   what worth would the Masters then have?   Ha! How the knight is toiling away!   Sachs has chosen him for his own. It’s really disturbing! So put a stop to it! Up, Masters, vote and raise your hands! POGNER Yes, indeed, what I see doesn’t please me: things look bad for my knight! If I yield to superior forces here I foresee it will trouble me. How gladly I should see him admitted. He’d be a worthy son-in-law. If I am now to bid the victor welcome, who knows if my child will choose him!   I admit that it torments me –   will Eva choose the Master? WALTHER   From a dark thorn hedge   the owl sped forth,   awoke all around with its screeching

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  der Raben heis’ren Chor:   in nächt’gem Heer zuhauf,   wie krächzen all’ da auf,   mit ihren Stimmen, den hohlen,   die Elstern, Krähen und Dohlen! –   Auf da steigt,   mit gold’nem Flügelpaar,   ein Vogel wunderbar;   sein strahlend hell Gefieder   licht in den Lüften blinkt;   schwebt selig hin und wieder,   zu Flug und Flucht mir winkt.   Es schwillt das Herz   vor süßem Schmerz,   der Not entwachsen Flügel;   es schwingt sich auf   zum kühnen Lauf,   aus der Städte Gruft,   zum Flug durch die Luft,   dahin zum heimischen Hügel, dahin zur grünen Vogelweid’, Wo Meister Walther einst mich freit’;   da sing’ ich heil und hehr   der liebsten Frauen Ehr’:   auf da steigt, ob Meisterkräh’n ihm ungeneigt,   das stolze Liebeslied!   Ade, ihr Meister, hienied’! SACHS (beobachtet Walther entzückt)   Ha, welch ein Mut!   Begeist’rungsglut! –   Ihr Meister, schweigt doch und hört!   Hört, wenn Sachs euch beschwört! Herr Merker dort, gönnt doch nur Ruh’! Lasst andre hören, gebt das nur zu!   Umsonst! All’ eitel Trachten! Kaum vernimmt man sein eig’nes Wort;   des Junkers will keiner achten: das nenn’ ich Mut, singt der noch fort!   Das Herz auf dem rechten Fleck,   ein wahrer Dichter-Reck’! Mach’ ich, Hans Sachs, wohl Vers’ und Schuh’, ist Ritter der und Poet dazu!

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  the hoarse chorus of ravens.   In vast nocturnal horde,   how they all begin to croak   with their hollow voices –   magpies, crows and jackdaws!   There rises up   on a pair of golden wings   a wondrous bird:   its dazzling bright plumage   shines light in the breezes;   blissfully hovering now and again,   it beckons me to fly and flee.   My heart swells   with sweet pain,   in my need wings sprout;   it soars   in bold progress   to fly through the air   up from the tombs of cities   to its native hill to the green birds’ meadow where Master Walther once set me free;   there I sing bright and clear   in honour of my dearest lady:   upwards then climbs – though Master Crows are unfriendly to it –   the proud love song.   Farewell, you Masters here below! SACHS (observing Walther with rapture)   Ha, what spirit!   What glow of inspiration!   You Masters, be quiet and listen!   Listen when Sachs beseeches you! Master Marker, favour us with some peace! Let others listen! Grant but that!   In vain! Every endeavour is in vain! One can scarcely hear oneself speak! No one will heed the knight. There’s spirit for you, to carry on singing! His heart’s in the right place: a true poet-knight! If I, Hans Sachs, make verse and shoes, he’s a knight and a poet too!

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LEHRBUBEN und DAVID (Die Lehrbuben sind von der Bank aufgestanden und nähern sich dem Gemerk, um welches sie einen Ring schließen und sich zum Reigen ordnen.)   Glück auf zum Meistersingen,   Mögt’ ihr euch das Kränzlein erschwingen; das Blumenkränzlein aus Seiden fein, wird das dem Herrn Ritter beschieden sein? (Sie fassen sich an und tanzen in Ringe immer lustiger um das Gemerk.) BECKMESSER   Nun, Meister, kündet’s an! (Die Meister erheben die Hände.) ALLE MEISTER   Versungen und vertan! (Walther verlässt mit einer stolz verächtlichen Gebärde den Stuhl und wendet sich rasch zum Fortgehen. Alles geht in großer Aufregung auseinander; lustiger Tumult der Lehrbuben, welche sich des Gemerkes, des Singstuhls und der Meisterbänke bemächtigen, wodurch Gedräng’ und Durcheinander der nach dem Ausgang sich wendenden Meister entsteht. Sachs, der allein im Vordergrund geblieben, blickt noch gedankenvoll nach dem leeren Singstuhl; als die Lehrbuben auch diesen erfassen, und Sachs darob mit humoristisch unmutiger Gebärde sich abwendet, fällt der Vorhang.) [1a]

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APPRENTICES and DAVID (The Apprentices, jumping up from their bench towards the end, take hands and dance in a ring round the Marker’s box.)   Good luck for the Mastersinging   if you want to gain the garland! The flowery garland of fine silks – will it be granted to the knight? (They take each other’s hands and dance more and more merrily around the box.) BECKMESSER   Now, Masters, announce your decision! (The Masters hold up their hands.) ALL MASTERS Completely sung away his chance! (With a gesture of proud contempt, Walther gets up from the Singer’s chair and hastily leaves the building. There is general confusion, augmented by the Apprentices, who shoulder the benches, the Singer’s chair and the Marker’s box, causing hindrance and disorder to the Masters, who are crowding the door. Sachs has remained alone in the foreground, looking pensively at the empty Singer’s chair: when the boys remove this too, he turns away with a humorously indignant gesture, and the curtain falls.) [1a]

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ZWEITER AUFZUG Erste Szene Die Bühne stellt im Vordergrunde eine Straße im Längendurchschnitt dar, welche in der Mitte von einer schmalen Gasse, nach dem Hintergrunde zu krumm abbiegend, durchschnitten wird, so dass sich in Front zwei Eckhäuser darbieten, von denen das eine, reichere, rechts, das Haus Pogners, das andere, einfachere, links, das des Sachs ist. Zu Pogners Hause führt von der vorderen Straße aus eine Treppe von mehreren Stufen; vertiefte Türe, mit Steinsitzen in den Nischen. Zur Seite ist der Raum, ziemlich nahe an Pogners Hause, durch eine dickstämmige Linde abgegrenzt; grünes Gesträuch umgibt sie am Fuß, vor welchem auch eine Steinbank angebracht ist. Der Eingang zu Sachsens Hause ist ebenfalls nach der vorderen Straße zu gelegen; eine geteilte Ladentür führt hier unmittelbar in die Schusterwerkstatt; dicht dabei steht ein Fliederbaum, dessen Zweige bis über den Laden herabhängen. Nach der Gasse zu hat das Haus noch zwei Fenster, von welchen das eine zur Werkstatt, das andere zu einer dahinter liegenden Kammer gehört. Heitrer Sommerabend; im Verlaufe der ersten Auftritte allmählich einbrechende Nacht. [15] David ist darüber her, die Fensterläden nach der Gasse zu von außen zu schließen. Alle Lehrbuben tun das gleiche bei andren Häusern. LEHRBUBEN (während der Arbeit) Johannistag! Johannistag! Blumen und Bänder soviel man mag! DAVID (leise für sich) „Das Blumenkränzlein aus Seiden fein“, – möcht’ es mir balde beschieden sein! (Magdalene ist mit einem Korbe am Arme aus Pogners Haus gekommen und sucht David unbemerkt sich zu nähern.) MAGDALENE   Bst! David!

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ACT TWO Scene One In the foreground the scene shows a street lengthwise; in the middle is a narrow alley winding off crookedly towards the back of the stage. The result is that downstage we see the front of two corner houses. Of these, one house, on the right and grander in style, is Pogner’s; the other, on the left and simpler in style, is Sachs’s. A staircase of several steps leads up from the street in front to Pogner’s house; there are recessed doorways with stone seats in the niches. At the side close to Pogner’s house the space is bordered by the thick trunk of a lime tree; green bushes surround it from which another stone seat protrudes. The entrance to Sachs’s house also opens to the street in the foreground; a partitioned shop door leads directly into the cobbler’s workshop; close by is an elder tree whose branches overhang the door. Two windows overlook the street, one from the workshop, the other from one of the rear rooms inside. It is a pleasant summer evening and from the beginning of the action night is gradually falling. [15] David is closing the shutters of Sachs’s house from outside. All the Apprentices are doing the same for the other houses. APPRENTICES (as they work) St John’s Day! St John’s Day! Flowers and ribbons in plenty! DAVID (quietly to himself) ‘The little flowery garland of fine silks’, might it soon be granted to me! (Magdalene comes out of Pogner’s house with a basket on her arm and tries to approach David without being noticed.) MAGDALENE   Psst! David!

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DAVID (nach der Gasse zu sich umwendend, heftig) Ruft ihr schon wieder?   Singt allein eure dummen Lieder! (Er wendet sich unwilling zur Seite.) LEHRBUBEN   David, was soll’s?   Wär’st nicht so stolz,   schaut’st besser um,   Wär’st nicht so dumm! „Johannistag! Johannistag!“ Wie der nur die Jungfer Lene nicht kennen mag! MAGDALENE David! Hör’ doch! Kehr’ dich zu mir! DAVID Ach, Jungfer Lene, ihr seid hier? MAGDALENE (auf ihren Korb deutend) Bring’ dir was Gut’s, schau’ nur hinein das soll für mein lieb’ Schätzel sein. Erst aber schnell, wie ging’s mit dem Ritter? Du rietest ihm gut? Er gewann den Kranz? DAVID Ach, Jungfer Lene! Da steht’s bitter; der hat vertan und versungen ganz! MAGDALENE (erschrocken) Versungen? Vertan? DAVID Was geht’s euch nur an? MAGDALENE (den Korb, nach welchem David die Hand ausstreckt, heftig zurückziehend)   Hand von der Taschen!   Nichts zu naschen! Hilf Gott! Unser Junker vertan! (Sie geht mit Gebärden der Trostlosigkeit in das Haus zurück. David sieht ihr verblüfft nach.) DIE LEHRBUBEN (Die Lehrbuben, welche unvermerkt näher geschlichen waren und gelauscht hatten, präsentieren sich jetzt, wie glückwünschend, David.) Heil! Heil zur Eh’ dem jungen Mann!

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DAVID (turning towards the alley, roughly) Are you calling again?   Sing your silly songs to yourself! (He indignantly turns away.) APPRENTICES   David, what is it?   If you weren’t so proud   you’d look round –   if you weren’t so silly! ‘St John’s Day! St John’s Day!’ Now he doesn’t want to know Mistress Lena! MAGDALENE David! Listen! Turn round to me! DAVID Ah! Mistress Lena! You here? MAGDALENE (pointing to her basket) I bring you something good! Just look inside! That’s for my dear little treasure. But first, quickly, how did the knight fare? You advised him well? He won the garland? DAVID Ah, Mistress Lena! It’s a sorry tale: he has completely spoilt his chances! MAGDALENE (in alarm) Spoilt? Completely? DAVID What does that matter to you? MAGDALENE (snatching the basket away from David’s outstretched hand)   Hands off the basket!   No titbits for you! God help us! Our knight undone! (She goes back into the house, wringing her hands in despair. David looks after her, dumbfounded.) APPRENTICES (who have quietly come nearer and overheard, now advance towards David, as if congratulating him) Hail, hail to the young man on his marriage!

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  Wie glücklich hat er gefreit! Wir hörten’s all’ und sahen’s an:   der er sein Herz geweiht,   für die er lässt sein Leben, die hat ihm den Korb nicht gegeben! – DAVID (auffahrend)   Was steht ihr hier faul?   Gleich haltet das Maul! DIE LEHRBUBEN (schließen einen Ring um David und tanzen um ihn) Johannistag! Johannistag! Da freit ein jeder, wie er mag.   Der Meister freit,   der Bursche freit, da gibt’s Geschlamp’ und Geschlumbfer!   Der Alte freit   die junge Maid, der Bursche die alte Jumbfer! Juchhei! Juchhei! Johannistag! (David ist im Begriff, wütend drein zu schlagen, als Sachs, der aus der Gasse hervorgekommen, dazwischen tritt. Die Lehrbuben fahren auseinander.) SACHS (zu David) Was gibt’s? Treff’ ich dich wieder am Schlag? DAVID Nicht ich: Schandlieder singen die!

[22a]

SACHS Hör’ nicht drauf; lern’s besser wie sie! Zur Ruh’, ins Haus! Schließ und mach’ Licht! (Die Lehrbuben zerstreuen sich.) DAVID Hab’ ich heut’ Singstund’? SACHS Nein, singst nicht – zur Straf’ für dein heutig’ frech Erdreisten! Die neuen Schuh’ steck’ mir auf den Leisten!

[11]

(David und Sachs sind in die Werkstatt eingetreten und gehen durch eine innere Tür ab.)

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  How successfully he has wooed! We all heard, and saw it too:   she to whom he has given his heart   and for whom he would give his life – she hasn’t given him the basket. DAVID (flaring up)   Why are you idling here?   Hold your tongues this minute! APPRENTICES (dancing round David) St John’s Day! St John’s Day! Every man woos as he wishes.   The Master woos!   The apprentice woos! There’s much flirtation and cuddling!   The old man woos   the young maiden, the apprentice the old maid! Hurrah! Hurrah! St John’s Day! (David is about to fly at the boys in his temper, when Sachs, who has come down the alley, steps between them. The Apprentices separate.) SACHS (to David) What’s this? Do I catch you fighting again? DAVID Not I! They’re singing coarse songs.

[22a]

SACHS Don’t listen to them! Learn better than they! To rest! Get inside! Lock up and light a lamp. (The Apprentices disperse.) DAVID Do I have a singing lesson today? SACHS No, no singing – as a punishment for your cheekiness today! Put the new shoes on the last for me!

[11]

(David and Sachs go together into the workshop and disappear through an inner door.)

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Zweite Szene (Pogner und Eva, wie vom Spaziergang heimkehrend, die Tochter leicht am Arm des Vaters eingehängt, sind beide schweigsam die Gasse heraufgekommen.) POGNER (durch eine Klinze im Fensterladen Sachsens spähend) Lass sehn, ob Nachbar Sachs zu Haus? Gern spräch’ ich ihn; trät’ ich wohl ein? (David kommt mit Licht aus der Kammer, setzt sich damit an den Werktisch am Fenster und macht sich an die Arbeit her.) EVA (spähend) Er scheint daheim: kommt Licht heraus. POGNER Tu’ ich’s? – Zu was doch? – Besser nein! – (Er wendet sich ab)    

Will einer Selt’nes wagen, was ließ’ er sich dann sagen? –

(Er sinnt nach) War er’s nicht, der meint’, ich ging’ zu weit?…   Und blieb’ ich nicht im Geleise,   war’s nicht auf seine Weise? Doch war’s vielleicht auch Eitelkeit? – (Er wendet sich zu Eva) Und du, mein Kind? Du sagst mir nichts? EVA Ein folgsam Kind, gefragt nur spricht’s. POGNER (sehr zart) Wie klug! – Wie gut! Komm’ setz’ dich hier ein’ Weil’ noch auf die Bank zu mir. (Er setzt sich auf die Steinbank unter der Linde.) EVA   Wird’s nicht zu kühl?   ’s war heut’ gar schwül. (Sie setzt sich zögernd und beklommen Pogner zur Seite.)

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Scene Two (Pogner and Eva, as if returning from a walk together, come silently down the alley, the daughter leaning gently on her father’s arm.) POGNER (peeping through a chink in Sachs’s workshop shutter) Let’s see if Master Sachs is at home. I’d like a word with him. Should I go in? (David comes out of the inner room with a light and sits down to work at the bench by the window.) EVA (peeping) He seems to be at home: there’s a light within. POGNER Shall I? But what for? Better not! (He turns away.)    

If someone wants to risk something unusual what advice would he accept?

(after some reflection) Was it not he who thought I was going too far?…   And if I left the beaten track   was it not in his way? But was it perhaps vanity too? (He turns to Eva.) And you, my child, you say nothing? EVA An obedient child speaks only when asked. POGNER (very tenderly) How wise! How good! Come, sit down here for a while with me on the bench. (He sits on the stone bench under the lime tree) EVA   Won’t it be too cool?   It was really close today. (She sits anxiously and hesitantly at Pogner’s side.)

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POGNER   Nicht doch, ’s ist mild und labend,   gar lieblich lind der Abend: – das deutet auf den schönsten Tag,   der morgen soll erscheinen. O Kind! Sagt dir kein Herzensschlag, welch’ Glück dich morgen treffen mag, wenn Nürenberg, die ganze Stadt,   mit Bürgern und Gemeinen, mit Zünften, Volk und hohem Rat   vor dir sich soll vereinen,   dass du den Preis,   das edle Reis,   erteilest als Gemahl   dem Meister deiner Wahl?

[23]

EVA Lieb’ Vater, muss es ein Meister sein? POGNER Hör’ wohl: ein Meister deiner Wahl. (Magdalene erscheint an der Türe und winkt Eva.) EVA (zerstreut) Ja, – meiner Wahl. – Doch tritt nun ein – (laut, zu Magdalene gewandt) (gleich, Lene, gleich) – zum Abendmahl! (Sie steht auf.) POGNER (ärgerlich aufstehend) ’s gibt doch keinen Gast? EVA (wie oben) Wohl den Junker? POGNER (verwundert) Wieso? EVA Sahst ihn heut’ nicht? POGNER (nachdenklich zerstreut, halb für sich) Ward sein’ nicht froh.

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POGNER   No no, it’s mild and refreshing;   it’s a delightful balmy evening. That suggests that tomorrow   will be the most beautiful day. Oh child, don’t your heartbeats tell you what happiness may be yours tomorrow, when Nuremberg, the whole city   with burghers and commoners, with guilds, people and high council,   shall assemble before you,   so that you may award the prize,   that noble garland,   as husband,   to the Master of your choice?

[23]

EVA Dear father, must it be a Master? POGNER Listen carefully: a Master of your choice. (Magdalene appears at the door and signs to Eva.) EVA (distraught) Yes, of my choice. But just go in… (loudly, turned to Magdalene) I’m coming, Lena, I’m coming!… to supper. (She rises.) POGNER (rising vexedly) But there’s no guest? EVA (as before) The nobleman, I thought? POGNER (surprised) What do you mean? EVA Haven’t you seen him today? POGNER (absent-mindedly, half to himself) I wasn’t pleased with him.

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(sich vor die Stirn klopfend, sich zusammennehmend) Nicht doch!…Was denn?… – Ei! werd’ ich dumm? EVA Lieb’ Väterchen, komm’! Geh’, kleid’ dich um. POGNER (während er ins Haus vorangeht) Hm! Was geht mir im Kopf doch ’rum? MAGDALENE (heimlich zu Eva) Hast was heraus? EVA Blieb still und stumm. MAGDALENE Sprach David, meint’, er habe vertan. EVA (erschrocken) Der Ritter? Hilf Gott! Was fang’ ich an? Ach Lene, die Angst! Wo was erfahren? MAGDALENE Vielleicht vom Sachs? EVA (heiter) Ach! Der hat mich lieb: gewiss, ich geh’ hin. MAGDALENE Lass drin nichts gewahren; der Vater merkt’ es, wenn man jetzt blieb’. Nach dem Mahl! Dann hab’ ich dir noch was zu sagen, (im Abgehen auf der Treppe) was jemand geheim mir aufgetragen. EVA (sich umwendend) Wer denn? Der Junker? MAGDALENE Nichts da! Nein! Beckmesser. EVA Das mag was Rechtes sein! (Sie geht in das Haus. Magdalene folgt ihr.)

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tapping his forehead, pulling himself together) But no… What then? Ah!… Am I growing stupid? EVA Come, dear Papa! Go and change! POGNER (going into the house before her) Hm! What’s going round in my head? MAGDALENE (secretly to Eva) Have you learnt anything? EVA He was still and silent. MAGDALENE David said he thought he’d spoilt his chances. EVA (shocked) The knight? God help me, what am I to do? Ah Lena! What anguish! How can we find out? MAGDALENE Perhaps from Sachs? EVA (cheerfully) Ah, he’s fond of me! Of course, I’ll go to him. MAGDALENE Don’t give anything away! Your father would notice if we stayed any longer. After supper! Then I shall have more to say (on the stairs, about to exit) that someone has secretly entrusted to me. EVA (turning around) Who then? The nobleman? MAGDALENE Nothing there! No! Beckmesser. EVA That should be good! (She goes into the house; Magdalene follows her.)

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Dritte Szene SACHS (ist in leichter Hauskleidung von innen in die Werkstatt zurückge­ kommen. Er wendet sich zu David, der an seinem Werktische verblieben ist) Zeig her! – ’s ist gut. – Dort an die Tür rück’ mir Tisch und Schemel herfür! Leg’ dich zu Bett’, steh’ auf beizeit: verschlaf’ die Dummheit, sei morgen gescheit! DAVID Schafft ihr noch Arbeit? SACHS

Kümmert dich das?

DAVID (für sich) Was war nur der Lene? – Gott weiß was! – Warum wohl der Meister heute wacht?

[22a]

SACHS Was stehst noch? DAVID

Schlaft wohl, Meister!

SACHS

Gut’ Nacht!

(David geht in die der Gasse zu gelegene Kammer ab. Sachs legt sich die Arbeit zurecht, setzt sich an der Tür auf den Schemel, lässt aber die Arbeit wieder liegen und lehnt, mit dem Arm auf den geschlossenen Unterteil des Türladens gestützt, sich zurück.) [19] SACHS   Wie duftet doch der Flieder   so mild, so stark und voll! –   Mir löst es weich die Glieder,   will, dass ich was sagen soll. Was gilt’s, was ich dir sagen kann? Bin gar ein arm einfältig’ Mann!   Soll mir die Arbeit nicht schmecken,   gäbst, Freund, lieber mich frei,   tät’ besser, das Leder zu strecken   und ließ’ alle Poeterei! (Er nimmt heftig und geräuschvoll die Schusterarbeit vor. Er lässt wieder ab, lehnt sich von Neuem zurück und sinnt nach.) [29]

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Scene Three SACHS (in light indoor clothes, has come back into the workshop. He turns to David, who is still at his workbench.) Show me! It’s good. Put my table and its stool up by the door there! To your bed! Be up in good time, sleep off your folly and be smart tomorrow! DAVID Are you still at work? SACHS

Does that concern you?

DAVID (aside) What’s wrong with Lena? Heaven knows! Why’s the Master staying up late tonight?

[22a]

SACHS What are you still standing there for? DAVID

Sleep well, Master!

SACHS

Goodnight!

(David makes his way to the inner room, which overlooks the street. Sachs arranges his work, sits on his stool at the door, but then, laying down his tools once again, leans back and rests his arm on the closed lower half of the door.) [19] SACHS   So mild, so strong and full   is the scent of the elder tree!   It relaxes my limbs gently,   wants me to say something. What is the good of anything I can say to you? I’m but a poor, simple man.   If work is not to my taste,   you should rather, friend, release me;   I would do better to stretch leather   and give up all poetry. (He takes up the work again, roughly and noisily. He leaves off, leans back once more and reflects.) [29]

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  Und doch, ’s will halt nicht geh’n:   Ich fühl’s und kann’s nicht versteh’n: – kann’s nicht behalten, – doch auch nicht vergessen: und fass’ ich es ganz, kann ich’s nicht messen!   Doch wie wollt’ ich auch fassen,   was unermesslich mir schien?   Kein’ Regel wollte da passen, –   und war doch kein Fehler drin. Es klang so alt – und war doch so neu, – wie Vogelsang im süßen Mai!   Wer ihn hört,   und wahnbetört   sänge dem Vogel nach,   dem brächt’ es Spott und Schmach: –   Lenzes Gebot,   die süße Not,   die legt’ es ihm in die Brust: –   nun sang er, wie er musst’,   und wie er musst’, so konnt’ er’s, –   das merkt’ ich ganz besonders.   Dem Vogel, der heute sang, dem war der Schnabel bald gewachsen;   macht’ er den Meistern bang, gar wohl gefiel er doch Hans Sachsen! –

[4]

[6a, 6b] [5]

[17]

Vierte Szene Eva ist auf die Straße getreten, hat sich schüchtern der Werkstatt genähert und steht jetzt unvermerkt an der Türe bei Sachs. Sachs nimmt mit heitrer Gelassenheit seine Arbeit vor. EVA Gut’n Abend, Meister! Noch so fleißig? SACHS (fährt angenehm überrascht auf) Ei, Kind! Lieb’ Evchen? Noch so spät? – Und doch, warum so spät noch, weiß ich: die neuen Schuh’? EVA Wie fehl er rät! Die Schuh’ hab’ ich noch gar nicht probiert; sie sind so schön und reich geziert, dass ich sie noch nicht an die Füß’ mir getraut.

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  And yet it just won’t go.   I feel it, and cannot understand it; I cannot hold on to it, nor yet forget it; and if I grasp it wholly, I cannot measure it!   But then, how should I grasp   what seemed to me immeasurable?   No rule seemed to fit it, and yet there was no fault in it. It sounded so old, and yet was so new, like birdsong in sweet May!   Whoever heard it   and, carried away by madness,   imitated the bird,   would earn derision and disgrace!   It was Spring’s command,   sweet necessity   that placed it in his breast:   then he sang as he had to;   and as he had to, so was he able to –   I noticed that particularly.   The bird that sang today had a newly formed beak;   if he made the Masters uneasy, he certainly pleased Hans Sachs well!

[4]

[6a, 6b] [5]

[17]

Scene Four (Eva has come out into the street, shyly approached the workshop, and now stands unnoticed at the door beside Sachs. Sachs takes up his work again with serene cheerfulness.) EVA Good evening, Master! Still so busy? SACHS (starting up in agreeable surprise) Ah, child! Dear Eva! Up so late? And yet, I know why so late: the new shoes? EVA How wrongly he guesses! I have not yet even tried the shoes yet; they are so beautiful and richly adorned that I have not yet dared put them on my feet.

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(Sie setzt sich dicht neben Sachs auf den Steinsitz.) SACHS Doch sollst sie morgen tragen als Braut? EVA Wer wäre denn Bräutigam? SACHS Weiß ich das? EVA Wie wisst ihr dann, dass ich Braut? SACHS Ei, was! Das weiß die Stadt. EVA Ja, weiß es die Stadt, Freund Sachs gute Gewähr dann hat! Ich dacht’, – er wüsst’ mehr. SACHS Was sollt ich wissen? EVA Ei, seht doch! Werd’ ich’s ihm sagen müssen? Ich bin wohl recht dumm? SACHS Das sag’ ich nicht. EVA Dann wärt ihr wohl klug? SACHS Das weiß ich nicht. EVA Ihr wisst nichts? Ihr sagt nichts? – Ei, Freund Sachs, jetzt merk’ ich wahrlich: Pech ist kein Wachs. Ich hätt’ euch für feiner gehalten. SACHS Kind, beid’, Wachs und Pech, vertraut mir sind: mit Wachs strich ich die seid’nen Fäden, damit ich dir die zieren Schuh’ gefasst:

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[26]

(She sits down on the bench right by Sachs.) SACHS But tomorrow you will wear them as a bride? EVA Who then might the bridegroom be? SACHS Do I know that? EVA How do you know then that I am to be a bride? SACHS Oho! The whole town knows that. EVA Well, if the whole town knows, then friend Sachs has good authority! I thought he knew more. SACHS What should I know? EVA Well, think! Will I have to tell him? Am I so stupid? SACHS I don’t say that. EVA Then might you be shrewd? SACHS I don’t know. EVA You know nothing? You say nothing? Well, friend Sachs, now I truly perceive that pitch is not wax. I would have thought you sharper. SACHS Child! Both wax and pitch are familiar to me: with wax I coated the silken threads with which I made your dainty shoes:

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heut’ fass’ ich die Schuh’ mit dicht’ren Drähten, da gilt’s mit Pech für den derb’ren Gast. EVA Wer ist denn der? Wohl was recht’s? SACHS Das mein’ ich! Ein Meister stolz auf Freiers Fuß; denkt morgen zu siegen ganz alleinig: Herrn Beckmessers Schuh’ ich richten muss. EVA So nehmt nur tüchtig Pech dazu: da kleb’ er d’rin, und lass’ mir Ruh’! SACHS Er hofft dich sicher zu ersingen. EVA Wieso denn der? SACHS Ein Junggesell’, – ’s gibt deren wenig dort zur Stell’. EVA Könnt’s einem Witwer nicht gelingen? SACHS Mein Kind, der wär zu alt für dich. EVA Ei was! zu alt? Hier gilt’s der Kunst, wer sie versteht, der werb’ um mich. SACHS Lieb’ Evchen, machst mir blauen Dunst? EVA Nicht ich, ihr seid’s, ihr macht mir Flausen! Gesteht nur, dass ihr wandelbar. Gott weiß, wer euch jetzt im Herzen mag hausen! Glaubt ich mich doch d’rin so manches Jahr. SACHS Wohl, da ich dich gern auf den Armen trug?

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today I am making shoes with thicker yarn, and pitch is required for a rougher customer. EVA Who is that? Someone important? SACHS Yes, indeed! A Master proud, intent on wooing, plans to be sole victor tomorrow: I must finish Herr Beckmesser’s shoes. EVA Then take plenty of pitch for them: then he will stick to it and leave me in peace! SACHS He assuredly hopes to win you by his singing. EVA Why he then? SACHS A bachelor – there are few of them about here. EVA Might not a widower be successful? SACHS My child, he’d be too old for you. EVA How so, too old? Art is what matters here! Let him who understands it woo me. SACHS Dear Eva, would you mock me? EVA Not I! It is you who are making excuses! Admit that you are fickle. God knows who may dwell in your heart now! Yet I thought I’d been there for many a year. SACHS Because I liked to carry you in my arms?

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EVA Ich seh’, ’s war nur, weil ihr kinderlos. SACHS Hatt’ einst ein Weib und Kinder genug! EVA Doch, starb eure Frau, so wuchs ich groß? SACHS Gar groß und schön! EVA Da dacht’ ich aus: ihr nähmt mich für Weib und Kind ins Haus? SACHS Da hätt’ ich ein Kind und auch ein Weib; ’s wär’ gar ein lieber Zeitvertreib! Ja, ja! Das hast du dir schön erdacht. EVA Ich glaub’, der Meister mich gar verlacht? Am End’ auch ließ’ er sich gar gefallen, dass unter der Nas’ ihm weg vor allen der Beckmesser morgen mich ersäng’? SACHS Wer sollt’s ihm wehren, wenn’s ihm geläng’? Dem wüsst’ allein dein Vater Rat. EVA Wo so ein Meister den Kopf nur hat! Käm’ ich zu euch wohl, fänd’ ich’s zu Haus’? SACHS (trocken) Ach, ja! Hast recht: ’s ist im Kopf mir kraus. Hab’ heut’ manch’ Sorg’ und Wirr’ erlebt: da mag’s dann sein, dass was d’rin klebt. EVA (wieder näher rückend) Wohl in der Singschul’? ’s war heut’ Gebot? SACHS Ja, Kind! Eine Freiung machte mir Not.

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EVA I see, it was only because you were childless. SACHS I once had a wife, and children enough. EVA But your wife died, and I’ve grown tall. SACHS Tall indeed, and beautiful. EVA Then I thought: you might take me for wife and child into your house. SACHS Then I should have a child, and wife too: that would indeed be a pleasant pastime! Yes, you have thought it out well for yourself. EVA I think the Master is just laughing at me. And in the end he would have cheerfully, under his very nose and in the sight of all, let Beckmesser win me tomorrow with his song? SACHS Who could prevent him, were he to succeed? Your father alone might know the solution. EVA Where does a Master keep his brains? Would I come to you if I could find the answer at home? SACHS (dryly) Oh yes! You’re right: my brain is in a whirl. I’ve had many cares and troubles today: so it may well be that something’s sticking. EVA (drawing even closer to him) At the Singing School? A meeting today? SACHS Yes, child! A song trial caused me distress.

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EVA Ja, Sachs! Das hättet ihr gleich soll’n sagen, quält’ euch dann nicht mit unnützen Fragen. – Nun sagt, wer war’s, der Freiung begehrt? SACHS Ein Junker, Kind, gar unbelehrt. EVA (wie heimlich) Ein Junker? Mein, sagt! Und ward er gefreit? SACHS Nichts da, mein Kind! ’s gab gar viel Streit. EVA So sagt, – erzählt, – wie ging es zu? Macht’s euch Sorg’, wie ließ’ mir es Ruh’? – So bestand er übel und hat vertan? SACHS Ohne Gnad’ versang der Herr Rittersmann. MAGDALENE (kommt zum Hause heraus und ruft leise) Bst! Ev’chen! Bst! EVA (eifrig zu Sachs gewandt) Ohne Gnade? Wie? Kein Mittel gäb’s, das ihm gedieh’? Sang er so schlecht, so fehlervoll, dass nichts mehr zum Meister ihm helfen soll? SACHS Mein Kind, für den ist alles verloren, und Meister wird der in keinem Land; denn wer als Meister geboren, der hat unter Meistern den schlimmsten Stand. MAGDALENE (vernehmlicher rufend) Der Vater verlangt. EVA (immer dringender zu Sachs) So sagt mir noch an, ob keinen der Meister zum Freund er gewann? SACHS Das wär’ nicht übel, Freund ihm noch sein! – Ihm, vor dem sich alle fühlten so klein!

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EVA Ah, Sachs! You should have said so at once; I wouldn’t have vexed you then with unnecessary questions. Now, tell me, who was it who asked for a trial? SACHS A nobleman, child, quite untutored. EVA (as if furtively) A nobleman? Goodness! Tell me, was he admitted? SACHS Not so, my child! There was much dispute. EVA Then tell me, say, how did it go? If it caused you trouble, how could it leave me in peace? So he fared badly, and failed? SACHS The knight sang his chance away hopelessly. MAGDALENE (coming out of the house and calling softly) Psst! Eva! Psst! EVA (eagerly turned to Sachs) Hopelessly? What? Might there be no way of helping him? Did he sing so badly, so faultily that nothing can help him to become a Master? SACHS My child, for him all is lost, and he will not become a Master in any land; for he who was born a Master has among Masters the worst standing. MAGDALENE (calling louder) Your father is asking for you. EVA (with greater urgency to Sachs) Then tell me further whether he won none of the Masters as a friend? SACHS That would be fine – still to be his friend! He before whom everyone felt so small!

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Den Junker Hochmut, lasst ihn laufen! Mag er durch die Welt sich raufen; was wir erlernt mit Not und Müh, dabei lasst uns in Ruhe verschnaufen, hier renn’ er uns nichts über’n Haufen; sein Glück ihm anderswo erblüh’! EVA (erhebt sich zornig) Ja! anderswo soll’s ihm erblühn, als bei euch garst’gen, neid’schen Mannsen, – wo warm die Herzen noch erglühn, trotz allen tück’schen Meister Hansen! – (zu Magdalene) Gleich, Lene, gleich! Ich komme schon! Was trüg’ ich hier für Trost davon? Da riecht’s nach Pech, dass Gott erbarm’! – Brennt’ er’s lieber, da würd’ er doch warm!

[22a]

(Sie geht sehr aufgeregt mit Magdalene über die Straße hinüber und verweilt in großer Unruhe unter der Türe des Hauses.) SACHS (sieht ihr mit bedeutungsvollem Kopfnicken nach) Das dacht’ ich wohl. Nun heißt’s: schaff’ Rat! (Er ist während des Folgenden damit beschäftigt, auch die obere Ladentür so weit zu schließen, dass sie nur ein wenig Licht noch durchlässt: er selbst verschwindet so fast gänzlich.) MAGDALENE Hilf Gott! Wo bliebst du nur so spat! Der Vater rief. EVA Geh’ zu ihm ein: ich sei zu Bett, im Kämmerlein. MAGDALENE Nicht doch, – hör’ mich! – Komm’ ich dazu? Beckmesser fand mich, er lässt nicht Ruh’: zur Nacht sollst du dich ans Fenster neigen, er will dir was Schönes singen und geigen, mit dem er dich hofft zu gewinnen, das Lied ob das dir nach Gefallen geriet.

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Squire High and Mighty, let him go! May he fight his way through the world; what we learnt with toil and care let him leave us in peace to enjoy it; let him not run amok among us, but may Fortune smile upon him somewhere else. EVA (rising angrily) Yes, it shall smile upon him somewhere other than among you nasty, jealous little men; a place where hearts still glow warm, in spite of all the malicious Master Hanses! (to Magdalene) At once, Lena! At once! I’m on my way! What comfort could I take from here? It stinks of pitch here, may God have mercy! Let him burn it, then at least he’d grow warm!

[22a]

(Very upset, she crosses the street hastily with Magdalene and remains in great agitation at her own door.) SACHS (looks after her with a meaningful nod of his head) I thought as much. That means: give help! (During the following he is busy closing the upper half of his shop door too, so as to leave only a little crack of light showing. He himself remains almost invisible.) MAGDALENE Good Heavens! Where are you, so late? Your father was calling. EVA Go in to him: say I’m in bed in my little chamber. MAGDALENE No, no! Hear me! Let me have my word. Beckmesser found me: he gives me no peace, tonight you are to be at your window, he wants to sing and play you something beautiful, the song with which he hopes to win you, to see if it pleases you.

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EVA Das fehlte auch noch! – Käme nur er! MAGDALENE Hast David gesehn? EVA Was soll mir der? (Sie späht aus.) MAGDALENE (für sich) Ich war zu streng; er wird sich grämen. EVA Siehst du noch nichts? MAGDALENE (tut, als spähe sie) ’s ist als ob Leut’ dort kämen. EVA Wär’ er’s! MAGDALENE Mach’, und komm’ jetzt hinan! EVA Nicht eh’r, bis ich sah den teuersten Mann! MAGDALENE Ich täuschte mich dort, er war es nicht. Jetzt komm’, sonst merkt der Vater die Geschicht’! EVA Ach! meine Angst! MAGDALENE Auch lass uns beraten, wie wir des Beckmessers uns entladen! EVA Zum Fenster gehst du für mich. (Sie lauscht.) MAGDALENE Wie ich? – (für sich) Das machte wohl David eiferlich? Er schläft nach der Gassen: – Hihi! ’s wär’ fein! –

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EVA That’s all I needed! If only he would come! MAGDALENE Have you seen David? EVA What’s he to me? (She looks out.) MAGDALENE (aside) I was too harsh; he’ll fret. EVA Do you see nothing yet? MAGDALENE (pretending to look out) There seems to be someone coming. EVA Would it were he! MAGDALENE Come, let’s go in! EVA Not until I’ve seen the dearest of men! MAGDALENE I was mistaken, it wasn’t him. Come now, or your father will notice something! EVA Ah! How anxious I am! MAGDALENE And we must also discuss how to get rid of Beckmesser. EVA You’ll go to the window in my place. (She listens out.) MAGDALENE What, me? (to herself) Wouldn’t that make David jealous? He sleeps on the alley side! Ha! That would be fine!

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EVA Da hör’ ich Schritte. MAGDALENE (zu Eva) Jetzt komm’, es muss sein. EVA Jetzt näher! MAGDALENE Du irrst; ’s nichts, ich wett’. Ei, komm’! Du musst, bis der Vater zu Bett. POGNERS STIMME (von innen) He! Lene! Eva! MAGDALENE ’s ist höchste Zeit. (Sie zieht die sich sträubende Eva am Arm die Stufen zur Tür hinauf.) Hörst du’s? Komm’! Dein Ritter ist weit!

[16a]

Fünfte Szene (Walther ist die Gasse heraufgekommen; jetzt biegt er um die Ecke herum.) EVA (erblickt Walther) Da ist er! (Sie reißt sich von Magdalene los und stürzt Walther auf die Straße entgegen.) MAGDALENE Da haben wir’s! – Nun heißt’s: gescheit! (Sie geht eilig in das Haus.) EVA (außer sich)   Ja, ihr seid es!   nein, du bist es!   Alles sag’ ich,   denn ihr wisst es;   alles klag’ ich,   denn ich weiß es:   ihr seid beides,   Held des Preises,   und mein einz’ger Freund!

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EVA I hear footsteps there. MAGDALENE (to Eva) Come now, you must! EVA Even nearer! MAGDALENE You’re wrong! It’s nothing, I’ll wager, Oh come! You must, till your father’s in bed. POGNER’S VOICE (calling within) Hey! Lena! Eva! MAGDALENE It’s high time! (She tries to drag Eva by the arm up the steps to the door.) Do you hear? Come! Your knight is far away.

[16a]

Scene Five (Walther has come up the alley and now turns the corner by Pogner’s house.) EVA (seeing Walther) There he is! (She tears herself free from Magdalene and rushes towards Walther.) MAGDALENE That’s that! This means: be cunning! (She hurries into the house.) EVA (beside herself)   Yes, it is you,   it is you!   I’ll tell everything,   for you know it;   I’ll bewail everything,   for I know it;   you are both   hero of the prize   and my only friend.

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WALTHER (leidenschaftlich)   Ach, du irrst: bin nur dein Freund,   doch des Preises   noch nicht würdig,   nicht den Meistern   ebenbürtig:   mein Begeistern   fand Verachten,   und ich weiß es,   darf nicht trachten   nach der Freundin Hand. EVA Wie du irrst! Der Freundin Hand,   erteilt nur sie den Preis, wie deinen Mut ihr Herz erfand,   reicht sie nur dir das Reis. WALTHER Ach, nein! Du irrst: der Freundin Hand,   wär’ keinem sie erkoren, wie sie des Vaters Wille band,   mir wär’ sie doch verloren! „Ein Meistersinger muss es sein; nur, wen ihr krönt, den darf sie frei’n!“ So sprach er festlich zu den Herrn; kann nicht zurück, möcht’ er auch gern! –   Das eben gab mir Mut: wie ungewohnt mir alles schien,   ich sang voll Lieb’ und Glut, dass ich den Meisterschlag verdien’. –   Doch, diese Meister! – (wütend)                    

Ha! diese Meister! – Dieser Reimgesetze Leimen und Kleister! – Mir schwillt die Galle, das Herz mir stockt, denk’ ich der Falle, darein ich gelockt. Fort, in die Freiheit! Dahin gehör’ ich, – dort, wo ich Meister im Haus.

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WALTHER (passionately)   Alas, you’re wrong! I’m only your friend,   not yet worthy   of prize,   not the equal   of the Masters:   my enthusiasm   met with contempt,   and I know   I may not aspire   to my fair friend’s hand! EVA How wrong you are! Your friend’s hand   alone will award the prize; as her heart has discovered your courage,   only to you will she give the garland. WALTHER Alas! No, you’re wrong! My friend’s hand,   even if it were destined for no one in particular, would, bound by her father’s will,   still be lost to me. ‘It must be a Mastersinger: only the man you crown may she woo!’ Thus he spoke solemnly to the gentlemen, and can’t turn back, even if he wanted to!   That’s what gave me courage; though everything seemed strange to me   I sang full of love and ardour that I might win the rank of Master.   But these Masters! (furiously)                    

Ha, these Masters! The gluey, sticky nature of these rhyming laws! My gall rises, my heart stands still, when I think of the trap into which I was lured! Away to freedom! That’s where I belong – where I’m master in the house!

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Soll ich dich frei’n heut’, dich nun beschwör’ ich, flieh’ und folg’ mir hinaus! Nichts steht zu hoffen; keine Wahl ist offen! – Überall Meister, wie böse Geister, seh’ ich sich rotten, mich zu verspotten: mit den Gewerken, aus den Gemerken, aus allen Ecken, auf allen Flecken, seh’ ich zu Haufen Meister nur laufen, mit höhnendem Nicken frech auf dich blicken, in Kreisen und Ringeln dich umzingeln, näselnd und kreischend, zur Braut dich heischend, als Meisterbuhle auf dem Singestuhle zitternd und bebend, hoch dich erhebend! – Und ich ertrüg’ es, sollt’ es nicht wagen, gradaus tüchtig drein zu schlagen?

(Man hört den starken Ruf eines Nachtwächterhorns. Walther hat mit emphatischer Gebärde die Hand an das Schwert gelegt und starrt wild vor sich hin. Schrei)  

Ha![25]

(Eva fasst ihn besänftigend bei der Hand.) EVA Geliebter, spare den Zorn; ’s war nur des Nachtwächters Horn. –   Unter der Linde   birg dich geschwinde; hier kommt der Wächter vorbei. MAGDALENE (ruft leise unter der Türe) Evchen! ’s ist Zeit: mach’ dich frei!

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If I’m to woo you today, I beseech you now, come, and follow me away from here! There’s nothing to hope for, there’s no choice! Everywhere Masters I see like evil spirits, ganging up to mock me: with their guilds, from Marker’s boxes, from every corner, in every spot I see nothing but Masters crowding together, with scornful nods gazing insolently at you, surrounding you in circles and rings, nasally and shrilly demanding you as their bride, as Master’s mistress in the Singer’s chair lifting you trembling and quaking up on high! Should I suffer this, should I not dare bravely to pitch into the fight?

(The loud sound of a Nightwatchman’s horn is heard. Walther claps his hand to his sword and stares wildly before him. Shouting)  

Ha![25]

(Eva takes him soothingly by the hand.) EVA Beloved, spare your anger! It was only the Nightwatchman’s horn.   Beneath the lime tree   hide yourself quickly: the watchman is coming. MAGDALENE (calling softly at the door) Eva! It’s time! Take your leave!

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WALTHER Du fliehst? EVA (lächelnd) Muss ich denn nicht? WALTHER Entweichst? EVA (mit zarter Bestimmtheit) Dem Meistergericht. (Sie verschwindet mit Magdalene im Hause.) NACHTWÄCHTER (ist währenddem in der Gasse erschienen, kommt singend nach vorn, biegt um die Ecke von Pogners Haus und geht nach links zu weiter ab) Hört’, ihr Leut’, und lasst euch sagen, die Glock’ hat zehn geschlagen: bewahrt das Feuer und auch das Licht, dass niemand kein Schad’ geschieht.   Lobet Gott den Herrn! – SACHS (welcher hinter der Ladentüre dem Gespräche gelauscht, öffnet jetzt bei eingezogenem Lampenlicht ein wenig mehr) [22a] Üble Dinge, die ich da merk’: eine Entführung gar im Werk? [25] Aufgepasst! Das darf nicht sein. – WALTHER (hinter der Linde) Käm’ sie nicht wieder? O, der Pein! (Eva kommt in Magdalenes Kleidung aus dem Hause. Die Gestalt gewahrend.) Doch ja, sie kommt dort? – Weh’ mir! – nein! – (Eva erblickt Walther und eilt auf ihn zu.) die Alte ist’s. – Doch – aber – ja! EVA Das tör’ge Kind, da hast du’s, da! (Sie wirft sich ihm heiter an die Brust.) WALTHER (hingerissen) O Himmel! ja, nun wohl ich weiß, dass ich gewann den Meisterpreis.

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WALTHER You’ll flee? EVA (smiling) Shouldn’t I? WALTHER Escape? EVA (with soft resolution) From the Masters’ court. (She disappears with Magdalene into the house.) NIGHTWATCHMAN (has meanwhile appeared in the alley, comes forward singing, turns the corner of Pogner’s house, and goes off to the left) Hear, people, what I say, the clock has struck ten; guard your fire and also your light, so that no one comes to harm!   Praise God the Lord! SACHS (who has listened to the foregoing from behind his shop door, now opens it a little wider, having shaded his lamp) [22a] Wicked goings-on, I see: an elopement afoot, indeed? [25] Watch out: that must not be! WALTHER (behind the lime tree) Will she not return? Oh what torment! (Eva comes from the house in Magdalene’s dress. Seeing the figure.) But yes! Is that her? Woe is me, no! (Eva sees Walther and hurries towards him.) It’s the older one! But it… yes! EVA The foolish child: you’ve got her – there she is! (She runs happily into his arms.) WALTHER (enraptured) Oh Heavens! Yes, now I surely know that I’ve won the Master prize.

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EVA   Doch nun kein Besinnen!   Von hinnen! Von hinnen!   O, wären wir schon fort! WALTHER Hier durch die Gasse, dort finden wir vor dem Tor Knecht und Rosse vor.

[22a]

(Als sich beide wenden, um in die Gasse einzubiegen, lässt Sachs, nachdem er die Lampe hinter eine Glaskugel gestellt, durch die ganz wieder geöffnete Ladentüre einen grellen Lichtschein quer über die Straße fallen, so dass Eva und Walther sich plötzlich hell erleuchtet sehen.) EVA (Walther hastig zurückziehend) O weh’! Der Schuster! – Wenn der uns säh! – Birg dich, – komm’ ihm nicht in die Näh’! WALTHER Welch’ and’rer Weg führt uns hinaus?

[25]

EVA Dort durch die Straße; doch der ist kraus, ich kenn’ ihn nicht gut; auch stießen wir dort auf den Wächter. WALTHER Nun denn: durch die Gasse. EVA Der Schuster muss erst vom Fenster fort. WALTHER Ich zwing’ ihn, dass er’s verlasse. EVA Zeig dich ihm nicht: er kennt dich. WALTHER Der Schuster? EVA ’s ist Sachs. WALTHER Hans Sachs? Mein Freund! EVA Glaub’s nicht! Von dir Übles zu sagen nur wusst’ er.

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EVA   But no time for thought now!   Away, away from here!   Oh, if only we were already far away! WALTHER This way, through the alley: there beyond the gate we’ll find servant and horses.

[22a]

(As they turn towards the alley, Sachs places his lamp behind a glass bowl and sends a bright stream of light through the newly wide-open door across the street, so that Eva and Walther suddenly find themselves illuminated.) EVA (hastily pulling Walther back) Oh dear, the cobbler! If he were to see us! Hide! Don’t go near him! WALTHER What other way will lead us out of here?

[25]

EVA Through the street there: but it’s winding and I don’t know it well; and we would bump into the Nightwatchman there. WALTHER Well then, through the alley! EVA Not till the cobbler leaves his window. WALTHER I’ll make him leave it. EVA Don’t show yourself to him: he knows you! WALTHER The cobbler? EVA It’s Sachs! WALTHER Hans Sachs? My friend? EVA Don’t believe it! He could only speak ill of you.

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Sechste Szene WALTHER Wie? Sachs? Auch er? – Ich lösch’ ihm das Licht. – (Beckmesser ist, dem Nachtwächter nachschleichend, die Gasse heraufgekommen, hat nach den Fenstern von Pogners Haus gespäht und an Sachsens Haus angelehnt, zwischen den beiden Fenstern einen Steinsitz sich ausgesucht, auf welchem er sich, immer nach dem gegenüberliegenden Fenster aufmerksam lugend, niedergelassen hat: jetzt stimmt er seine mitgebrachte Laute.) EVA Tu’s nicht! – Doch horch! – WALTHER Einer Laute Klang. EVA Ach! meine Not! (Als Sachs den ersten Ton der Laute vernommen, hat er, von einem plötzlichen Einfall erfasst, das Licht wieder etwas eingezogen und öffnet leise den unteren Teil des Ladens.) WALTHER Wie, wird dir bang? Der Schuster, sieh! zog ein das Licht: so sei’s gewagt! EVA Weh’! Siehst du denn nicht? Ein andrer kam, und nahm dort Stand. WALTHER Ich hör’s und seh’s: ein Musikant. Was will der hier so spät des Nachts? EVA (in Verzweiflung) ’s ist Beckmesser schon! SACHS (hat unvermerkt seinen Werktiscb ganz unter die Tür gestellt; jetzt erlauscht er Evas Ausruf) Aha! – ich dacht’s. (Er setzt sich leise zur Arbeit zurecht.)

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Scene Six WALTHER What, Sachs? Him too? I’ll put out his light! (Beckmesser has slunk up the alley behind the watchman, peered up at Pogner’s windows and now, leaning against Sachs’s house, sought out a stone seat between the two windows. Here, always looking up attentively at the window opposite, he sits down and tunes the lute he has brought with him.) EVA Don’t do it! But listen! WALTHER The sound of a lute? EVA Ah, what trouble I’m in! (On hearing the first sounds of the lute, Sachs has, as if struck by a new idea, withdrawn his light and gently opened the lower half of his shop door.) WALTHER What, are you afraid? The cobbler… look, he’s taken in the light: let’s risk it! EVA Alas! Don’t you see? Someone else has come and taken up position there. WALTHER I hear and see – a musician. What does he want here so late at night? EVA (in despair) It’s Beckmesser already! SACHS (has placed his workbench, unnoticed, on the threshold. He now hears Eva’s exclamation.) Aha! I thought so! (He quietly settles down to work.)

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WALTHER Der Merker? Er? In meiner Gewalt? D’rauf zu! Den Lung’rer mach’ ich kalt. EVA Um Gott! So hör’! Willst du den Vater wecken? Er singt ein Lied, – dann zieht er ab. – Lass dort uns im Gebüsch verstecken! – Was mit den Männern ich Müh’ doch hab’! – (Sie zieht Walther hinter das Gebüsch auf die Bank unter der Linde. Beckmesser, eifrig nach dem Fenster lugend, klimpert voll Ungeduld heftig auf der Laute. Als er sich endlich auch zum Singen rüstet, schlägt Sachs sehr stark mit dem Hammer auf den Leisten, nachdem er soeben das Licht wieder hell auf die Straße hat fallen lassen.) SACHS   Jerum! Jerum!   Hallohallohe!   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he! –

[11, 29]

BECKMESSER (springt ärgelich von dem Steinsitz auf, und gewahrt Sachs bei der Arbeit)   Was soll das sein? –   Verdammtes Schrei’n! SACHS   Als Eva aus dem Paradies   von Gott dem Herrn verstoßen,   gar schuf ihr Schmerz der harte Kies   an ihrem Fuß, dem bloßen. BECKMESSER   Was fällt dem groben Schuster ein? SACHS   Das jammerte den Herrn,   ihr Füßchen hatt er gern: und seinem Engel rief er zu: da, mach’ der armen Sünd’rin Schuh’… WALTHER (flüsternd zu Eva) Was heißt das Lied? Wie nennt er dich?

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WALTHER The Marker? Him? In my power? At him! I’ll knock that good-for-nothing cold! EVA For God’s sake! Will you wake my father? He’ll sing a song and then he’ll go. Let’s hide there, in the bushes. What trouble I have with men! (She draws Walther behind the bushes onto the bench under the lime tree. Beckmesser, filled with impatience, tinkles on his lute, throwing eager glances up at the window. As he is about to begin his song, Sachs, after letting his light fall brightly on the street again, hammers very loudly on his last.) SACHS   Jerum! Jerum!   Hallohallohe!   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he!

[11, 29]

BECKMESSER (jumps up angrily from the stone bench and sees Sachs at work)   What’s all this   damned yelling? SACHS   When Eva was driven from Paradise   by God the Lord,   the hard gravel caused pain   to her bare foot. BECKMESSER   What’s the boorish cobbler thinking of? SACHS   The Lord took pity,   he liked her little foot and he called to his angel: ‘to make shoes for the poor sinner…’ WALTHER (whispering to Eva) What’s this song? How come he names you?

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EVA Ich hört’ es schon; ’s geht nicht auf mich: doch eine Bosheit steckt darin. SACHS …und da der Adam, wie ich seh’, an Steinen dort sich stößt die Zeh’,   dass recht fortan   er wandeln kann,   so miss dem auch Stiefeln an! WALTHER Welch’ Zögernis! Die Zeit geht hin! BECKMESSER (tritt zu Sachs heran) Wie, Meister? Auf? Noch so spät zur Nacht? SACHS Herr Stadtschreiber! Was? Ihr wacht? – Die Schuh’ machen euch große Sorgen? Ihr seht, ich bin dran: ihr habt sie morgen! – (Er arbeitet) BECKMESSER (zornig)   Hol’ der Teufel die Schuh’! SACHS   Jerum! BECKMESSER   Hier will ich Ruh’! SACHS   Hallohallohe!   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! Ohe! O Eva! Eva! schlimmes Weib,   das hast du am Gewissen, dass ob der Füß’ am Menschenleib   jetzt Engel schustern müssen! WALTHER (wie vorher)   Uns, oder dem Merker,   wem spielt er den Streich?

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EVA I’ve heard it before: it’s not about me. But there’s mischief behind it. SACHS ‘…and as Adam, as I see, bangs his toe against the stones –   so that in future   he can walk properly:   measure him for boots as well!’ WALTHER What a delay! Time is passing! BECKMESSER (to Sachs) What, Master? Up? So late at night? SACHS Herr Town Clerk! What, you’re keeping watch? The shoes are causing you much worry? You see, I’m at it; you’ll have them tomorrow. (He continues his work.) BECKMESSER (furiously)   The devil take the shoes! SACHS   Jerum! BECKMESSER   I want some peace here! SACHS   Hallohallohe!   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he! O Eva! Eva! Wicked woman,   thou hast it on thy conscience that, by reason of the feet of the human body,   angels must now cobble! WALTHER (whispering)   Us or the Marker –   on whom is he playing tricks?

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EVA      

Ich fürcht’, uns dreien gilt er gleich. O weh’, der Pein! Mir ahnt nichts Gutes.

SACHS   Bliebst du im Paradies… WALTHER   Mein süßer Engel, sei guten Mutes! SACHS   da gab es keinen Kies… EVA  

Mich betrübt das Lied.

WALTHER   Ich hör’ es kaum;   du bist bei mir:   welch holder Traum! (Er zieht Eva zärtlich an sich.) SACHS …um deiner jungen Missetat, hantier’ ich jetzt mit Ahl’ und Draht, und ob Herrn Adams übler Schwäch’ versohl’ ich Schuh’ und streiche Pech!   Wär’ ich nicht fein   ein Engel rein,   Teufel möcht’ Schuster sein!   Je… (sich unterbrechend) BECKMESSER (drohend auf Sachs zufahrend)   Gleich höret auf!   Spielt ihr mir Streich’?   Bleibt ihr tags   und nachts euch gleich? SACHS        

Wenn ich hier sing’, was kümmert’s euch? Die Schuhe sollen doch fertig werden?

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EVA      

I’m afraid it’s meant for all three of us. Alas, what torment! I fear some ill.

SACHS   When thou went in Paradise… WALTHER   My sweet angel, be of good cheer! SACHS   …there was no gravel… EVA  

The song is making me sad.

WALTHER   I scarcely hear it;   you are at my side:   what a lovely dream! (He gently pulls Eva towards him.) SACHS …because of thy recent misdeed I now busy myself with awl and thread, and because of Adam’s wretched weakness I sole shoes and apply pitch!   If I were not   a pure angel –   the Devil could be a cobbler!   Je… (interrupting himself) BECKMESSER (coming threateningly towards him)   Stop this minute!   Are you playing tricks on me?   Are you day   and night the same? SACHS        

If I sing here, what’s that to you? The shoes must be finished, eh?

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BECKMESSER   So schließt euch ein,   und schweigt dazu still! SACHS              

Des Nachts arbeiten macht Beschwerden; wenn ich da munter bleiben will, da brauch’ ich Luft und frischen Gesang: drum hört, wie der dritte

(Er wichst den Draht ersichtlich.)    

Vers gelang! Jerum! Jerum!

BECKMESSER Er macht mich rasend! SACHS   Hallo hallohe! BECKMESSER Das grobe Geschrei! SACHS   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he! BECKMESSER Am End’ denkt sie gar, dass ich das sei! (Er hält sich die Ohren zu und geht verzweiflungsvoll, sich mit sich beratend, die Gasse vor dem Fenster auf und ab.) SACHS O Eva! hör’ mein’ Klageruf,   mein’ Not und schwer Verdrüßen! Die Kunstwerk’, die ein Schuster schuf,   sie tritt die Welt mit Füßen!   Gäb’ nicht ein Engel Trost,   der gleiches Werk erlost, und rief mich oft ins Paradies, wie ich da Schuh’ und Stiefel ließ! Doch wenn mich der im Himmel hält, dann liegt zu Füßen mir die Welt,

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BECKMESSER   Then shut yourself in   and keep quiet! SACHS              

To work at night is irksome. If I’m to keep awake I need air and lively song; so hear how the third

(Ostentatiously he waxes his thread.)    

verse goes: Jerum! Jerum!

BECKMESSER He’s driving me mad! SACHS   Hallo hallohe! BECKMESSER What a hideous yelling! SACHS   O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he! BECKMESSER She’ll end up by thinking it’s me! (He covers his ears and walks up and down the street beneath the window, in desperate deliberation with himself.) SACHS O Eva, hear my lamentation,   my trouble and heavy vexation! The works of art which a cobbler created   the world treads underfoot!   If an angel did not bring comfort   who has drawn the lot of similar work and did not often call me into Paradise, how gladly I’d leave shoes and boots behind! But when he has me in heaven the world lies at my feet,

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und bin in Ruh’ Hans Sachs, ein Schuhmacher und Poet dazu!

BECKMESSER (späht nach dem Fenster, welches leise geöffnet wird und an welchem vorsichtig Magdalene in Evas Kleidung sich zeigt) Das Fenster geht auf! Herr Gott! ’s ist sie. – EVA (mit großer Aufregung) Mich schmerzt das Lied, ich weiß nicht wie! O fort! Lass uns fliehen! WALTHER (das Schwert halb ziehend) Nun denn: mit dem Schwert! EVA Nicht doch! Ach halt! WALTHER (die Hand vom Schwert nehmend) Kaum wär’ er’s wert. EVA Ja, besser Geduld! O bester Mann! Dass ich so Not dir machen kann! BECKMESSER Jetzt bin ich verloren, singt der noch fort! (Er tritt zu Sachs an den Laden heran und klimpert während des Folgenden, mit dem Rücken der Gasse zugewendet, seitwärts auf der Laute, um Magdalene am Fenster festzuhalten.) Freund Sachs! So hört doch nur ein Wort! – WALTHER (leise zu Eva) Wer ist am Fenster? EVA (leise)

’s ist Magdalene.

BECKMESSER Wie seid ihr auf die Schuh’ versessen! Ich hatt’ sie wahrlich schon vergessen. – Als Schuster seid ihr mir wohl wert, als Kunstfreund doch weit mehr verehrt. WALTHER Das heiß’ ich vergelten. Fast muss ich lachen.

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and I am at peace – Hans Sachs, a shoemaker and a poet too!

BECKMESSER (peers at the window, which opens quietly and at which Magdalene shows herself cautiously, dressed in Eva’s clothes) The window is opening! Good Heavens! It’s her. EVA (greatly agitated) The song grieves me, I don’t know why! Away, let us flee! WALTHER (half-drawing his sword) All right then: with the sword! EVA No, no! Ah, stop! WALTHER (taking his hand from his sword) He’s scarcely worth it! EVA Yes, patience is better! Oh dearest man! That I can cause you such distress! BECKMESSER Now I’m lost if he carries on singing! (He goes to Sachs’s shop door and, during the following, with his back turned to the alley, he strums sideways on the lute to keep Magdalene at the window.) Friend Sachs! Hear just one word! WALTHER (softly to Eva) Who’s at the window? EVA (softly)

It’s Magdalene.

BECKMESSER How keen you are about the shoes! I had honestly forgotten them. I certainly esteem you as a cobbler, and as an artist I venerate you more highly still. WALTHER That serves him right. I can scarcely help laughing.

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EVA Wie ich ein End’ und Flucht mir ersehne! WALTHER Ich wünscht’, er möchte den Anfang machen. (Walther und Eva, auf der Bank sanft aneinender gelehnt, verfolgen des weiteren den Vorgang zwischen Sachs und Beckmesser mit wachsender Teilnahme.) BECKMESSER Eu’r Urteil, glaubt, das halt’ ich hoch; (Er klimpert wiederholt seitwärts nach dem Fenster gewandt.) drum bitt’ ich, hört das Liedlein doch, mit dem ich morgen möcht gewinnen, ob das auch recht nach eu’ren Sinnen. SACHS O ha! Wollt mich beim Wahne fassen? Mag mich nicht wieder schelten lassen. – Seit sich der Schuster dünkt Poet, gar übel es um eu’r Schuhwerk steht:   ich seh’, wie’s schlappt,   und überall klappt;   d’rum lass ich Vers’ und Reim’   gar billig nun daheim, Verstand und Witz und Kenntnis dazu, mach’ euch für morgen die neuen Schuh’! BECKMESSER (kreischend) Lasst das doch sein! Das war ja nur Scherz. Vernehmt besser, wie’s mir ums Herz. –   Vom Volk seid ihr geehrt,   auch der Pognerin seid ihr wert:   will ich vor aller Welt   nun morgen um die werben,   sagt! könnt’s mich nicht verderben,   wenn mein Lied ihr nicht gefällt?   Drum hört mich ruhig an,   und sang ich, sagt mir dann,   was euch gefällt, was nicht, –   dass ich mich darnach richt’!

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EVA How I long for an end to this, and escape! WALTHER I wish he’d make a start. (Walther and Eva, gently pressed against each other on the bench, now watch what happens between Sachs and Beckmesser with growing interest.) BECKMESSER Your judgement, believe me, I value highly; (Again, he repeatedly strums sideways on his lute, turning towards the window.) so I beg you: listen to this little song with which I would like to win tomorrow, and say whether it seems all right to you. SACHS Ah! So you want to keep me under an illusion? I don’t want to be scolded again. Since the cobbler fancies himself as a poet, things look bad for your footwear;   I can see how sloppy they are.   They flap everywhere:   so I’ll now sensibly   leave verse and rhymes at home, reason and wit and knowledge too, and make your new shoes for tomorrow. BECKMESSER (screeching) Let that be! That was only a joke; better you should hear what’s on my mind!   You are honoured by the people,   and Pogner’s daughter esteems you:   if before everybody   I wish to woo her tomorrow,   say, might it not ruin me   if my song is not pleasing to her?   So listen to me quietly:   and when I’ve sung, you can tell me   what you like about it, and what you don’t,   so that I may change it accordingly.

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SACHS   Ei! Lasst mich doch in Ruh’!   Wie käme solche Ehr’ mir zu? Nur Gassenhauer dicht’ ich zum meisten: drum sing’ ich zur Gassen und hau auf den Leisten! – (fortarbeitend)      

Jerum! Jerum! Hallohallohe! O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he! –

BECKMESSER Verfluchter Kerl! Den Verstand verlier’ ich, mit seinem Lied voll Pech und Schmierich! Schweigt doch! Weckt ihr die Nachbarn auf? SACHS Die sind’s gewöhnt. ’s hört keiner drauf. –   O Eva, Eva! – BECKMESSER (in höchste Wut ausbrechend)   Oh, ihr boshafter Geselle!   Ihr spielt mir heut’ den letzten Streich!   Schweigt ihr jetzt nicht auf der Stelle, so denkt ihr d’ran, das schwör’ ich euch! (Er klimpert wütend.)   Neidisch seid ihr, nichts weiter,   dünkt ihr euch auch gleich gescheiter; dass andre auch ’was sind, ärgert euch schändlich: glaubt, ich kenne euch aus- und inwendlich! Dass man euch noch nicht zum Merker gewählt, das ist’s, was den gallichten Schuster quält. Nun gut! So lang’ als Beckmesser lebt, und ihm noch ein Reim an den Lippen klebt; so lang’ ich noch bei den Meistern ’was gelt’, –   ob Nürnberg blüh’ und wachs’,   das schwör’ ich Herrn Hans Sachs, nie wird er je zum Merker bestellt. SACHS (der ihm ruhig und aufmerksam zugehört bat) War das eu’r Lied? – BECKMESSER

Der Teufel hol’s!

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SACHS   Oh, leave me in peace!   Why should such honour come to me? I’ve mainly written only street songs; so I’ll sing to the street and hammer at my last. (continues to work)      

Jerum! Jerum! Hallohallohe! O ho! Tralalei! Tralalei! O he!

BECKMESSER Curse the fellow! I’m going out of my mind with his song full of pitch and grease! Shut up! Do you want to wake the neighbours? SACHS They’re used to it: no one pays attention.   O Eva, Eva! – BECKMESSER (in a fit of rage)   Oh, you spiteful fellow!   You’re playing your last trick on me today!   If you don’t shut up at once you’ll remember me, I swear to you. (He strums angrily on his lute.)   You’re jealous, nothing else,   even if you think you’re cleverer: that others count for something too vexes you dreadfully; believe me, I know you inside out! That you weren’t yet chosen as Marker – that’s what tormenting this embittered cobbler. All right then! So long as Beckmesser lives, and there’s a rhyme still on his lips, so long as I still count for something with the Masters,   whether or not Nuremberg blooms and waxes,   I swear to Herr Hans Sachs that he will never ever be appointed Marker! SACHS (who has listened with grave attention) Was that your song? BECKMESSER

The Devil take it!

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SACHS Zwar wenig Regel, doch klang’s recht stolz. BECKMESSER Wollt ihr mich hören? SACHS In Gottes Namen, singt zu: ich schlag’ auf die Sohl’ die Rahmen. BECKMESSER Doch schweigt ihr still? SACHS Ei, singet ihr, die Arbeit, schaut, fördert’s auch mir. (Er schlägt fort auf den Leisten.) BECKMESSER Das verfluchte Klopfen wollt ihr doch lassen? SACHS Wie sollt’ ich die Sohl’ euch richtig fassen! BECKMESSER Was? Ihr wollt klopfen, und ich soll singen? SACHS Euch muss das Lied, mir der Schuh gelingen. BECKMESSER Ich mag keine Schuh’! SACHS Das sagt ihr jetzt: in der Singschul’ ihr mir’s dann wieder versetzt. – Doch hört! Vielleicht sich’s richten lässt; zweieinig geht der Mensch am best’. Darf ich die Arbeit nicht entfernen, die Kunst des Merkers möcht’ ich erlernen: darin kommt euch nun keiner gleich: ich lern’ sie nie, wenn nicht von euch. D’rum, singt ihr nun, ich acht’ und merk’, und fördr’ auch wohl dabei mein Werk.

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SACHS Few rules, it’s true, but it rang out proudly! BECKMESSER Will you listen to me? SACHS In God’s name, sing: I’ll be welting the soles. BECKMESSER But you’ll be quiet? SACHS Oh, sing away, you’ll see, it will advance my work too. (He hammers loudly on his last.) BECKMESSER But won’t you stop that damned knocking? SACHS How should I fix your soles properly? BECKMESSER What, you want to hammer, and I’m to sing? SACHS You must finish the song, and I the shoe. BECKMESSER I don’t want any shoes! SACHS You say that now, in the Song School you’ll hold it against me again. But listen! Perhaps we can come to an arrangement: Man gets on best in consort. Though I may not put aside my work I should like to learn the Marker’s art: you have no equal in it; I’ll never learn it if not from you. So if you sing, I’ll note and mark, and further my work at the same time.

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BECKMESSER Merkt immer zu; und was nicht gewann, nehmt eure Kreide und streicht mir’s an. SACHS Nein, Herr! da fleckten die Schuh’ mir nicht: mit dem Hammer auf den Leisten halt’ ich Gericht. BECKMESSER Verdammte Bosheit! Gott, und’s wird spät! Am End’ mir die Jungfer vom Fenster geht! (Er klimpert eifrig.) SACHS Fanget an! ’s pressiert! Sonst sing’ ich für mich. – BECKMESSER Haltet ein! Nur das nicht! (Teufel! Wie ärgerlich!) – Wollt ihr euch denn als Merker erdreisten, nun gut, so merkt mit dem Hammer auf den Leisten: nur mit dem Beding, nach den Regeln scharf, aber nichts, was nach den Regeln ich darf. SACHS Nach den Regeln, wie sie der Schuster kennt, dem die Arbeit unter den Händen brennt. BECKMESSER Auf Meisterehr’? SACHS

Und Schustermut!

BECKMESSER Nicht einen Fehler: glatt und gut! SACHS Dann gingt ihr morgen unbeschuht! – (Nachtwächter sehr entfernt auf dem Horn) WALTHER (leise zu Eva auf den Steinsitz vor der Ladentüre deutend) Welch’ toller Spuk! Mich dünkt’s ein Traum: den Singstuhl, scheint’s, verließ ich kaum. SACHS Setzt euch denn hier!

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BECKMESSER Mark away then; and what went wrong, take your chalk and set it against me. SACHS No, sir! The shoes would make up no progress: with the hammer on the last I’ll judge you. BECKMESSER Damned malice! God, it’s getting late: the maid will end up by leaving the window! (He strums zealously.) SACHS Begin! Hurry up! Or I’ll sing to myself! BECKMESSER Stop! Anything but that! (The devil, how provoking!) If you want to make bold as Marker, very well, mark with the hammer on the last: with one condition; keep strictly to the rules; mark nothing which is according to the rules. SACHS According to the rules, as known to the cobbler, whose fingers are itching to get down to work. BECKMESSER Master’s honour? SACHS

And cobbler’s humour!

BECKMESSER Not one mistake: smooth and good! SACHS Then you’d go barefoot tomorrow. (Nightwatchman’s horn call in the far distance) WALTHER (softly to Eva, pointing to the seat in front of the shop door) What a crazy business! It’s like a dream: [25] I scarcely seem to have left the Singer’s chair. SACHS Sit down here, then!

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BECKMESSER (sich nach der Ecke des Hauses zurückziehend) Lasst mich hier stehen. SACHS Warum so weit? BECKMESSER Euch nicht zu sehen, wie’s Brauch der Schul’ vor dem Gemerk. EVA (sanft an Walthers Brust gelehnt) Die Schläf’ umwebt mir’s wie ein Wahn: ob Heil, ob’s Unheil, was ich ahn’? SACHS Da hör ich euch schlecht. BECKMESSER Der Stimme Stärk’ ich so gar lieblich dämpfen kann. (Er stellt sich ganz um die Ecke, dem Fenster gegenüber, auf und stimmt die in der Wut unversehens hinaufgeschraubte D-Saite wieder herunter.) SACHS (Wie fein!) Nun, gut denn! Fanget an! (Kurzes Vorspiel Beckmesser auf der Laute, wozu Magdalene sich breit in das Fenster legt.) BECKMESSER   „Den Tag seh’ ich erscheinen,   der mir* wohl gefall’n tut:

[30]

(Sachs schlägt auf; Beckmesser schüttelt sich.)  

da fasst mein Herz sich einen…

(Er setzt heftig ab, singt aber weiter.)  

guten und frischen“ –

(Sachs hat zweimal geschlagen: Beckmesser wendet sich wütend um die Ecke herum.)    

Treibt ihr hier Scherz? Was wär’ nicht gelungen?

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BECKMESSER (pulling back to the corner of the house) Let me stand here. SACHS Why so far off? BECKMESSER In order not to see you, as is the School custom before the Marker’s box. EVA (leaning on Walther’s breast) My brow is troubled, as if by some mad delusion: is it good or evil that I sense? SACHS I shan’t hear you well there. BECKMESSER The volume of my voice I can very charmingly modulate. (He places himself at the corner, facing the window, and retunes his lute’s D string that, in his anger, he has made sharp.) SACHS (That’s fine!) – All right then! Begin! (Beckmesser plays a short prelude during which Magdalene leans out of the window.) BECKMESSER   ‘The day I see appear,   which pleases me well;

[30]

(Sachs strikes his last; Beckmesser shivers.)  

then my heart takes to itself a…

(He starts violently, but continues.)  

good and fresh…’

(Sachs strikes his hammer once more. Beckmesser looks angrily round the corner.)    

Are you joking? What was wrong?

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SACHS   Besser gesungen:   „da fasst mein Herz   sich einen guten, frischen“ –? BECKMESSER   Wie soll sich das reimen   auf „seh’ ich erscheinen“? SACHS Ist euch an der Weise nichts gelegen? Mich dünkt’, sollt’ passen Ton und Wort? BECKMESSER Mit euch zu streiten? Lasst von den Schlägen, sonst denkt ihr mir dran! SACHS

Jetzt fahret fort.

BECKMESSER – Bin ganz verwirrt! – SACHS

So fangt noch mal an: drei Schläg’ ich jetzt pausieren kann.

BECKMESSER (beiseite)   Am besten, wenn ich ihn gar nicht beacht’:   wenn’s nur die Jungfer nicht irre macht!   „Den Tag seh’ ich erscheinen,   der mir wohl gefall’n tut;   da fasst mein Herz sich einen   guten und frischen Mut:   da denk’ ich nicht an Sterben,   lieber an Werben   um jung Mägdeleins Hand.   Warum wohl aller Tage   schönster mag dieser sein? (ärgerlich)          

Allen hier ich es sage: weil ein schönes Fräulein von ihrem lieb’n Herrn Vater, wie gelobt hat er, ich bestimmt zum Eh’stand.

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SACHS   Better to sing:   ‘then my heart   takes to itself a good, fresh…’ BECKMESSER   How’s that to rhyme   with ‘I see appear’? SACHS Don’t you care about the melody? I think tone and word should fit. BECKMESSER Who would quarrel with you? Leave the banging or you’ll have cause to remember me! SACHS

Now continue!

BECKMESSER I’m quite confused! SACHS

Then begin again: I can now rest for three taps.

BECKMESSER (aside)   I’d best pay no attention to him:   if only it doesn’t confuse the maiden!   ‘The day I see appear,   which pleases me well;   then my heart takes to itself a   good and fresh courage.   I don’t think of dying   but rather of wooing   for a young maiden’s hand.   Why of all days   the most beautiful should this one be? (angrily)          

To all here I say it: because a beautiful maiden by her dear father as vowed he has is destined for matrimony.

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(sehr ärgerlich)   Wer sich getrau’,   der komm’ und schau’   da steh’n die hold lieblich Jungfrau,   auf die ich all’ mein’ Hoffnung bau,   darum ist der Tag so schön blau,   als ich anfänglich fand.“ – (Beckmesser, der bei jedem Schlage schmerzlich zusammenzuckte, war genötig, bei Bekämpfung der inneren Wut oft den Ton, den er immer zärtlich zu halten sich bemühte, kurz und heftig auszustoßen, was das Komische seines an sich gänzlich prosodielosen Vortrages sehr vermehrte. Jetzt bricht er wütend um die Ecke auf Sachs los.)    

Sachs! Seht, ihr bringt mich um! Wollt ihr jetzt schweigen?

SACHS    

Ich bin ja stumm! Die Zeichen merkt’ ich; wir sprechen dann; derweil lassen die Sohlen sich an.

BECKMESSER (gewahrend, dass Magdalene sich vom Fenster entfernen will) Sie entweicht? – Bst! Bst! – Herr Gott, ich muss! (um die Ecke herum, die Faust gegen Sachs ballend) Sachs, euch gedenk’ ich die Ärgernuss. (Er macht sich zum zweiten Vers fertig.) SACHS (mit dem Hammer nach dem Leisten ausholend)   Merker am Ort:   fahret fort! BECKMESSER (immer stärker und atemloser)   „Will heut mir das Herz hüpfen,   werben um Fräulein jung,   doch tät’ der Vater knüpfen   daran ein’ Bedingung   für den, wer ihn beerben   will’ und auch werben   um sein Kindelein fein.   Der Zunft ein bied’rer Meister,   wohl sein Tochter er liebt,   doch zugleich auch beweist er,

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(very angrily)   Come and see   standing there,   the good, dear young lady,   on whom I set all my hope:   that is why the day is so beautifully blue,   as I at the beginning found.’ (Beckmesser, having painfully winced at each blow while trying to keep his anger under control, had to blurt out each note, which he had worked hard to hold on to softly. This made the performance of his prosodically inept song even more comical. He now furiously storms around the corner towards Sachs.)    

Sachs! Look! You’re ruining me! Won’t you be silent now?

SACHS    

Indeed I’m dumb! I was marking the faults: then we’ll talk; meanwhile the soles are coming on.

BECKMESSER (seeing that Magdalene is about to leave the window) Is she going? Psst, psst! Oh God! I must! (shaking his fist at Sachs from round the corner) Sachs! I’ll remember you for this vexation! (He gets ready for the second verse.) SACHS (already lifting his hammer for a knock on the last)   Marker in position!   Continue! BECKMESSER (even louder and more hurriedly)   ‘Today my heart will jump for joy   to woo a young lady,   but her father tied   a condition to it   for him who will inherit from him   and also woo   his fine little child.   A worthy Master of the guild,   he loves his daughter well,   but at the same time he shows

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was er auf die Kunst gibt: zum Preise muss es bringen im Meistersingen, wer sein Eidam will sein.

(Er stampft wütend mit den Füßen)   Nun gilt es Kunst,   dass mit Vergunst   ohn’ all’ schädlich gemeinen Dunst   ihm glücke des Preises Gewunst,   wer begehrt mit wahrer Inbrunst (Sachs, welcher kopfschüttelnd es aufgibt die einzelnen Fehler anzumerken, arbeitet hämmernd fort, um den Keil aus dem Leisten zu schlagen.)  

um die Jungfrau zu frei’n!’ –

SACHS (über den Laden weit berausgelehnt) Seid ihr nun fertig? BECKMESSER (in höchster Angst) Wie fraget ihr? SACHS (hält die fertigen Schuhe triumphierend heraus.) Mit den Schuhen ward ich fertig schier. – (während er die Schuhe an den Bändern hoch in der Luft tanzen lässt) Das heiß’ ich mir echte Merkerschuh’: mein Merkersprüchlein hört dazu! – (sehr kräftig)   Mit lang’ und kurzen Hieben   steht’s auf der Sohl’ geschrieben:   da lest es klar,   und nehmt es wahr,   und merkt’s euch immerdar.   Gut Lied will Takt:   wer den verzwackt,   dem Schreiber mit der Feder   hau’t ihn der Schuster auf’s Leder. –   Nun lauft in Ruh’,   habt gute Schuh’, der Fuß euch d’rin nicht knackt,   ihn hält die Sohl’ im Takt!

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what store he sets by Art: he must win the prize in the Mastersinging who will his son-in-law be.

(he angrily stamps his feet)   Now Art is needed   so that, by your leave,   and without all harmful, common deception,   the winning of the prize may succeed to him   who desires with true ardour… (Sachs who, shaking his head, gives up the marking of the faults one by one, continues his hammering and knocks out the key of his last.)  

…the maiden to woo.’

SACHS (leaning out over the shop door) Have you finished yet? BECKMESSER (in great trepidation) Why do you ask? SACHS (triumphantly holding out the finished shoes) I’ve quite finished the shoes. (as he swings the shoes in the air by their laces) I’d call them real Marker’s shoes: hear my Marker’s verse too! (very powerfully)   With long and short strokes   it is written upon the soles:   read it clearly there   and perceive it   and note it for evermore.   A good song needs rhythm;   whoever distorts it,   be it the clerk with his pen,   the cobbler will hammer it on the leather.   Now run away in peace,   you have good shoes; your foot won’t crack them:   the soles will keep it in step!

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BECKMESSER (der sich ganz in die Gasse zurückgezogen hat und an die Mauer mit dem Rücken sich anlehnt, singt, um Sachs zu übertäuben, mit größter Anstrengung, schreiend und atemlos hastig, während er die Laute wütend nach Sachs zu schwingt)                            

„Darf ich mich Meister nennen, das bewähr’ ich heut’ gern, weil ich nach dem Preis brennen muss dursten und hungern. Nun ruf’ ich die neun Musen, dass an sie blusen mein dicht’rischen Verstand. Wohl kenn’ ich alle Regeln, halte gut Maß und Zahl; doch Sprung und überkegeln wohl passiert je einmal, wann der Kopf ganz voll Zagen zu frei’n will wagen um jung Mägdeleins Hand.

(Er verschnauft sich.)   Ein Junggesell,   trug ich mein Fell, mein’ Ehr’, Amt, Würd’ und Brot zur Stell’, dass euch mein Gesang wohl gefäll’, und mich das Jungfräulein erwähl’,   wenn sie mein Lied gut fand.“ – NACHBARN (erst einige, dann immer mehrere, öffnen in der Gasse die Fenster und gucken heraus) Was heult denn da? Wer kreischt mit Macht? Ist das erlaubt, so spät zur Nacht? Gebt Ruhe hier! ’s ist Schlafenszeit. Mein’, hört nur, wie dort der Esel schreit! Ihr da! Seid still und schert euch fort! Heult, kreischt und schreit an andrem Ort! DAVID (hat den Fensterladen, dicht hinter Beckmesser, ein wenig geöffnet und lugt daraus hervor.) Wer Teufel, hier? Und drüben gar? (Er wird Magdalene gewahr.)

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BECKMESSER (who has drawn back completely into the alley and leant against the wall, continues to sing, shouting breathlessly with the greatest of efforts to drown out Sachs’s voice, swinging his lute angrily at the cobbler)                            

‘If I may call myself a Master I’ll gladly prove it today, because to burn to have the prize, I must thirst and hunger. Now I call the nine Muses that they may inspire my poetic mind. I well know all the rules, keep good time and count; but jumps and superfluities may sometimes occur when the head, quite full of hesitation, makes bold to woo for a young maiden’s hand.

(he stops for breath)   A bachelor,   I brought my skin, my honour, office, dignity and livelihood here, so that my singing may please you well and the young maiden may choose me   if she found my song good.’ NEIGHBOURS (first a few, then more, opening their windows in the alley during Beckmesser’s song and peeping out) Who’s that yelling? Who’s screeching so loud? Is that allowed so late at night? Let’s have some peace here! It’s bedtime! My, just listen to that ass braying! You there! Be quiet, and be off with you! Yell and screech and scream somewhere else! DAVID (who has opened his shutter a little, close to Beckmesser, looking out.) Who the devil’s here? And over there of all places? (He recognizes Magdalene.)

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Die Lene ist’s, – ich seh’ es klar! Herr Je! Der war’s! Den hat sie bestellt. Der ist’s, der ihr besser als ich gefällt. Nun warte, du kriegst’s! Dir streich’ ich das Fell! (Er entfernt sich nach innen.) (David ist, mit einem Knüppel bewaffnet, zurückgekommen, steigt aus dem Fenster und wirft sich auf Beckmesser. Magdalene winkt, da sie David wiederkommen sieht, diesem heftig zurück, was Beckmesser, als Zeichen des Missfallens deutend, zur äußersten Verzweiflung im Gesangsausdrucke bringt.) Siebente Szene DAVID Zum Teufel mit dir, verdammter Kerl! (Beckmesser wehrt sich, will fliehen. David hält ihn am Kragen. Sachs beobachtet noch eine Zeitlang den wachsenden Tumult, löscht aber alsbald sein Licht aus und schließt den Laden so weit, dass er, ungesehen, stets durch eine kleine Öffnung den Platz unter der Linde beobachten kann. Walther und Eva sehen mit wachsender Sorge dem anschwellenden Auflaufe zu: er schließt sie in seinen Mantel fest an sich und birgt sich hart an der Linde im Gebüsche, so dass beide fast ungesehen bleiben. Die Nachbarn verlassen die Fenster und kommen nach und nach in Nachtkleidern einzeln auf die Straße herab.) MAGDALENE (am Fenster, schreiend) Ach, Himmel! David! Gott, welche Not! Zu Hilfe! Zu Hilfe! Sie schlagen sich tot! BECKMESSER Verfluchter Bursch! Lässt du mich los? DAVID Gewiss! Die Glieder brech’ ich dir bloß! (Beckmesser und David balgen sich fortwährend; bald verschwinden sie gänzlich, bald kommen sie wieder in den Vordergrund, Beckmesser immer auf der Flucht, David ihn einholend, festhaltend und prügelnd.) NACHBARN Seht nach! Springt zu! Da würgen sich zwei! Heda! Herbei! ’s gibt Schlägerei: Ihr da, lasst los! Gebt freien Lauf! Lasst ihr nicht los, wir schlagen drauf!

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It’s Lena – I can see it clearly! Goodness! It’s the man she’s made a date with; that’s the man she prefers to me! Just wait! You’re in for it! I’ll tan your hide! (He withdraws and goes inside.) (David has armed himself with a cudgel and returned to the window, springing out and throwing himself upon Beckmesser. Magdalene as she sees David coming, gestures to him urgently to go away; Beckmesser takes this as a sign he is displeasing her, which throws his singing into the utmost despair. ) Scene Seven DAVID The Devil take you, damned churl! (Beckmesser defends himself, trying to escape. David does not let go of his collar. Sachs who, for a while, has watched the growing tumult, extinguishes his light and sets his door ajar so that, remaining unseen himself, he can still watch the place under the lime tree. Walther and Eva observe the growing riot with increasing anxiety; he has put his cloak around her and hides close to the lime tree in the bushes, so that both are nearly invisible. The neighbours leave their windows and come gradually out onto the street in their nightclothes.) MAGDALENE (crying aloud, at the window) Ah Heavens! David! Oh God, what a mess! Help! Help! They’ll kill each other! BECKMESSER Accursed boy! Let me go! DAVID Of course! I’ll break your bones for you! (Beckmesser and David continue to struggle and fight; one moment they disappear completely, the next they’re in the foreground, Beckmesser always running away, David overtaking him, holding him and cudgelling him.) NEIGHBOURS Look! Join in! They’re throttling each other! Ho there! This way! There’s a fight! You there! Let go! Clear the way! If you don’t stop, we’ll join in!

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EIN NACHBAR Ei, seht! Auch ihr hier! Geht’s euch was an? EIN ZWEITER Was sucht ihr hier? Hat man euch was getan? ERSTER NACHBAR Euch kennt man gut! ZWEITER NACHBAR Euch noch viel besser! ERSTER NACHBAR Wieso denn? ZWEITER NACHBAR (zuschlagend) Ei so! MAGDALENE David! Beckmesser! DIE LEHRBUBEN Herbei! Herbei! ’s gibt Keilerei! EINIGE Sind die Schuster. ANDERE Nein, sind die Schneider. DIE ERSTEREN Die Trunkenbolde! DIE ANDEREN Die Hungerleider! DIE NACHBARN (auf der Gasse durcheinander) Esel! Dummrian! Euch gönnt’ ich’s schon lange! Wird euch wohl bange? Das für die Klage! Seht euch vor, wenn ich schlage! Hat euch die Frau gehetzt? Schau’, wie es Prügel setzt! Seid ihr noch nicht gewitzt? So, schlagt doch! Das sitzt! Dass dich, Halunke! Wartet, ihr Racker! Ihr Maßabzwacker!

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A NEIGHBOUR Ah, look! You’re here too? What’s that to you? SECOND NEIGHBOUR What do you want here? Has anyone done anything to you? FIRST NEIGHBOUR We know your sort. SECOND NEIGHBOUR And yours even better. FIRST NEIGHBOUR What d’you mean? SECOND NEIGHBOUR (lunging) Just that! MAGDALENE David! Beckmesser! THE APPRENTICES This way! This way! There’s a fight! SOMEONE It’s the cobblers! SOMEONE ELSE No, it’s the tailors! THE FIRST GROUP The drunkards! THE SECOND GROUP The starvelings! NEIGHBOURS (variously in the street) Ass! Stupid oaf! I’ve owed you this for a long time! Are you afraid? Take that for your pains! Look out when I strike! Has your wife egged you on? Watch out for the blows. Haven’t you learnt your lesson? Well hit back! Got him! Take that, scoundrel! Wait, you rascals! Swindlers!

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Dummer Kerl! Schert euch heim! Macht euch fort! Haltet’s Maul! LEHRBUBEN (einzeln, dann kommen mehr von allen Seiten dazu) Kennt man die Schlosser nicht? Die haben’s sicher angericht’! Ich glaub’, die Schmiede werden’s sein! Nein, ’s sind die Schlosser dort, ich wett’! Ich kenn’ die Schreiner dort! Gewiss, die Metzger sind’s. Hei! Schaut die Schäffler dort beim Tanz! Dort seh’ die Bader ich im Glanz; herbei zum Tanz! Immer mehr! ’s gibt große Keilerei! Krämer finden sich zur Hand mit Gerstenstang’ und Zuckerkand; mit Pfeffer, Zimt, Muskatennuss,   sie riechen schön,   doch machen viel Verdruss; sie riechen schön, und bleiben gern vom Schuss.   Seht nur, der Has’!   hat überall die Nas’. Meinst du damit etwa mich? Mein’ ich damit etwa dich? Immer mehr heran! Jetzt fängt’s erst richtig an! Hei, nun geht’s Plauz! hast du nicht gesehn! Hast’s auf die Schnauz! Ha! nun geht’s: Krach! Wo es sitzt, da fleckt’s, da wächst kein Gras sobald nicht wieder nach! GESELLEN (mit Knütteln bewaffnet, kommen von verschiedenen Seiten dazu) Heda! Gesellen ’ran! Dort wird mit Zank und Streit getan; da gibt’s gewiss noch Schlägerei; Gesellen, haltet euch dabei! Gibt’s Schlägerei, wir sind dabei! ’sind die Weber! ’sind die Gerber! Die Preisverderber! Dacht’ ich mir’s doch gleich:

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Stupid fellow! Get off home! Clear off! Shut up! APPRENTICES (appearing one by one from all directions) Don’t we know those locksmiths? They’re sure to have started it! I think it’ll have been the smiths. No, it’s the locksmiths, I bet! I know those joiners! I’m sure it’s the butchers! Hey! Look at the coopers joining in the dance. I can see the barbers over there. Come along! Now there’ll be dancing! On and on! There’s great scuffle going on! Grocers turn up with barley sugar and candy sticks, with pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg,   they smell lovely,   but they disgust us; they smell lovely, and stay out of harm’s way.   Just look, that creature’s   got his nose into everything. Do you mean me? Do I mean you? There’s more of them coming! Now it’s really getting underway! Hey, off they go! Biff! Did you see that? Take that on your nose! Ha, off they go: crack! It makes a mark where it falls; No grass will grow there for a while! JOURNEYMEN (arriving from different sides, armed with cudgels) Come on, Journeymen, at ’em! There’s quarrelling and fighting going on. There’s bound to be more fighting. Journeymen, be in it! If there’s a fight we’ll be there too! It’s the weavers! It’s the tanners! Cheapjacks! I thought so:

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spielen immer Streich’. Wischt’s ihnen aus! Gebt’s denen scharf! Immer mehr, die Keilerei wird groß! Dort den Metzger Klaus kenn’ ich heraus! ’s ist morgen der Fünfte! ’brennt manchem im Haus! Herbei! Hei! Hier setzt’s Prügel! Schneider mit dem Bügel! Zünfte heraus! Bald ist der Fünfte! Nur tüchtig d’rauf und d’ran, wir schlagen los! Ihr da macht! Packt euch fort! Wir sind hier grad’ am Ort! Wollet ihr etwa den Weg uns hier verwehren? Macht Platz, wir schlagen drein! Macht euch selber fort! Gürtler! Spengler! Leimsieder! Zinngießer! Lichtsieder! Schert euch selber fort! Wir sind grad’ am Ort! Nicht gewichen! Schlagt sie nieder! Keiner weiche! Tuchscherer! Leinweber! Schlagt sie nieder! DIE MEISTER (und älteren Bürger, von verschiedenen Seiten dazukommend) Was gibt’s denn da für Zank und Streit? Das tost ja weit und breit! Gebt Ruh’ und schert nach Hause euch heim, sonst schlag’ ein Hageldonnerwetter drein! Schert euch gleich nach Hause heim! Ei, so schlag’ ein heil’ges Hageldonnerwetter drein, wollt ihr nicht gleich nach Hause heim! (Nachbarinnen haben die Fenster geöffnet und gucken heraus.)

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they’re always playing tricks! Thump them well! Give it to them properly! The fight gets fiercer and fiercer! There’s Klaus the butcher; I know him well! Tomorrow’s the fifth. Many have it too hot at home! Come here! Hey! There’s a real fight here! Tailors with their irons! Come on guilds! Soon it will be the fifth! Go to it smartly, we’re pitching in! You there! Clear off! We’ve got this spot! Are you trying to bar our way? Get out of the way, we’re pitching in! You clear off yourselves! Girdlers! Tinsmiths! Glue-boilers! Pewterers! Candlemakers! Clear off yourselves! We’re right there! Don’t budge! Beat them! Nobody’s budging! Cloth-cutters! Flax-weavers! Knock them down! THE MASTERS (and older citizens joining from different directions) What’s all this quarrelling and brawling? It’s raging far and wide! Calm down and clear off at once, all of you! Or it’ll hail thunder blows! Clear off and go home! Hey, there’ll be the devil to pay, it’ll hail thunder blows, if you don’t all clear off home! (The neighbouring women have opened the windows and are peeping out.)

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NACHBARINNEN Was ist das für Zanken und Streit? Gleich auseinander da, ihr Leut’! Wär’ nur der Vater nicht dabei! Ach, welche Not! Mein, seht nur hier! Der Lärm und Streit: ’s wird einem angst und bang!   He da! Ihr dort unten,   so seid doch nur gescheit!   Seid ihr denn alle gleich   zu Streit und Zank bereit?   Mein! Dort schlägt   sich mein Mann!   Säh’ die Not ich wohl an?   Seid ihr denn alle toll?   Sind euch vom Wein die Köpfe voll?   Hilfe! Der Vater! Der Vater!   Ach, sie hau’n ihn tot!   Peter! So höre doch!   Gott, welche Höllennot!   Hört keines mehr sein Wort!   Die Köpf’ und Zöpfe   wackeln hin und her!   Welches Toben!   Welches Krachen!   So hört doch!   Auf, schaffet Wasser her!   Da gießt’s auf die Köpf’ hinab!   Auf! schreit zu Hilfe!   Mord und Zeter!   Auf, schreit lauter:   Hilfe, Mord und Zeter! MAGDALENE (mit höchster Anstrengung) Hör’ doch nur, David! So lass doch nur den Herrn dort los, er hat mir nichts getan! Ach, welche Not! (hinabspähend) Ach, welche Not! Mein, David, ist er toll! David, hör, ’s ist Herr Beckmesser!

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WOMEN NEIGHBOURS What’s all this brawling and quarrelling? Hi! You there, go away! If only Father wasn’t in it! Ah, how dreadful! Oh my, just look here! Shrieking, fighting! It’ll frighten anyone!   Hi! You down there,   do be sensible!   Are you then all at once   ready for quarrelling and brawling?   My! That’s   my husband fighting!   Do my eyes deceive me?   Are you all mad?   Are your heads heavy with wine?   Help! Father! Father!   Ah, they’ll club him to death!   Peter, just listen!   God, what a hell of a mess!   Nobody can hear himself speak!   Heads and pigtails   are bobbing about all over!   What a row!   What a noise!   Just listen!   Come on, bring some water!   Pour it on their heads!   Come on, cry for help:   Bloody murder!   Come on, cry for help more loudly:   Bloody murder! MAGDALENE (with the greatest effort) Just listen, David! Do let the man go, he’s done nothing to me! Ah! How dreadful! (looking down) Ah! How dreadful! My! David! He is mad! David, listen! It’s Master Beckmesser!

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POGNER (ist im Nachtgewande oben an das Fenster getreten) Um Gott! Eva! Schließ zu! Ich seh’, ob unt’ im Hause Ruh’! (Er zieht Magdalene, welche jammernd die Hände nach der Gasse hinabgerungen, herein und schließt das Fenster.) WALTHER (der bisher mit Eva sich hinter dem Gebüsch verborgen, fasst jetzt Eva dicht in den linken Arm und zieht mit der rechten Hand das Schwert)   Jetzt gilt’s zu wagen,   sich durchzuschlagen! (Er dringt mit geschwungenem Schwert bis in die Mitte der Bühne vor, um sich mit Eva durch die Gasse durchzuhauen. Da springt Sachs mit einem kräftigen Satze aus dem Laden, bahnt sich mit geschwungenem Knieriemen den Weg bis zu Walther und packt diesen beim Arm.) (Sogleich mit den Eintritte des Nachtwächterhornes haben die Frauen aus allen Fenstern starke Güsse von Wasser aus Kannen, Krügen und Becken auf die Streitenden hinabstürzen lassen; dieses, mit dem besonders starken Tönen des Hornes zugleich, wirkt auf alle mit einem panischen Schrecken. Nachbarn, Lehrbuben, Gesellen und Meister suchen in eiliger Flucht nach allen Seiten hin das Weite, so dass die Bühne sehr bald gänzlich leer wird; auch die Nachbarinnen verschwinden von den Fenstern, welche sie zuschlagen.) [25] POGNER (auf der Treppe) He! Lene! Wo bist du?

[22a]

SACHS (die halb ohnmächtige Eva die Treppe hinaufstoßend)   Ins Haus, Jungfer Lene! (Pogner empfängt Eva und zieht sie am Arm in das Haus. Sachs, mit einem Knieriemen David eines überhauend und mit einem Fußtritt ihn voran in den Laden stoßend, zieht Walther, den er mit der andren Hand fest gefasst hält, gewaltsam schnell ebenfalls mit sich hinein und schließt sogleich fest hinter sich zu. Beckmesser, durch Sachs von David befreit, sucht sich, jämmerlich zerschlagen, eilig durch die Menge zu flüchten.) (Als die Straße und Gasse leer geworden und alle Häuser geschlossen sind, betritt der Nachtwächter im Vordergrunde rechts die Bühne, reibt sich die Augen, sieht sich verwundert um, schüttelt den Kopf und stimmt mit leise bebender Stimme den Ruf an.)

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POGNER (coming to the window in his nightgown) For Heaven’s sake! Eva! Close the window! I’ll see if all is quiet downstairs. (He pulls in Magdalene, who is weeping and wringing her hands in the direction of the street, and closes the window.) WALTHER (who has been hiding with Eva behind the bushes, now clasps her with his left arm and with his right hand draws his sword)   Now we must be bold   and fight our way through! (Brandishing his sword, Walther forces a way to the middle of the stage, in order to clear a path for Eva and himself through the alley, Sachs rushes with one bound out of his shop, clears the way towards Walther by swinging his knee strap and grasps him by the arm.) (At the same time as the Nightwatchman’s horn is heard, the women, using buckets, jugs and cans, have thrown showers of water down onto those fighting in the street. At an especially loud call from the horn, the men in the street take panic. Neighbours, Apprentices, Journeyman and Masters look to take hasty flight in all directions, so that in a moment the street becomes totally deserted. The women too disappear from their windows, closing them after them.) [25] POGNER (on the steps) Hey! Lena, where are you?

[22a]

SACHS (pushing the half-fainting Eva up the steps)   Get indoors, Mistress Lena! (Pogner catches Eva and pulls her by the arm into the house. Sachs, still brandishing his knee strap, now belts David one and, after kicking him into the shop, drags Walther, whom he still holds firmly by his other hand, forcibly indoors with him, closing and barring the door behind them. Beckmesser, released from David’s attentions by Sachs but pitifully beaten, seeks hasty flight through the crowd.) (When the street and the alley are empty and all houses are closed, the Nightwatchman enters in the foreground to the right of the stage. He rubs his eyes, stares about him in surprise, shakes his head and intones his cry with a slight, tremulous voice.)

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NACHTWÄCHTER Hört’, ihr Leut’, und lasst euch sagen, die Glock’ hat Eilfe geschlagen: bewahrt euch vor Gespenstern und Spuk, dass kein böser Geist eu’r Seel’ beruck’!   Lobet Gott, den Herrn!

[25, 30]

(Der Vollmond tritt hervor und scheint hell in die Gasse hinein; der Nachtwächter schreitet langsam dieselbe hinab. Als der Nachtwächter um die Ecke biegt, fällt der Vorhang schnell, genau mit dem letzten Takt.)

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NIGHTWATCHMAN Hear, people, what I say: the clock has struck eleven; beware of ghosts and spooks, that no evil spirit ensnare your soul!   Praise God, the Lord!

[25, 30]

(The full moon comes out and brightly illumines the alley. The Nightwatchman walks slowly up the alley. As he turns around the corner, the curtain closes quickly during the last bar of music.)

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DRITTER AUFZUG Vorspiel Erste Szene In Sachsens Werkstatt. Im Hintergrunde die halb geöffnete Ladentüre, nach der Straße führend. Rechts zur Seite eine Kammertüre. Links das nach der Gasse gehende Fenster mit Blumenstöcken davor; zur Seite ein Werktisch. Sachs sitzt auf einem großen Lehnstuhle an diesem Fenster, durch welches die Morgensonne hell auf ihn hereinscheint; er hat vor sich auf dem Schoße einen großen Folianten und ist im Lesen vertieft. David zeigt sich, von der Straße kommend, unter der Ladentüre; er lugt herein, und da er Sachs gewahrt, fährt er zurück. Er versichert sich aber, dass Sachs ihn nicht bemerkt, schlüpft herein, stellt seinen mitgebrachten Korb auf den hinteren Werktisch beim Laden und untersucht seinen Inhalt; er holt Blumen und Bänder hervor, kramt sie auf dem Tische aus und findet endlich auf dem Grunde eine Wurst und einen Kuchen; er lässt sich an, diese zu verzehren, als Sachs, der ihn fortwährend nicht beachtet, mit starkem Geräusch eines der großen Blätter des Folianten umwendet. [32, 33] DAVID (fährt zusammen, verbirgt das Essen und wendet sich zurück)   Gleich, Meister! Hier! –   Die Schuh’ sind abgegeben   in Herrn Beckmessers Quartier. –   Mir war’s, als rieft ihr mich eben? – (Er nähert sich, sehr demütig, langsam Sachs.)   Er tut, als säh’ er mich nicht?   Da ist er bös’, wenn er nicht spricht! –   Ach Meister! Wollt mir verzeih’n!   Kann ein Lehrbub’ vollkommen sein? Kenntet ihr die Lene, wie ich, dann vergäbt ihr mir sicherlich.

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ACT THREE Prelude Scene One The inside of Sachs’s workshop. At the back is the half-open shop door leading to the street. To the right there is a door leading to an inner room; to the left, overlooking the street, a window with flowers outside; at the side a workbench. Sachs is seated in an armchair near this window, through which the bright morning sun pours in. He has a large folio in his lap and is absorbed in reading it. David, coming along the street outside, can be seen through the door; he looks in and, as he sees Sachs, he starts back. But, having made certain Sachs has not noticed him, he slips quietly into the room. He has a basket in his hand, which he puts on the workbench near the door and goes through its contents; he takes flowers and ribbons from the basket and lays them out on the table; finally, at the bottom of the basket he finds a sausage and a cake. He prepares to eat up some of the food when Sachs, who still does not look at him, noisily turns over one of the large pages of the folio. [32, 33] DAVID (starting at the noise, hiding his food, and turning to Sachs)   Coming, Master! Here!   The shoes have been delivered   to Herr Beckmesser’s house.   I thought you just called me? (He gradually approaches Sachs, very humbly and slowly.)   He’s acting as if he hadn’t seen me!   It means he’s angry when he doesn’t speak.   Ah, Master! Will you forgive me?   Can an apprentice be perfect? If you knew Lena as I do, you would forgive me for sure.

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Sie ist so gut, so sanft für mich, und blickt mich oft an so innerlich. Wenn ihr mich schlagt, streichelt sie mich und lächelt dabei holdseliglich; muss ich karieren, füttert sie mich, und ist in allem gar liebelich! Nur gestern, weil der Junker versungen, hab’ ich den Korb ihr nicht abgerungen. Das schmerzte mich; und da ich fand, dass nachts einer vor dem Fenster stand, und sang zu ihr, und schrie wie toll, – da hieb ich ihm den Buckel voll. Wie käm’ nun da was Großes drauf an? – Auch hat’s unsrer Liebe gar wohl getan! Die Lene hat mir eben alles erklärt und zum Fest Blumen und Bänder beschert. – (Er bricht in größere Angst aus.) Ach, Meister! Sprecht doch nur ein Wort! – (beiseite) (Hätt’ ich nur die Wurst und den Kuchen erst fort!) (Sachs hat unbeirrt immer weiter gelesen. Jetzt schlägt er den Folianten zu. Von dem starken Geräusch erschrickt David so, dass er strauchelt und unwillkürlich vor Sachs auf die Knie fällt. Sachs sieht über das Buch, das er noch auf dem Schoße behält, hinweg, über David, welcher, immer auf den Knien, furchtsam nach ihm aufblickt, hin und heftet seinen Blick unwillkürlich auf den hinteren Werktisch.) [9] SACHS (sehr leise)   Blumen und Bänder seh’ ich dort:   schaut hold und jugendlich aus.   Wie kamen mir die ins Haus? DAVID (verwundert über Sachsens Freundlichkeit) Ei, Meister! ’s ist heut festlicher Tag; da putzt sich jeder, so schön er mag. SACHS (immer leise, wie für sich) Wär’ heut’ Hochzeitsfest? DAVID Ja, käm’s erst so weit, dass David die Lene freit!

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She is so good, so gentle to me, and often looks at me tenderly: when you hit me, she caresses me and smiles so sweetly the while! If I’m made to fast, she feeds me, and in every way is so lovely. Yesterday, when the knight ruined his chances I couldn’t get her to give me the basket: that hurt me; and when I found someone standing before her window at night and singing to her, and shouting like mad, I gave him a real thrashing. How could such a big fuss arise from that? And it’s certainly helped our love: Lena has just explained everything to me and given me flowers and ribbons for the festival. (breaking out in greater torment) Ah, Master! Speak just one word! (aside) (If only I’d first put away the sausage and cake!) (Sachs, who has read on undisturbed, clamps his book shut. At the loud noise David is so startled that he stumbles and falls unintentionally on his knees before Sachs. The latter gazes away beyond the book which he still holds, beyond the still-kneeling David, who looks up at him timidly, and his eyes fall involuntarily on the worktable at the back.) [9] SACHS (very softly)   Do I see flowers and ribbons there?   It looks charming and youthful!   How did they get into my house? DAVID (astonished at Sachs’s friendliness) Well, Master! Today’s a festival, so everyone puts his best things on. SACHS (softly, as if to himself) Might there be a wedding feast today? DAVID Yes, would that the time had come for David to marry Lena!

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SACHS (immer wie zuvor) ’s war Polterabend, dünkt mich doch? DAVID (für sich) (Polterabend?… Da krieg ich’s wohl noch? –) (laut) Verzeiht das, Meister; ich bitt’, vergesst! Wir feiern ja heut’ Johannisfest. SACHS Johannisfest? DAVID

(Hört er heut’ schwer?)

SACHS Kannst du dein Sprüchlein, so sag’ es her! DAVID (der allmählich wieder zu stehen gekommen) Mein Sprüchlein? Denk’, ich kann’s gut. – (beiseite) (’s setzt nichts! Der Meister ist wohlgemut). – (stark und grob) „Am Jordan Sankt Johannes stand“…

[30]

(Er hat in der Zerstreuung die Worte mit der Melodie von Beckmessers Werbelied aus dem vorhergehenden Aufzuge gesungen; Sachs macht eine verwunderte Bewegung, worauf David sich unterbricht.) SACHS Wa-was? DAVID (lächelnd) Verzeiht das Gewirr: mich machte der Polterabend irr’. (Er sammelt und stellt sich gehörig auf.) „Am Jordan Sankt Johannes stand,   all’ Volk der Welt zu taufen; kam auch ein Weib aus fernem Land,   aus Nürnberg gar gelaufen.

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SACHS (still as before) It was Polter-evening,* I think? DAVID (aside) (Polter-evening?… So I’m in for it, then?) (aloud) Forgive me, Master! Please forget! For today we celebrate St John’s Day. SACHS St John’s Day? DAVID

(Is his hearing bad today?)

SACHS Do you know your poem? Let me hear it! DAVID (who meanwhile has gradually stood up again) My poem? I think I know it well. (aside) (Nothing wrong! The Master is in a good mood!) (aloud) ‘On Jordan’s bank St John did stand’…

[30]

(In his agitation he sings his lines to the melody of Beckmesser’s serenade from the previous Act; Sachs astonished reaction puts a stop to David’s singing.) SACHS Wh-what? DAVID (smiling) Forgive the confusion! The Polter-evening led me astray. (He recovers himself and begins again.) ‘On Jordan’s bank St John did stand   to baptize all the people of the world: a woman came from a distant land,   from Nuremberg she had hastened: * A German wedding-eve tradition. See John Deathridge’s article in this guide.

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Sein Söhnlein trug’s zum Uferrand,   empfing da Tauf’ und Namen; doch als sie dann sich heimgewandt,   nach Nürnberg wieder kamen, in deutschem Land gar bald sich fand’s, dass wer am Ufer des Jordans   Johannes ward genannt,   an der Pegnitz hieß der Hans.“ (sich besinnend, feurig) Hans? Hans! Herr Meister! ’s ist heut’ eu’r Namenstag! Nein! Wie man so was vergessen mag! Hier! hier die Blumen sind für euch, – die Bänder, und was nur alles noch gleich? Ja, hier, schaut! Meister, herrlicher Kuchen! Möchtet ihr nicht auch die Wurst versuchen? – SACHS (immer ruhig, ohne seine Stellung zu verändern) Schön’ Dank, mein Jung’! Behalt’s für dich. Doch heut’ auf die Wiese begleitest du mich; mit Blumen und Bändern putz’ dich fein: sollst mein stattlicher Herold sein! DAVID Sollt’ ich nicht lieber Brautführer sein? Meister, ach! Meister, ihr müsst wieder frei’n. SACHS Hätt’st wohl gern eine Meist’rin im Haus? DAVID Ich mein’, es säh’ doch viel stattlicher aus. SACHS Wer weiß? Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat. DAVID ’s ist Zeit. SACHS Dann wär der Rat wohl auch nicht weit? DAVID Gewiss! Geh’n schon Reden hin und wieder; den Beckmesser, denk’ ich, sängt ihr doch nieder? Ich mein’, dass der heut’ sich nicht wichtig macht.

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her little son she carried to the river’s bank,   received there baptism and name; but when they then took their homeward way   and got back to Nuremberg again, in German land it soon transpired that the person who on the Jordan’s bank   was named John,   on the River Pegnitz was called Hans.’ (reflecting, impetuously) Hans? Hans! Sir! Master! It’s your name day! No! How can one forget such a thing! Here! Here, the flowers are for you, the ribbons… and what else is there now? Yes, here! Look, Master! A splendid cake! Wouldn’t you like to try the sausage too? SACHS (still dreamily, without moving) Thank you, my boy! Keep it for yourself! But today you shall accompany me to the meadow: adorn yourself with flowers and ribbons; you shall be my grand herald! DAVID Shouldn’t I rather be best man? Master! Ah, Master, you must go wooing again! SACHS Would you like to have a mistress in the house? DAVID I think it would look much grander. SACHS Who knows! Time brings wisdom. DAVID It’s time. SACHS So wisdom can’t be far away? DAVID For sure! There are rumours about already. You’d defeat Beckmesser in singing I think. I mean, he’ll hardly give himself airs today.

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SACHS Wohl möglich; hab’ mir’s auch schon gedacht. – Jetzt geh’, und stör’ mir den Junker nicht. Komm’ wieder, wenn du schön gericht’! DAVID (küsst Sachs gerührt die Hand) So war er noch nie, wenn sonst auch gut! – (Kann mir gar nicht mehr denken, wie der Knieriemen tut!) (Er packt seine Sachen zusammen und geht in die Kammer ab. Sachs, immer noch den Folianten auf dem Schoße, lehnt sich, mit untergestütztem Arm, sinnend darauf; es scheint, dass ihn das Gespräch mit David gar nicht aus seinem Nachdenken gestört hat.) SACHS   Wahn! Wahn!   Überall Wahn!   Wohin ich forschend blick’,   in Stadt- und Weltchronik,   den Grund mir aufzufinden,   warum gar bis aufs Blut   die Leut’ sich quälen und schinden   in unnütz toller Wut!   Hat keiner Lohn   noch Dank davon:   in Flucht geschlagen,   wähnt er zu jagen;   hört nicht sein eigen Schmerzgekreisch, wenn er sich wühlt ins eig’ne Fleisch,   wähnt Lust sich zu erzeigen!   Wer gibt den Namen an? –   ’s ist halt der alte Wahn,   ohn’ den nichts mag geschehen,   ’s mag gehen oder stehen!   Steht’s wo im Lauf, er schläft nur neue Kraft sich an:   gleich wacht er auf, dann schaut, wer ihn bemeistern kann!…   Wie friedsam treuer Sitten,   getrost in Tat und Werk,   liegt nicht in Deutschlands Mitten   mein liebes Nürenberg! – (Er blickt mit freudiger Begeisterung ruhig vor sich hin.)

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SACHS Quite possibly! I’ve thought about it already. Go now, and don’t disturb the knight! Come back when you’re all smart. DAVID (kisses Sachs’s hand) He’s never been like this before, though he’s usually kind! (I can’t even remember what the strap’s like!) (He collects his things and goes into the inside room. Sachs, still with the book on his knees, leans forward deep in thought, resting his head on his hand; it appears that the conversation with David did not disturb his mood of reflection.) SACHS   Madness! Madness!   Everywhere madness!   Wherever I look searchingly,   in city and world chronicles,   to seek out the reason   why, till they draw blood,   people torment and flay each other   in useless, foolish anger!   No one gets a reward   or thanks for it:   driven to flight,   he thinks he’s out hunting;   doesn’t hear his own cry of pain; when he digs into his own flesh,   he thinks he is giving himself pleasure!   Who will give it its name?   It’s just the old madness,   without which nothing can happen;   it just goes or stays around!   If it halts somewhere in its course it is only to gain new strength in sleep:   suddenly it awakens, then see who can master it!…   How peacefully with its staunch customs,   contented in deed and work,   lies, in the middle of Germany,   my dear Nuremberg! (He gazes before him, with quiet and joyful enthusiasm.)

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  Doch eines Abends spat,   ein Unglück zu verhüten   bei jugendheißen Gemüten,   ein Mann weiß sich nicht Rat;   ein Schuster in seinem Laden   zieht an des Wahnes Faden;   wie bald auf Gassen und Straßen   fängt der da an zu rasen!   Mann, Weib, Gesell und Kind   fällt sich da an wie toll und blind;   und will’s der Wahn gesegnen,   nun muss es Prügel regnen,   mit Hieben, Stoß’ und Dreschen   den Wutesbrand zu löschen. –   Gott weiß, wie das geschah?   Ein Kobold half wohl da: – ein Glühwurm fand sein Weibchen nicht; – der hat den Schaden angericht’. – Der Flieder war’s: – Johannisnacht! – Nun aber kam Johannistag! – Jetzt schaun wir, wie Hans Sachs es macht, dass er den Wahn fein lenken mag,   ein edler Werk zu tun:   denn lässt er uns nicht ruh’n,   selbst hier in Nürenberg,   so sei’s um solche Werk’, die selten vor gemeinen Dingen und nie ohn’ ein’gen Wahn gelingen.

[31]

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Zweite Szene (Walther tritt unter der Kammertür ein. Er bleibt einen Augenblick dort stehen und blickt auf Sachs. Dieser wendet sich und lässt den Folianten auf den Boden gleiten.) SACHS Grüß’ Gott, mein Junker! Ruhtet ihr noch? Ihr wachtet lang, nun schlieft ihr doch? WALTHER Ein wenig, aber fest und gut. SACHS So ist euch jetzt wohl bass zumut?

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  But one evening late,   to prevent a mishap   caused by youthful ardour,   a man knows not what to do;   a cobbler in his shop   plucks at the thread of madness:   how soon in alleys and streets   it begins to rage!   Man, woman, journeyman and child   fall upon each other as if crazed and blind;   and as if to bless madness,   it must now rain blows,   with cuts, blows and thrashings   to quench the fire of anger.   God knows how that befell!   A goblin must have helped: a glow-worm could not find its mate; he set the trouble in motion. It was the elder tree: Midsummer’s Eve! But now has come Midsummer’s Day! Now let us see how Hans Sachs manages finely to guide the madness   so as to perform a nobler work:   for if madness won’t leave us in peace   even here in Nuremberg,   then let it be in the service of such works as are seldom successful in plain activities and never so without a touch of madness.

[31]

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Scene Two (Walther enters from the inner room. He pauses a moment at the door, looking at Sachs. The latter turns and allows his book to slip to the ground.) SACHS God be with you, sir knight! You’ve rested till now? You were up late, and then you slept? WALTHER A little, but deeply and well. SACHS So you are now in good heart?

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WALTHER Ich hatt’ einen wunderschönen Traum. SACHS Das deutet Gut’s: erzählt mir den! WALTHER Ihn selbst zu denken wag’ ich kaum: ich fürcht’ ihn mir vergeh’n zu seh’n. – SACHS Mein Freund! Das grad’ ist Dichters Werk, dass er sein Träumen deut’ und merk’. Glaubt mir, des Menschen wahrster Wahn wird ihm im Traume aufgetan: – all’ Dichtkunst und Poeterei ist nichts als Wahrtraumdeuterei. Was gilt’s, es gab der Traum euch ein, wie heut’ ihr wolltet Meister sein? WALTHER Nein, von der Zunft und ihren Meistern wollt’ sich mein Traumbild nicht begeistern. – SACHS Doch lehrt’ es wohl der Zauberspruch,   mit dem Ihr sie gewännet? WALTHER Wie wähnt Ihr doch, nach solchem Bruch,   wenn ihn noch Hoffnung kennet! SACHS Die Hoffnung lass’ ich mir nicht mindern,   nichts stieß sie noch über’n Haufen; wär’s nicht, glaubt, statt eu’re Flucht zu hindern,   wär’ ich selbst mit euch fortgelaufen! Drum bitt’ ich, lasst den Groll jetzt ruh’n! Ihr habt’s mit Ehrenmännern zu tun; die irren sich, und sind bequem, dass man auf ihre Weise sie nähm’. – Wer Preise erkennt und Preise stellt, der will am End’ auch, dass man ihm gefällt. Eu’r Lied, das hat ihnen bang’ gemacht; und das mit Recht: denn wohl bedacht, mit solchem Dicht’- und Liebesfeuer verführt man wohl Töchter zu Abenteuer; –

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WALTHER I had a wonderfully beautiful dream. SACHS That bodes well! Tell it to me! WALTHER I scarcely dare even to think of it: I fear to see it vanish from me. SACHS My friend, it is precisely the poet’s task to interpret and record his dreamings. Believe me, man’s truest madness is disclosed to him in dreams: all poetry and versification is nothing but true dream interpretation. What are the odds that your dream told you how you might become a Master today? WALTHER No, from the guild and its Masters my vision did not want to take its inspiration. SACHS But it taught you the magic spell   with which you might win her? WALTHER How you delude yourself, after such a failure,   if you still cherish hope! SACHS I shan’t let my hope diminish;   nothing has yet overthrown it; were it so, then believe me, instead of hindering your flight   I would have run away with you! So please give up your resentment now! You are dealing with men of honour; they make mistakes and are content that one takes them on their own terms. He who decides prizes and offers prizes expects also that people should please him. Your song made them uneasy; and rightly so; for when you think of it, it is with such fire of poetry and love that daughters are seduced to adventure;

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doch für liebseligen Ehestand man and’re Wort’ und Weisen fand. WALTHER (lächelnd) Die kenn’ ich nun auch seit dieser Nacht: es hat viel Lärm auf der Gasse gemacht. SACHS (lachend) Ja, ja! Schon gut! Den Takt dazu hörtet ihr auch! Doch lasst dem Ruh’ und folgt meinem Rate, kurz und gut: fasst zu einem Meisterliede Mut! WALTHER Ein schönes Lied, – ein Meisterlied: wie fass’ ich da den Unterschied? SACHS (zart) Mein Freund, in holder Jugendzeit,   wenn uns von mächt’gen Trieben   zum sel’gen ersten Lieben die Brust sich schwellet hoch und weit,   ein schönes Lied zu singen,   mocht’ vielen da gelingen;   der Lenz, der sang für sie. Kam Sommer, Herbst und Winterszeit,   viel Not und Sorg’ im Leben,   manch’ eh’lich Glück daneben, Kindtauf’, Geschäfte, Zwist und Streit: –   denen’s dann noch will gelingen,   ein schönes Lied zu singen,   seht; Meister nennt man die! WALTHER (zart und begeistert) Ich lieb’ ein Weib und will es frei’n, mein dauernd Eh’gemahl zu sein. – SACHS Die Meisterregeln lernt beizeiten, dass sie getreulich euch geleiten,   und helfen wohl bewahren,   was in der Jugend Jahren,   mit holdem Triebe   Lenz und Liebe euch unbewusst ins Herz gelegt, dass ihr das unverloren hegt!

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but for loving and blissful wedlock other words and melodies were invented. WALTHER (smiling) These too I know, since last night; there was much noise in the street. SACHS (laughing) Yes, yes! Very true! Its beats too you must have heard! But let that be, and follow my advice; in short: take courage and make a Mastersong! WALTHER A beautiful song, a Mastersong: how am I to grasp the difference? SACHS (tenderly) My friend, in the sweet time of youth,   when from mighty impulse   to blissful first love the breast swells high and free,   to sing a beautiful song   many have succeeded:   the spring sang for them. But when summer, autumn and winter come,   much hardship and care in life,   much married joy as well, baptism, business, discord and strife:   whoever then can still succeed   in singing a beautiful song:   behold! He is called Master! WALTHER (tenderly and ardently) I love a woman, and will woo her to be my wife for ever. SACHS Learn the Masters’ rules in good time, that they may truly accompany you   and help you keep   what in youthful years,   with lovely impulse,   spring and love placed unawares in your heart, so that you may cherish it safely.

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WALTHER Steh’n sie nun in so hohem Ruf, wer war es, der die Regeln schuf? SACHS Das waren hochbedürft’ge Meister, von Lebensmüh’ bedrängte Geister:   in ihrer Nöten Wildnis   sie schufen sich ein Bildnis,   dass ihnen bliebe   der Jugendliebe ein Angedenken, klar und fest, d’ran sich der Lenz erkennen lässt. – WALTHER Doch, wem der Lenz schon lang’ entronnen, wie wird er dem im Bild gewonnen? SACHS Er frischt es an, so gut er kann: drum möcht’ ich, als bedürft’ger Mann,   will ich die Regeln euch lehren,   sollt ihr sie mir neu erklären. – Seht, hier ist Tinte, Feder, Papier: ich schreib’s euch auf, diktiert ihr mir! WALTHER Wie ich’s begänne, wüsst’ ich kaum. SACHS Erzählt mir euren Morgentraum. WALTHER Durch eurer Regeln gute Lehr’ ist mir’s, als ob verwischt er wär’. SACHS Grad’ nehmt die Dichtkunst jetzt zur Hand: Mancher durch sie das Verlor’ne fand. WALTHER So wär’s nicht Traum, doch Dichterei? SACHS Sind Freunde beid’, steh’n gern sich bei. WALTHER Wie fang’ ich nach der Regel an?

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WALTHER If they now stand in such high repute, who was it who made the rules? SACHS It was sorely troubled Masters, spirits oppressed by the cares of life:   in the desert of their troubles   they formed for themselves an image,   so that to them might remain   of youthful love a memory, clear and firm, in which spring can be recognized. WALTHER But the man whom spring has long since fled, how can he capture it in an image? SACHS He refreshes it as well as he can: so, as a troubled man, I should like,   if I am to teach you the rules,   you to explain them to me anew. See, here is ink, pen, paper: I’ll write it down for you if you will dictate to me. WALTHER How I should begin I scarcely know. SACHS Tell me your morning dream. WALTHER Through the good precepts of your rules I feel as if it were blurred. SACHS Then take poetry to your hand now: many found through it what was lost. WALTHER So it might be not dream, but poetry? SACHS The two are friends, gladly standing by each other. WALTHER How do I begin according to the rule?

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SACHS Ihr stellt sie selbst und folgt ihr dann. Gedenkt des schönen Traums am Morgen: fürs andre lasst Hans Sachs nur sorgen. (Walther hat sich zu Sachs am Werktisch gesetzt, wo dieser das Gedicht Walthers nachschreibt.) WALTHER (beginnt, nach kurzer Sammlung, sehr leise, wie heimlich) „Morgenlich leuchtend in rosigem Schein,   von Blüt und Duft   geschwellt die Luft,   voll aller Wonnen,   nie ersonnen,   ein Garten lud mich ein,   Gast ihm zu sein.“ – SACHS Das war ein „Stollen“; nun achtet wohl, dass ganz ein gleicher ihm folgen soll. WALTHER Warum ganz gleich? SACHS Damit man seh’, ihr wähltet euch gleich ein Weib zur Eh’. – WALTHER „Wonnig entragend dem seligen Raum,   bot gold’ner Frucht   heilsaft’ge Wucht,   mit holdem Prangen   dem Verlangen,   an duft’ger Zweige Saum,   herrlich ein Baum.“ SACHS Ihr schlosset nicht im gleichen Ton:   das macht den Meistern Pein; doch nimmt Hans Sachs die Lehr’ davon,   im Lenz wohl müss’ es so sein. – Nun stellt mir einen „Abgesang“. WALTHER Was soll nun der?

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SACHS You make it yourself, and then you follow it. Think of your beautiful dream of this morning; of the rest let Hans Sachs take care! (Walther places himself near Sachs at the workbench, who takes down the song as Walther sings it.) WALTHER (collecting himself a little, then very softly, as if secretly) ‘Shining in the rosy light of morning,   the air heavy   with blossom and scent,   full of every   unthought-of joy,   a garden invited me   as its guest.’ SACHS That was a ‘stanza’: now see to it that one just like it follows. WALTHER Why just like it? SACHS So that one can see that you’re choosing it like a wife to marry. WALTHER ‘Blissfully towering from that blessed spot,   offering golden fruits   healing, juicy abundance   with fair splendour   in response to desire   at the tips of its fragrant branches,   a glorious tree.’ SACHS You didn’t close in the same key:   that offends the Masters; but Hans Sachs will learn from it,   in spring it must be so. Now compose an ‘Aftersong’. WALTHER What is that?

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SACHS Ob euch gelang,   ein rechtes Paar zu finden,   das zeigt sich an den Kinden; den Stollen ähnlich, doch nicht gleich, an eig’nen Reim’ und Tönen reich; dass man’s recht schlank und selbstig find’, das freut die Eltern an dem Kind: und euren Stollen gibt’s den Schluss, dass nichts davon abfallen muss. – WALTHER   „Sei euch vertraut,   welch’ hehres Wunder mir gescheh’n: an meiner Seite stand ein Weib, so hold und schön ich nie geseh’n:   gleich einer Braut   umfasste sie sanft meinen Leib;   mit Augen winkend,   die Hand wies blinkend, was ich verlangend begehrt, die Frucht so hold und wert   vom Lebensbaum.“ SACHS (gerührt) Das nenn’ ich mir einen Abgesang: Seht, wie der ganze Bar gelang!   Nur mit der Melodei   seid ihr ein wenig frei; doch sag’ ich nicht, dass das ein Fehler sei;   nur ist’s nicht leicht zu behalten, –   und das ärgert unsre Alten. Jetzt richtet mir noch einen zweiten Bar, damit man merk’, welch’ der erste war. Auch weiß ich noch nicht, so gut ihr’s gereimt, was ihr gedichtet, was ihr geträumt. WALTHER „Abendlich glühend in himmlischer Pracht   verschied der Tag,   wie dort ich lag:   aus ihren Augen   Wonne saugen,   Verlangen einz’ger Macht   in mir nur wacht’.

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SACHS If you’ve succeeded   in finding a true pair,   it will show in the children. Similar to the stanza, but not exactly the same, rich in its own rhymes and tones; that people find it slender and self-sufficient, that makes the parents proud of the child: and it will form a conclusion to your stanzas, so that nothing shall fall out of place. WALTHER   ‘To you be confided   what sublime wonder befell me: at my side stood a woman so fair and beautiful as I have never seen;   like a bride   she gently embraced me;   with twinkling eyes   her hand pointed shining towards what I ardently desired, the fruit, so fair and precious,   of the Tree of Life.’ SACHS (moved) That’s what I call an Aftersong: see how the complete section has come off!   Only with the melody   you are a little free; but I don’t say that’s a fault;   just that it isn’t easy to hold on to,   and that vexes our old men! Now fashion me a second section, so that one can see what the first was. Also, I don’t yet know, well as you’ve rhymed, what you’ve composed and what you’ve dreamt. WALTHER ‘Glowing in the heavenly splendour of the evening,   day departed   as I lay there:   from her eyes   to drink bliss   a desire of unique power   awoke within me.

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Nächtlich umdämmert, der Blick mir sich bricht:   wie weit so nah’,   beschienen da   zwei lichte Sterne   aus der Ferne,   durch schlanker Zweige Licht,   hehr mein Gesicht.   Lieblich ein Quell auf stiller Höhe dort mir rauscht; jetzt schwellt er an sein hold Getön’, so stark und süß ich’s nie erlauscht:   leuchtend und hell, wie strahlten die Sterne da schön!   Zu Tanz und Reigen   in Laub und Zweigen der gold’nen sammeln sich mehr, statt Frucht ein Sternenheer   im Lorbeerbaum.“ SACHS (sehr gerührt) Freund, euer Traumbild wies euch wahr: gelungen ist auch der zweite Bar. – Wolltet ihr noch einen dritten dichten, des Traumes Deutung würd’ er berichten. – (Walther steht schnell auf.) WALTHER Wo fänd’ ich die? Genug der Wort’! SACHS (erhebt sich gleichfalls und tritt mit freundlicher Entschiedenheit zu Walther) Dann Tat und Wort am rechten Ort! – [21b] Drum bitt’ ich, merkt mir wohl die Weise: gar lieblich drin sich’s dichten lässt. Und singt ihr sie in weit’rem Kreise, [23] so haltet mir auch das Traumbild fest. WALTHER Was habt ihr vor? SACHS Eu’r treuer Knecht fand sich mit Sack und Tasch’ zurecht: die Kleider, drin am Hochzeitsfest daheim ihr wollten prangen,

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Enclosed in night my gaze grows faint:   so far, yet so near   shone there   two bright stars   from the distance   through slender twigs of light   brightly on my face.   Lovingly a spring on a silent height murmurs to me; now its lovely tone swells so strong and sweet as I have never heard it:   gleaming and bright how beautifully the stars were shining there!   To dance and circle   in leaf and twigs more of the golden ones come together, instead of fruit a host of stars   was in the laurel tree.’ SACHS (deeply moved) Friend, your vision told you true: you have succeeded with the second section too. If you would write a third, it would tell the meaning of the dream. (Walther rises hastily.) WALTHER Where might I find that? Enough of words! SACHS (also rising to his feet, and going up to Walther with friendly decisiveness) Then deed and word at the proper place! Therefore I beg you, remember well the melody; it is a fine vehicle for poetry, and when you sing it in a wider circle, then hold fast to your vision too. WALTHER What is your intent? SACHS Your faithful servant found his way hither with pack and bag: the clothes in which at your marriage ceremony at home you intended to dazzle,

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die ließ er her zu mir gelangen. Ein Täubchen zeigt’ ihm wohl das Nest,   darin sein Junker träumt. Drum folgt mir jetzt ins Kämmerlein:   mit Kleidern, wohl gesäumt, sollen beide wir gezieret sein, wenn’s Stattliches zu wagen gilt. Drum kommt, seid ihr gleich mir gewillt. (Walther schlägt in Sachsens Hand ein; so geleitet ihn dieser ruhig festen Schrittes zur Kammer, deren Türe er ihm ehrerbietig öffnet, und dann ihm folgt.) [16a, 23, 21a, 30, 32, 22a] (Man gewahrt Beckmesser, welcher draußen vor dem Laden erscheint, in großer Aufgeregtheit hereinlugt und, da er die Werkstatt leer findet, hastig hereintritt.) Dritte Szene (Beckmesser ist sehr aufgeputzt, aber in sehr leidendem Zustande. Er blickt sich erst unter der Türe nochmals genau in der Werkstatt um. Dann hinkt er vorwärts, zuckt aber zusammen und streicht sich den Rücken. Er macht wieder einige Schritte, knickt aber mit den Knien und streicht nun diese. Er setzt sich auf den Schusterschemel, fährt aber schnell schmerzhaft wieder auf. Er betrachtet sich Schemel und gerät dabei in immer aufgeregteres Nachsinnen. Er wird von den verdrießlichsten Erinnerungen und Vorstellungen gepeinigt; immer unruhiger beginnt er sich den Schweiß von der Stirne zu wischen. Er hinkt immer lebhafter umher und starrt dabei vor sich hin. Als ob er von allen Seiten verfolgt wäre, taumelt er fliehend hin und her. Wie um nicht umzusinken, hält er sich an den Werktisch, zu dem er hingeschwankt war, an, und starrt vor sich hin. Matt und verzweiflungsvoll sieht er sich um: sein Blick fällt durch das Fenster auf Pogners Haus; er hinkt mühsam an dasselbe heran, und, nach dem gegenüberliegenden Fenster ausspähend, versucht er sich in die Brust zu werfen, als ihm sogleich Ritter Walther einfällt. Ärgerliche Gedanken entstehen dadurch, gegen die er mit schmeichelndem Selbstgefühle anzukämpfen sucht. Die Eifersucht übermannt ihn; er schlägt sich vor den Kopf. Er glaubt die Verhöhnung der Weiber und Buben auf der Gasse zu vernehmen, wendet sich wütend ab und schmeißt das Fenster zu. Sehr verstört wendet er sich mechanisch wieder dem Werktische zu, indem er, vor sich hinbrütend, nach einer neuen Weise zu suchen scheint. Sein Blick fällt auf das von Sachs zuvor beschriebene Papier, er nimmt es neugierig auf, überfliegt es mit wachsender Aufregung, und bricht endlich wütend aus).[7] BECKMESSER Ein Werbelied! – Von Sachs! – Ist’s wahr? – Ha! jetzt wird mir alles klar! –

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he sent hither to me: a little dove surely showed him the nest   in which his master was dreaming. So follow me now into the little inside room!   With richly embroidered clothes we must both be adorned if we are to venture on a brave enterprise. So come, if you are in agreement with me. (Walther clasps Sachs’s hand; Sachs quietly guides him with a firm stride to the inner room; he opens the door and respectfully follows Walther in.) [16a, 23, 21a, 30, 32, 22a] (Beckmesser is seen in front of the shop, in the greatest excitement. He peeps into the shop; finding it empty he comes hastily in.) Scene Three (Beckmesser is richly dressed, but in a deplorable state. First he has one more good look around the workshop from the street door. Then he hobbles forward, winces and rubs his back. Again he makes several strides, but buckles at the knees and strokes them. He sits down on the cobbler’s stool, but jumps up again in pain. Looking at the stool he sinks into an ever more agitated reverie. He is plagued by the most unpleasant memories and images; becoming more uneasy, he begins to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He hobbles around in more lively fashion, staring about him. As if he were still pursued from all sides, he staggers around trying to flee. As if to avoid toppling over, he holds on to the workbench on which he is, steadies himself and stares in front of him. Exhausted and despairing, he looks around; he gazes through the window on Pogner’s house; he limps painfully towards it and looks out at the window opposite, trying to compose himself, when the thought of Walther occurs to him. He tries to conquer the unpleasant thoughts that this arouses in him by self-flattery. Jealousy overcomes him; he strikes his brow. He thinks he hears again the derision of the women and children in the alley; he turns away angrily and slams the window shut. Greatly upset, he turns mechanically to the table again, apparently brooding over a new melody. His gaze falls on the manuscript Sachs was writing before; he takes it up inquisitively, looks through it with gathering excitement, and finally bursts out wrathfully). [7] BECKMESSER A wooing song! By Sachs? Is it true? Ha! Now I understand everything!

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(Da er die Kammertüre gehen hört, fährt er zusammen und steckt das Papier eilig in die Tasche. Sachs, im Festgewande, tritt ein, kommt vor und hält an, als er Beckmesser gewahrt.) SACHS Sieh da, Herr Schreiber: auch am Morgen? Euch machen die Schuh’ doch nicht mehr Sorgen? BECKMESSER Zum Teufel! so dünn war ich noch nie beschuht; fühl’ durch die Sohl’ den feinsten Kies! SACHS Mein Merkersprüchlein wirkte dies; trieb sie mit Merkerzeichen so weich. BECKMESSER Schon gut der Witz und genug der Streich’! Glaubt mir, Freund Sachs: jetzt kenn’ ich euch!   Der Spass von dieser Nacht,   der wird euch noch gedacht. Dass ich euch nur nicht im Wege sei, schuf’t ihr gar Aufruhr und Meuterei! SACHS ’s war Polterabend, lasst euch bedeuten; eure Hochzeit spukte unter den Leuten:   je toller es da hergeh’,   je besser bekommt’s der Eh’! BECKMESSER (wütend)   Oh, Schuster, voll von Ränken   und pöbelhaften Schwänken!   Du warst mein Feind von je:   nun hör’, ob hell ich seh’. –   Die ich mir auserkoren,   die ganz für mich geboren,   zu aller Witwer Schmach   der Jungfer stellst du nach.   Dass sich Herr Sachs erwerbe   des Goldschmieds reiches Erbe,   im Meisterrat zur Hand   auf Klauseln er bestand,   ein Mägdlein zu betören,   das nur auf ihn sollt’ hören,

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(Hearing the chamber door open, he stands and conceals the paper hurriedly in his pocket. Sachs, in festive attire, enters, comes forward and stops short on noticing Beckmesser.) SACHS Well I never! Herr Town Clerk? In the morning too? Surely your shoes can’t still be troubling you? BECKMESSER The devil! Never have I worn such thin shoes; I feel the smallest stone through the soles! SACHS My Marking Song was responsible for that: I made them so soft with the Marker’s strokes. BECKMESSER No more jokes! And enough of your tricks! Believe me, friend Sachs, now I know you!   Last night’s joke   will be remembered against you all right: so that I shouldn’t stand in your way you created an uproar and riot! SACHS It was Polter-evening, let me inform you: your wedding had a haunting effect on   people; so the madder it goes,   the better the marriage will be. BECKMESSER (bursting out into a rage)   O cobbler, full of tricks   and vulgar pranks,   you were always my foe:   now you’ll hear whether I see clearly.   The girl I had chosen,   born just for me –   disgrace of all widowers,   this is the maiden you’re trying to ensnare.   So that Herr Sachs might win   the goldsmith’s rich inheritance,   in the Masters’ assembly   he insisted on clauses   so as to delude a girl   who should listen only to him,

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  und andren abgewandt,   zu ihm allein sich fand.   Darum! Darum! –   Wär’ ich so dumm? –   Mit Schreien und mit Klopfen   wollt’ er mein Lied zustopfen,   dass nicht dem Kind werd’ kund,   wie auch ein andrer bestund. –   Ja, ja! Ha, ha!   Hab’ ich dich da? –   Aus seiner Schusterstuben   hetzt’ endlich er den Buben   mit Knüppeln auf mich her,   dass meiner los er wär’!   Au, au! Au, au!   Wohl grün und blau, zum Spott der allerliebsten Frau,   zerschlagen und zerprügelt,   dass kein Schneider mich aufbügelt.   Gar auf mein Leben   war’s angegeben.   Doch kam ich noch so davon,   dass ich die Tat euch lohn’:   zieht heut’ nur aus zum Singen,   merkt auf, wie’s mag gelingen!   Bin ich gezwackt   auch und zerhackt, euch bring’ ich doch sicher aus dem Takt. SACHS Gut Freund, ihr seid in argem Wahn! Glaubt was ihr wollt, was ich getan, gebt eure Eifersucht nur hin; zu werben kommt mir nicht in Sinn. BECKMESSER Lug und Trug! Ich kenn es besser. SACHS Was fällt euch nur ein, Meister Beckmesser? Was ich sonst im Sinn, geht euch nichts an; doch glaubt, ob der Werbung seid ihr im Wahn. BECKMESSER Ihr sängt heut’ nicht?

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  and, forsaking other men,   turn only to him.   That’s why! That’s why!   Could I be so stupid?   With shouts and bangings   he wanted to stop my song,   so that the child should not know   how another man felt!   Yes, yes! Ha ha!   Haven’t I got you there?   From his cobbler’s shop   he finally set the boy   on me with cudgels,   so as to get rid of me!   Ow, ow! Ow, ow!   Thrashed and beaten so black and blue,   the laughing stock of my dearest lady,   so that no tailor could iron me out!   My very life   was endangered!   But I escaped all the same,   so as to be able to pay you back!   Just go out to the Singing today   and see how it goes;   though I’m pinched   and hacked about too, I’ll certainly upset your rhythm! SACHS Good friend, you’re seriously deluded! Please yourself what you think I’ve done, give vent to your jealousy; I’ve no thought of wooing. BECKMESSER Lies and deceit! I know better. SACHS What are you thinking of, Master Beckmesser? My other plans don’t concern you: but believe me, you’re wrong about the wooing. BECKMESSER You’re not singing today?

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SACHS Nicht zur Wette. BECKMESSER Kein Werbelied? SACHS Gewisslich, nein! BECKMESSER (greift in die Tasche) Wenn ich aber d’rob ein Zeugnis hätte? SACHS (blickt auf den Werktisch) Das Gedicht?… hier ließ ich’s. Stecktet ihr’s ein? BECKMESSER (das Blatt hervorziehend) Ist das eure Hand? SACHS Ja, war es das? BECKMESSER Ganz frisch noch die Schrift? SACHS Und die Tinte noch nass? BECKMESSER ’s wär’ wohl gar ein biblisches Lied? SACHS Der fehlte wohl, wer darauf riet’! BECKMESSER Nun denn? SACHS Wie doch? BECKMESSER Ihr fragt? SACHS Was noch? BECKMESSER Dass ihr mit aller Biederkeit der ärgste aller Spitzbuben seid!

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SACHS Not in the contest. BECKMESSER No wooing song? SACHS Indeed not! BECKMESSER (he puts his hand into his pocket) But supposing I had proof of it? SACHS (looking on the workbench) The poem? I left it here… have you pocketed it? BECKMESSER (producing the paper) Is that your hand? SACHS Yes… was that it? BECKMESSER Quite fresh still, the writing? SACHS And the ink still wet? BECKMESSER Might it perhaps be a biblical song? SACHS Anyone suggesting that would be wrong. BECKMESSER Well then? SACHS What do you mean? BECKMESSER You ask? SACHS What more? BECKMESSER In all honesty, you are the worst of rascals!

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SACHS Mag sein; doch hab’ ich noch nie entwandt, was ich auf fremden Tischen fand: und dass man von euch auch nicht Übles denkt, behaltet das Blatt, es sei euch geschenkt. BECKMESSER (in freudigem Schreck aufspringend) Herr Gott! – Ein Gedicht? Ein Gedicht von Sachs!… Doch halt’, – dass kein neuer Schad’ mir erwachs’! – Ihr habt’s wohl schon recht gut memoriert? SACHS Seid meinethalb doch nur unbeirrt! BECKMESSER Ihr lasst mir das Blatt? SACHS Damit ihr kein Dieb. BECKMESSER Und macht’ ich Gebrauch? SACHS Wie’s euch belieb’. BECKMESSER Und sing’ ich das Lied? SACHS Wenn’s nicht zu schwer. BECKMESSER Und wenn ich gefiel? SACHS Das – wunderte mich sehr. BECKMESSER (ganz zutraulich) Da seid ihr nun wieder zu bescheiden; ein Lied von Sachs, das will was bedeuten! (gleichsam pfeifend)      

Und seht nur, wie mir’s ergeht, wie’s mit mir Ärmsten steht! Erseh’ ich doch mit Schmerzen,

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SACHS Maybe! But I’ve never yet taken what I found on others’ tables: and so that people don’t think evil of you, keep the sheet, let it be a present for you. BECKMESSER (springing up in joyous shock) Good Heavens! A poem! A poem by Sachs!… But wait… lest some new harm come to me! You’ll have memorized it pretty well already? SACHS On my account have no fear! BECKMESSER You’ll let me have the paper? SACHS So that you’re no thief. BECKMESSER And if I were to use it? SACHS As you like. BECKMESSER But, shall I sing the song? SACHS If it’s not too difficult. BECKMESSER And if I brought it off? SACHS I should be very surprised! BECKMESSER (quite confidentially) There you are now, being too modest again: a song by Sachs, that counts for something! (at the same time whistling)      

And look at the state that I’m in, how things are with me, most wretched fellow! I look with pain at the song

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  das Lied, das nachts ich sang, –   Dank euren lust’gen Scherzen, –   es machte der Pognerin bang’. –   Wie schaff’ ich mir nun zur Stelle,   ein neues Lied herzu?   Ich armer, zerschlag’ner Geselle,   wie fänd’ ich heut’ dazu Ruh’.   Werbung und eh’lich Leben,   ob das mir Gott beschied,   muss ich nun grad’ aufgeben,   hab’ ich kein neues Lied. – Ein Lied von euch, dess’ bin ich gewiss, mit dem besieg’ ich jed’ Hindernis:   soll ich das heute haben,   vergessen, begraben   sei Zwist, Hader und Streit   und was uns je entzweit! (Er blickt seitwärts in das Blatt; plötzlich runzelt sich seine Stirne.) Und doch! Wenn’s nur eine Falle wär’!   Noch gestern wart ihr mein Feind: – wie käm’s, dass nach so großer Beschwer’ ihr’s freundlich heut mit mir meint? SACHS Ich macht’ euch Schuh’ in später Nacht: hat man je so einen Feind bedacht? BECKMESSER Ja, ja! Recht gut! Doch eines schwört: wo und wie ihr das Lied auch hört, dass nie ihr euch beikommen lasst, zu sagen, das Lied sei von euch verfasst. SACHS Das schwör’ ich, und gelob’ euch hier: nie mich zu rühmen, das Lied sei von mir. BECKMESSER (sich vergnügt die Hände reibend) Was will ich mehr? Ich bin geborgen: jetzt braucht sich Beckmesser nicht mehr zu sorgen. SACHS Doch, Freund, ich führ’s euch zu Gemüte, und tat es euch in aller Güte:

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  which I sang last night –   thanks to your funny jokes   it frightened Pogner’s daughter!   How can I now forthwith procure   a new song for the purpose?   Poor, beaten-up fellow that I am,   how should I find peace for that today?   Wooing and married life,   even if God allotted me them,   I must straightway give up   if I have no new song. A song of yours, of that I’m sure, with that I’ll overcome every obstacle:   if I’m to have that today,   forgotten and buried   be quarrels, dispute and strife,   and whatever else kept us apart. (He peers sideways at the paper; suddenly he frowns.) And yet! If it should be only a trap!   Yesterday you were still my foe: how should it be that after such great troubles you are friendly to me today? SACHS I was making you shoes far into the night: did anyone ever treat a foe in such a way? BECKMESSER Yes, yes! Quite right! But swear one thing: that wherever and however you hear the song you’ll never take it into your head to say that the song was written by you. SACHS I swear and make a vow to you here never to boast that the song is by me. BECKMESSER (rubbing his hands in delight) What more do I want? I am saved! Beckmesser has nothing more to worry about! SACHS But friend, I draw it to your attention and advise you with all kindness:

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studiert mir recht das Lied; sein Vortrag ist nicht leicht: ob euch die Weise geriet’, und ihr den Ton erreicht.

BECKMESSER Freund Sachs, ihr seid ein guter Poet; doch was Ton und Weise betrifft, gesteht,   da tut mir’s keiner vor.   Drum spitzt nur fein das Ohr, –   und: „Beckmesser,   keiner besser!“ –   Darauf macht euch gefasst,   wenn ihr mich ruhig singen lasst. –   Doch nun memorieren,   schnell nach Haus:   ohne Zeit zu verlieren   richt’ ich das aus. –   Hans Sachs, mein Teurer,   ich hab’ euch verkannt;   durch den Abenteurer   war ich verrannt: – (sehr zutraulich)   (so einer fehlte uns bloß! – Den wurden wir Meister doch los! –)   Doch mein Besinnen   läuft mir von hinnen!   Bin ich verwirrt   und ganz verirrt? –   Die Silben, die Reime,   die Worte, die Verse!   Ich kleb’ wie am Leime,   und brennt doch die Ferse.   Ade! Ich muss fort!   An andrem Ort   dank’ ich euch inniglich,   weil ihr so minniglich;   für euch nur stimme ich,   kauf’ eure Werke gleich,   mache zum Merker euch, –   doch fein mit Kreide weich,   nicht mit dem Hammerstreich! –

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study the song properly! Its performance is not easy, even if you find the right melody and get the proper tone!

BECKMESSER Friend Sachs, you are a good poet; but where tone and melody are concerned,   admit, no one surpasses me!   So prick up your ears,   and: ‘Beckmesser,   no one better!’   You can be sure of that   if you let me sing in peace.   But now, to memorize it,   quickly home!   Without losing time   I’ll see to that.   Hans Sachs, my dear friend,   I’ve misjudged you;   by that adventurer   I was led astray: (very confidentially)   (that sort is no loss! We Masters have got rid of him all right!)   But my thoughts   are running away with me:   am I confused   and quite lost?   The syllables, the rhymes,   the words, the lines:   I’m stuck as if by glue,   and yet my heels are itching!   Adieu! I must away!   In another place   I’ll thank you fervently   for being so charming;   I’ll vote only for you,   I’ll buy your works at once,   and make you Marker –   but delicately, with soft chalk,   not with hammer strokes!

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Merker! Merker! Merker Hans Sachs! Dass Nürnberg schusterlich blüh’ und wachs’! (Beckmesser nimmt tanzend von Sachs Abschied, taumelt und poltert der Ladentüre zu; plötzlich glaubt er, das Gedicht in seiner Tasche vergessen zu haben, läuft wieder vor, sucht ängstlich auf dem Werktische, bis er es in der eigenen Hand gewahr wird: darüber scherzhaft erfreut, umarmt er Sachs nochmals, voll feurigen Dankes, und stürzt dann, hinkend und strauchelnd, geräuschvoll durch die Ladentür ab.) SACHS (sieht Beckmesser gedankenvoll lächelnd nach) So ganz boshaft doch keinen ich fand;   er hält’s auf die Länge nicht aus: vergeudet mancher oft viel Verstand,   doch hält er auch damit Haus: die schwache Stunde kommt für jeden, – da wird er dumm und lässt mit sich reden. Dass hier Herr Beckmesser ward zum Dieb, ist mir für meinen Plan gar lieb. –

[22a]

[23]

(Eva nähert sich auf der Straße der Ladentür. Er wendet sich und gewahrt Eva.) Sieh’, Evchen! Dacht’ ich doch, wo sie blieb’! – Vierte Szene (Eva, reich geschmückt, in glänzend weißer Kleidung, etwas leidend und blass, tritt zum Laden herein und schreitet langsam vor.) SACHS Grüß Gott, mein Evchen! Ei, wie herrlich   und stolz du’s heute meinst! Du machst wohl Alt und Jung begehrlich,   wenn du so schön erscheinst. EVA Meister, ’s ist nicht so gefährlich:   und ist’s dem Schneider geglückt, wer sieht dann, wo’s mir beschwerlich,   wo still der Schuh mich drückt? SACHS Der böse Schuh! ’s war deine Laun’, dass du ihn gestern nicht probiert!

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Marker! Marker! Hans Sachs Marker! Let Nuremberg bloom and wax in cobblerly fashion! (Beckmesser takes dancing leave of Sachs and lumbers towards the door, clattering into it; suddenly thinking he has lost the song that was in his pocket, he rushes back to search for it anxiously on the workbench until he becomes aware of it in his own hand; in his amused delight he embraces Sachs again, as if thanking him ardently, and then rushes out limping and staggering through the shop door.) SACHS (watching Beckmesser leave and smiling thoughtfully after him) I’ve never found anyone quite so malicious, [22a]   he’ll not keep it up for ever: if many a man often throws away much of his reason,   he’ll need some for keeping house. A moment of weakness comes to everyone – he then looks foolish and listens to reason. That Herr Beckmesser has turned thief [23] here is very welcome for my plan. (Eva approaches the shop door from the street. Sachs turns and sees her coming) See, Eva! I was wondering where she was! Scene Four (Eva, richly dressed in dazzling white, though somewhat pale and distraught, enters the shop and walks forward.) SACHS God be with you, my Eva! Ah, how noble   and proud you are today! You’ll fill old and young with desire   by looking so beautiful. EVA Master! It’s not so dangerous:   and if the tailor has brought it off, who’ll then see where I’m anxious,   where my shoe silently pinches me? SACHS The wicked shoe! It was your whim that you didn’t try it on yesterday.

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EVA Merk’ wohl, ich hatt’ zu viel Vertrau’n; im Meister hatt’ ich mich geirrt. SACHS Ei, ’s tut mir leid! Zeig’ her, mein Kind, dass ich dir helfe gleich geschwind. EVA Sobald ich stehe, will es geh’n; doch, will ich geh’n, zwingt mich’s zu steh’n. SACHS Hier auf den Schemel streck’ den Fuß: der üblen Not ich wehren muss. – (Sie streckt einen Fuß auf dem Schemel am Werktisch aus.) Was ist mit dem? EVA Ihr seht, zu weit! SACHS Kind, das ist pure Eitelkeit; der Schuh ist knapp. EVA Das sagt’ ich ja: drum drückt er mich an den Zehen da. SACHS Hier links? EVA Nein, rechts. SACHS Wohl mehr am Spann? EVA Hier mehr am Hacken. SACHS Kommt der auch dran?

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EVA Note that I had too much trust: I was mistaken in the Master. SACHS Ah, I’m sorry! Show me, my child, so that I may help you this minute. EVA If I stand, it wants to walk: but if I want to walk, it makes me stand. SACHS Put your foot on this stool here: I must put a stop to this dreadful trouble. (She puts her foot up on a stool by the workbench.) What’s wrong with it? EVA You see, it’s too wide! SACHS Child, that is pure vanity: the shoe fits snugly. EVA Just what I said: that’s why it’s pinching my toes there. SACHS Here on the left? EVA No, on the right. SACHS More on the instep? EVA Here, more at the heel. SACHS Trouble there too?

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EVA Ach, Meister! Wüsstet ihr besser als ich, wo der Schuh mich drückt? (Walther, in glänzender Rittertracht, tritt unter die Türe der Kammer.) SACHS Ei! ’s wundert mich, dass er zu weit und doch drückt überall! (Eva stößt einen Schrei aus und bleibt, unverwandt auf Walther blickend, in ihrer Stellung mit dem Fuße auf dem Schemel.) EVA Ah! SACHS Aha! Hier sitzt’s: nun begreif’ ich den Fall. –

[25]

(Sachs, der vor ihr niedergebückt steht, bleibt mit dem Rücken der Türe zugekehrt, ohne Walthers Eintritt zu beachten.) Kind, du hast recht: ’s stak in der Naht. Nun warte, dem Übel schaff ich Rat: (Walther, durch den Anblick Evas festgebannt, bleibt ebenfalls unbeweglich unter der Türe stehen.) bleib’ nur so steh’n; ich nehm’ dir den Schuh’ eine Weil’ auf den Leisten, dann lässt er dir Ruh’! (Sachs hat Eva sanft den Schuh vom Fuße gezogen; während sie in ihrer Stellung verbleibt, macht er sich am Werktisch mit dem Schuh zu schaffen, und tut, als beachte er nichts anderes.) (bei der Arbeit) Immer schustern, das ist nun mein Los; des Nachts, des Tags, komm’ nicht da von los. Kind, hör’ zu: ich hab’ mir’s überdacht, was meinem Schustern ein Ende macht: am besten, ich werbe doch nun um dich; da gewänn’ ich doch was als Poet für mich. – Du hörst nicht drauf? So sprich doch jetzt! Hast mir’s ja selbst in den Kopf gesetzt. Schon gut! – ich merk’: – „mach deine Schuh!“ – Säng’ mir nur wenigstens einer dazu! –

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EVA Ah Master! Should you know better than I where the shoe pinches me? (Walther, in glittering knightly apparel, has appeared at the inner-room door.) SACHS Indeed I’m surprised that it’s too wide and yet pinches everywhere! (Eva lets out a cry and remains in her position with one foot on the stool, gazing fixedly at Walther.) EVA Ah! SACHS Aha! Here it is! Now I see what’s wrong!

[25]

(Sachs, who is standing bent over her, keeps his back to the door without noticing Walther’s entrance.) Child, you’re right: the stitching was at fault: now wait, I’ll cure the trouble. (Walther, spellbound at the sight of Eva, remains at the door without moving.) Stay where you are; I’ll put your shoe on the last for a while: then it’ll give you peace. (Sachs has gently taken off her shoe: while she remains in the same position, he goes to the workbench, pretends to busy himself with the shoe and acts as if oblivious to all else.) (as he works) Always cobbling! That is now my lot; night and day I can’t get away from it! Child, listen! I have thought over what will put an end to my cobbling: it will be best if I woo you after all; then I might still win something for myself as a poet! You aren’t listening? Say something. It was you that put it in my head. Very well – I note it! – ‘Make your shoes!’ If only someone would sing an accompaniment to that!

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Hörte heut’ gar ein schönes Lied: – wem dazu wohl ein dritter Vers geriet’? – WALTHER (den begeisterten Blick unverwandt auf Eva geheftet) „Weilten die Sterne im lieblichen Tanz?   So licht und klar   im Lockenhaar,   vor allen Frauen   hehr zu schauen,   lag ihr mit zartem Glanz   ein Sternenkranz.“ SACHS (immer fort arbeitend) Lausch’, Kind! Das ist ein Meisterlied. WALTHER „Wunder ob Wunder nun bieten sich dar:   zwiefachen Tag   ich grüßen mag;   denn gleich zwei’n Sonnen   reinster Wonnen,   der hehrsten Augen Paar   nahm ich da wahr.“ SACHS (beiseite zu Eva) Derlei hörst du jetzt bei mir singen. WALTHER   „Huldreichstes Bild, dem ich zu nahen mich erkühnt! Den Kranz, von zweier Sonnen Strahl zugleich verblichen und ergrünt,   minnig und mild sie flocht ihn um das Haupt dem Gemahl:   dort Huldgeboren,   nun Ruhmerkoren,   gießt paradiesische Lust   sie in des Dichters Brust –   im Liebestraum.“ SACHS (hat den Schuh zurückgebracht und ist jetzt darüber her, ihn Eva wieder an den Fuß zu ziehen) Nun schau’, ob dazu mein Schuh geriet? Mein’ endlich doch, –   es tät mir gelingen? –   Versuch’s, – tritt auf! Sag, drückt er dich noch?

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I’ve heard a very beautiful song today: would that a third verse might complete it! WALTHER (his gaze still fixed passionately on Eva) ‘Did the stars linger in their lovely dance?   So light and clear   in her tresses –   above all women   glorious to behold –   lay round her with delicate gleam   a garland of stars.’ SACHS (still at work) Listen, child! That’s a Mastersong. WALTHER ‘Wonder on wonder now appears:   twofold day   I gladly greet;   for like two suns   of purest bliss,   the most glorious pair of eyes   I there perceived.’ SACHS (aside to Eva) That’s the sort of song you hear in my house now. WALTHER   ‘Most gracious picture, which I made bold to approach: the garland by two suns’ beams at once faded and made fresh green,   lovingly and mildly she twined it around her husband’s head.   Born there in grace,   now set for fame,   she pours paradisiacal joy   into the poet’s breast   in a dream of love.’ SACHS (He brings back the shoe and busies himself fitting it on Eva’s foot again.) Now let’s see if that’s helped my shoe. I really do think that at last   I’ve succeeded.   Try it! stand on it – say, does it still pinch you?

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(Eva, die wie bezaubert bewegungslos gestanden, gesehen und gehört hat, bricht jetzt in heftiges Weinen aus, sinkt Sachs an die Brust und drückt ihn schluchzend an sich. Walther ist zu ihnen getreten; er drückt Sachs begeistert die Hand, Sachs tut sich endlich Gewalt an, reißt sich wie unmutig los, und lässt dadurch Eva unwillkürlich an Walthers Schulter sich anlehnen.) [32, 11] SACHS Hat man mit dem Schuhwerk nicht seine Not! Wär’ ich nicht noch Poet dazu, ich machte länger keine Schuh’! Das ist eine Müh’, ein Aufgebot! Zu weit dem einen, dem andern zu eng; von allen Seiten Lauf’ und Gedräng’:   da klappt’s,   da schlappt’s,   hier drückt’s,   da zwickt’s. – Der Schuster soll auch alles wissen, flicken, was nur immer zerrissen; und ist er gar Poet dazu, da lässt man am End’ ihm auch da keine Ruh’; doch ist er erst noch Witwer gar, zum Narren hält man ihn fürwahr: – die jüngsten Mädchen, ist Not an Mann, begehren, er hielte um sie an; versteht er sie, versteht er sie nicht, – all eins, ob ja, ob nein er spricht, – am End’ riecht er doch nach Pech, und gilt für dumm, tückisch und frech. – Ei! ’s ist mir nur um den Lehrbuben leid;   der verliert mir allen Respekt: die Lene macht ihn nun nicht recht gescheit,   dass aus Töpf’ und Tellern er leckt. Wo Teufel er jetzt nur wieder steckt! (Er stellt sich, als wollte er nach David sehen.) EVA (indem sie Sachs zurückhält und von Neuem an sich zieht)[32] O Sachs! Mein Freund! Du teurer Mann! Wie ich dir Edlem lohnen kann!   Was ohne deine Liebe, [37]   was wär’ ich ohne dich, –   ob je auch Kind ich bliebe,   erwecktest du nicht mich?

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(Eva, who has stood still as if enchanted, gazing and listening, bursts into a sudden fit of weeping and sinks on Sachs’s breast, sobbing and clinging to him. Walther advances towards them and wrings Sachs’s hand. Sachs at last composes himself, tears himself away as if displeased, so that Eva now comes to rest on Walther’s shoulder.) [32, 11] SACHS A cobbler’s work is not without its problems! If I weren’t a poet too I would no longer make shoes! It is labour, drudgery! Too broad for this person, too tight for that, people rushing and crowding in from all sides:   it clops,   it’s loose,   it’s tight here,   it pinches there! And the cobbler is expected to know everything, patch up anything torn; and if he’s also a poet they won’t leave that side of him in peace either; and if he’s a widower too, they certainly take him for a fool The youngest girls, when there’s a shortage of men, want him to ask for their hand; whether he understands them or not, no matter whether yes or no is his answer; in the end he smells of pitch and is thought stupid, malicious, impudent! Ah! I’m only sorry for my apprentice:   he’ll lose everyone’s respect: Lena is already affecting his reason,   so that he eats out of her hand. Where the devil is he hiding now? (He makes as if to look for David.) EVA (stopping him as he is going off and drawing him to her again)[32] O Sachs! My friend! Dear man! How can I reward you, noble man?   What would I be without your love, [37]   without you?   Wouldn’t I have remained always a child   if you had not awoken me?

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  Durch dich gewann ich,   was man preist,   durch dich ersann ich,   was ein Geist;   durch dich erwacht’,   durch dich nur dacht’   ich edel, frei und kühn;   du ließest mich erblüh’n! Ja, lieber Meister, schilt mich nur: ich war doch auf der rechten Spur.   Denn, hatte ich die Wahl,   nur dich erwählt’ ich mir;   du warest mein Gemahl,   den Preis reicht’ ich nur dir. –   Doch nun hat’s mich gewählt   zu nie gekannter Qual;   und werd’ ich heut’ vermählt,   so war’s ohn’ alle Wahl: – das war ein Müssen, war ein Zwang! – Euch selbst, mein Meister, – wurde bang. – SACHS   Mein Kind,   von Tristan und Isolde   kenn’ ich ein traurig Stück: –   Hans Sachs war klug und wollte   nichts von Herrn Markes Glück. – ’s war Zeit, dass ich den Rechten fand, wär’ sonst am End’ doch hineingerannt! – Aha! Da streicht die Lene schon ums Haus. Nur herein! He! David! Kommst nicht heraus?

[37]

(Magdalene, in festlichem Staate, tritt durch die Ladentüre herein. David, ebenfalls im Festkleid, mit Blumen und Bändern sehr reich und zierlich ausgeputzt, kommt zugleich aus der Kammer heraus.) Die Zeugen sind da, Gevatter zur Hand: jetzt schnell zur Taufe! Nehmt euren Stand! (Alle blicken ihn verwundert an.)   Ein Kind ward hier geboren:   Jetzt sei ihm ein Nam’ erkoren! So ist’s nach Meisterweis’ und Art, wenn eine Meisterweise geschaffen ward,

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  Through you I have won   what people prize,   through you I learnt   the workings of the spirit;   by you awoken,   only through you did I think   nobly, freely and boldly;   you made me bloom! Yes, dear Master, scold me if you will; but I was on the right path,   for, if I had the choice,   I would choose none but you;   you would have been my husband,   I would have given the prize to none but you.   But now I am chosen   for unknown torment,   and if I am married today,   then I had no choice: that was necessity, compulsion! You yourself, my Master, were dismayed. SACHS   My child,   of Tristan and Isolde   I know a sad tale:   Hans Sachs was clever and did not want   anything of King Mark’s lot. It was high time that I found the right man; otherwise I would have run right into it. Aha, there’s Lena already hurrying to the house; come in! Hey, David! Aren’t you coming out?

[37]

(Magdalene in festive attire enters from the street, and David at the same time comes out of the chamber, also gaily dressed and very splendid with ribbons and flowers.) Witnesses are here, godparents to hand: now quickly to the christening! Take your places! (All look at him with surprise.)   A child has been born here;   now let a name be chosen for him! This is the Masters’ style and practice when a Master melody has been created,

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dass die einen guten Namen trag’, dran jeder sie erkennen mag. –   Vernehmt, respektable Gesellschaft,   was euch heut’ zur Stell’ schafft! – Eine Meisterweise ist gelungen, von Junker Walther gedichtet und gesungen: der jungen Weise lebender Vater lud mich und die Pognerin zu Gevatter. Weil wir die Weise wohl vernommen, sind wir zur Taufe hierher gekommen; auch dass wir zur Handlung Zeugen haben, ruf’ ich Jungfer Lene und meinen Knaben. Doch da ’s zum Zeugen kein Lehrbube tut, und heut’ auch den Spruch er gesungen gut, so mach’ ich den Burschen gleich zum Gesell’. Knie nieder, David, und nimm diese Schell! (David ist niedergekniet; Sachs gibt ihm eine starke Ohrfeige.) Steh’ auf, Gesell’, und denk’ an den Streich: du merkst dir dabei die Taufe zugleich. – Fehlt sonst noch was, uns keiner schilt; wer weiß, ob’s nicht gar einer Nottaufe gilt. Dass die Weise Kraft behalte zum Leben, will ich nur gleich den Namen ihr geben: – Die „selige Morgentraum-Deutweise“ sei sie genannt zu des Meisters Preise. – Nun wachse sie groß, ohn’ Schad’ und Bruch. Die jüngste Gevatterin spricht den Spruch.

[1]

(Er tritt aus der Mitte des Halbkreises, der von den Übrigen um ihn gebildet worden war, auf die Seite, so dass nun Eva in die Mitte zu stehen kommt.) EVA                      

Selig, wie die Sonne meines Glückes lacht, Morgen voller Wonne, selig mir erwacht! Traum der höchsten Hulden, himmlich Morgenglüh’n: Deutung euch zu schulden, selig süß Bemüh’n! Einer Weise mild und hehr, sollt’ es hold gelingen, meines Herzens süß’ Beschwer

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so that it may bear a goodly name by which all may recognize it.   Hear, respected company,   what summons you today to this place: a Master melody has come into being, written and sung by Sir Walther; the young melody’s living father invited me and Eva to be godparents. Because we have heard the melody we have come hither to its christening; and for witnesses to the ceremony I summon Mistress Lena and my lad. But as an apprentice cannot act as witness and today he also sang his piece well, I forthwith make the boy a journeyman. Kneel down, David, and take this cuff! (David kneels and Sachs gives him a smart box on the ear.) Arise, journeyman, and think of that blow; you shall then remember the christening too. If anything else lacks, let no one reproach us; who knows, it may be an emergency baptism. So that the melody may have strength to live, I will give it its name at once: ‘The Morning Dream’s Sweet Story’ let it be named to its Master’s praise. Now may it grow big, without harm or hurt. The youngest godparent speaks the speech.

[1]

(He steps out of the middle of the half-circle of people surrounding him, so that Eva is now standing in the middle.) EVA                      

As blissfully as the sun of my happiness laughs, a morning full of joy blessedly awakens for me; dream of highest favours, heavenly morning glow: interpretation to owe you, blessedly sweet task! A melody, tender and noble, ought to succeed propitiously in interpreting and subduing

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deutend zu bezwingen. Ob es nur ein Morgentraum? Selig deut’ ich mir es kaum. Doch die Weise, was sie leise mir vertraut, hell und laut, in der Meister vollem Kreis’, deute sie auf den höchsten Preis.

SACHS   Vor dem Kinde, lieblich hold,   mocht’ ich gern wohl singen;   doch des Herzens süß’ Beschwer’   galt es zu bezwingen.   ’s war ein schöner Abendtraum;   d’ran zu denken wag’ ich kaum.   Diese Weise,   was sie leise   mir anvertraut,   im stillen Raum,   sagt mir laut:   auch der Jugend ew’ges Reis   grünt nur durch des Dichters Preis. WALTHER   Deine Liebe   ließ mir es gelingen,   meines Herzens süß’ Beschwer’   deutend zu bezwingen.   Ob es noch der Morgentraum?   Selig deut’ ich mir es kaum!   Doch die Weise,   was sie leise   dir vertraut   im stillen Raum,   hell und laut,   in der Meister vollem Kreis’,   werbe sie um den höchsten Preis. DAVID   Wach’ oder träum’ ich schon so früh?   Das zu erklären macht mir Müh’:   ’s ist wohl nur ein Morgentraum!   Was ich seh’, begreif’ ich kaum.

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my heart’s sweet burden. Is it only a morning dream? In my bliss, I can scarcely interpret it myself. But the melody, what it softly confides to me, clear and loud in the full circle of the Masters may its revelation point to the highest prize.

SACHS   Before the child, so charming and fair,   I want to sing:   but the heart’s sweet burden   had to be subdued.   It was a beautiful evening dream;   I scarcely dare think of it.   This melody,   what it softly   confides to me   in the silent room,   says to me aloud:   even youth’s eternal twig   grows green only through the poet’s prize. WALTHER   Your love   made me succeed   in interpreting and subduing   my heart’s sweet burden.   Is it still the morning dream?   In my bliss, I can scarcely interpret it myself.   But the melody,   what it softly   confides to you   in the silent room,   bright and loud   in the full circle of the Masters   may it compete for the highest prize! DAVID   Am I awake or dreaming still this early?   To explain it gives me trouble:   It is only a morning dream!   What I see I scarcely grasp!

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Ward zur Stelle gleich Geselle? Lene Braut? Im Kirchenraum wir gar getraut? ’s geht der Kopf mir wie im Kreis, dass ich Meister bald heiß’!

MAGDALENE   Wach’ oder träum’ ich schon so früh’?   Das zu erklären macht mir Müh’:   ’s ist wohl nur ein Morgentraum?   Was ich seh’, begreif’ ich kaum!   Er zur Stelle   gleich Geselle?   Ich die Braut?   Im Kirchenraum wir   gar getraut?   Ja! Wahrhaftig, ’s geht! Wer weiß,   dass ich Meist’rin bald heiß’! SACHS (zu den Übrigen sich wendend)

[7]

Jetzt all’ am Fleck’! (zu Eva) Den Vater grüß’! Auf, nach der Wies’, – schnell auf die Füß’! – (Eva und Magdalene gehen.) (zu Walther) Nun, Junker, kommt! Habt frohen Mut! – David, Gesell’! Schließ’ den Laden gut! (Als Sachs und Walther ebenfalls auf die Straße gehen und David über das Schließen der Ladentür sich hermacht, wird im Proszenium ein Vorhang von beiden Seiten zusammengezogen, so dass er die Szene gänzlich verschließt.)  [23, 34, 1b] Fünfte Szene (Die Vorhänge sind nach der Höhe aufgezogen worden, die Bühne ist verwandelt. Diese stellt einen freien Wiesenplan dar, im fernen Hintergrunde die Stadt Nürnberg. Die Pegnitz schlängelt sich durch den Plan; der schmale Fluss ist an den nächsten Punkten praktikabel gehalten. Bunt beflaggte Kähne setzen unablässig die ankommenden festlich gekleideten Bürger der Zünfte, mit Frauen und Kindern,

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I became here a journeyman all of a sudden? Lena a bride? In the church we shall even be married? My mind is in a whirl that I shall soon be a Master!

MAGDALENE   Am I awake or dreaming still this early?   To explain it gives me trouble:   is it only a morning dream?   What I see I scarcely grasp!   Him here,   a journeyman all of a sudden?   I the bride?   In the church   we shall even be married?   Yes, in truth, it is so! Who knows,   but that I may soon be a Master’s wife! SACHS (turning to the others)

[7]

Now all to your places! (to Eva) My greetings to your father. Away, off to the meadow, best feet forward! (Eva and Magdalene leave) (to Walther) Now, sir knight! Come! Be of good cheer! David, journeyman! Shut the shop carefully! (As Sachs and Walther also go into the street, and David closes the shop door, a curtain is drawn from each side of the proscenium, hiding the stage entirely.)  [23, 34, 1b] Scene Five (The curtains are lifted up and the stage has been transformed. The scene now shows an open meadow, with the town of Nuremberg in the distance. The Pegnitz winds across the stage, a narrow stream that can be crossed at its nearest point. Gaily decorated boats continually unload newcomers: burghers of the guilds, women and children,

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an das Ufer der Festwiese über. Eine erhöhte Bühne, mit Bänken und Sitzen darauf, ist rechts zur Seite aufgeschlagen; bereits ist sie mit den Fahnen der angekommenen Zünfte ausgeschmückt; im Verlaufe stecken die Fahnenträger der noch ankommenden Zünfte ihre Fahnen ebenfalls um die Sängerbühne auf, so dass diese schließlich nach drei Seiten hin ganz davon eingefasst ist. Zelte mit Getränken und Erfrischungen aller Art begrenzen im übrigen die Seiten des vorderen Hauptraumes.) (Vor den Zelten geht es bereits lustig her: Bürger, mit Frauen, Kindern und Gesellen, sitzen und lagern daselbst. Die Lehrbuben der Meistersinger, festlich gekleidet, mit Blumen und Bändern reich und anmutig geschmückt, üben mit schlanken Stäben, die ebenfalls mit Blumen und Bändern geziert sind, in lustiger Weise das Amt von Herolden und Marschällen aus. Sie empfangen die am Ufer Aussteigenden, ordnen die Züge der Zünfte und geleiten diese nach der Singerbühne, von wo aus, nachdem der Bannerträger die Fahne aufgepflanzt, die Zunftbürger und Gesellen nach Belieben sich unter den Zelten zerstreuen. Soeben, nach der Verwandlung, werden in der angegebenen Weise die Schuster am Ufer empfangen und nach dem Vordergrund geleitet.) DIE SCHUSTER (mit fliegender Fahne aufziehend)   Sankt Krispin,   lobet ihn!   War gar ein heilig Mann,   zeigt’, was ein Schuster kann.   Die Armen hatten gute Zeit,   macht’ ihnen warme Schuh’;   und wenn ihm keiner ’s Leder leiht,   so stahl er sich’s dazu.   Der Schuster hat ein weit Gewissen,   macht Schuhe selbst mit Hindernissen;   und ist vom Gerber das Fell erst weg,   dann streck’! streck’! streck’!   Leder taugt nur am rechten Fleck. (Die Stadtwächter ziehen mit Trompeten und Trommeln den Stadtpfeifern, Lautenmachern usw. voraus.) DIE SCHNEIDER (mit fliegender Fahne aufziehend)   Als Nürenberg belagert war,   und Hungersnot sich fand,   wär’ Stadt und Volk verdorben gar,   war nicht ein Schneider zur Hand,   der viel Mut hatt’ und Verstand.   Hat sich in ein Bocksfell eingenäht,   auf dem Stadtwall da spazieren geht,   und macht wohl seine Sprünge

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all in rich festival array. On the right is a raised platform with chairs and benches on it; it is decked with the banners of the guilds that have already arrived. As the other guilds arrive, the banner-bearers also place their banners round the platform, so that finally they enclose it on three sides. Tents, with drinks and refreshments of all kinds, occupy the sides of the foreground of the stage.) (In front of the tents there is merry-making: burghers, with women, children and Journeymen, are sitting and lying about there. The Apprentices of the Mastersingers, festively attired with flowers and favours, merrily exercise with slender staves, also decorated with flowers and ribbons, the duties of heralds and marshals. They meet the people arriving on the shore, order the procession of the guilds and conduct them to the singer’s platform, whence, after the banner-bearers have planted the banners, the burghers and Journeymen disperse as they please among the booths. As the curtain rises, the Shoemakers are thus met at the bank and conducted to the front.) THE SHOEMAKERS (marching past with flying banner)   Saint Crispin,   praise him!   He was a very holy man,   showed what a cobbler can do.   The poor had a good time,   he made them warm shoes,   and if no one would lend him the leather,   he stole it for his purpose.   The cobbler has a broad conscience,   makes shoes even when there are obstacles;   and as soon as the skin has left the tanner’s,   then it’s stretch! stretch! stretch!   Leather is of use only in the right place. (The town watchmen enter with trumpets and drums, followed by the town pipers, lute-makers, etc.) THE TAILORS (marching up with flying banner)   When Nuremberg was besieged   and there was famine,   the city and the whole land would have been ruined   if a tailor hadn’t been at hand   who had much courage and sense:   he sewed himself into a goatskin   and went walking on the city wall,   and capered there

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gar lustig guter Dinge. Der Feind, der sieht’s und zieht vom Fleck: der Teufel hol’ die Stadt sich weg, hat’s drin noch so lustige Meck-meck-meck! Meck! Meck! Meck! Wer glaubt’s, dass ein Schneider im Bocke steck’!

DIE BÄCKER (ziehen dicht hinter den Schneidern auf, so dass ihr Lied in das der Schneider hineinklingt)   Hungersnot! Hungersnot!   Das ist ein greulich Leiden!   Gäb’ euch der Bäcker nicht täglich Brot,   müsst’ alle Welt verscheiden.   Beck! Beck! Beck!   Täglich auf dem Fleck!   Nimm uns den Hunger weg! (Ein bunter Kahn mit jungen Mädchen in reicher bäuerischer Tracht kommt an. Die Lehrbuben laufen nach dem Gestade.)[15] LEHRBUBEN Herr Je! Herr Je! Mädel von Fürth! Stadtpfeifer, spielt! Dass’s lustig wird! (Die Lehrbuben heben währenddem die Mädchen aus dem Kahn.) (Das Charakteristische des folgenden Tanzes, mit welchem die Lehrbuben und die Mädchen zunächst nach dem Vordergrund kommen, besteht darin, dass die Lehrbuben die Mädchen scheinbar nur an den Platz bringen wollen; sowie die Gesellen zugreifen wollen, ziehen die Buben die Mädchen aber immer wieder zurück, als ob sie sie anderswo unterbringen wollten, wobei sie meistens den ganzen Kreis, wie wählend, ausmessen, und somit die scheinbare Absicht auszuführen anmutig und lustig verzögern.) (David kommt vom Landungsplatze vor und sieht missbillingend dem Tanze zu.) DAVID Ihr tanzt? Was werden die Meister sagen? (Die Lehrbuben drehen ihm Nasen.) Hört nicht? Lass’ ich mir’s auch behagen! (David nimmt sich ein junges schönes Mädchen und gerät im Tanze mit ihr schnell in großes Feuer. Die Zuschauer freuen sich und lachen.)

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merrily and cheerfully. The enemy sees this and withdraws: the Devil may take the city if there are still such merry bleaters there! Me-e-eh! Me-e-eh! Me-e-eh! Who’d think there was a tailor inside the goat!

THE BAKERS (marching up closely behind the Tailors, so that their song merges with the Tailors’ song)   Famine! Famine!   What hideous suffering!   If the baker didn’t give you your daily bread,   everyone would die.   Bake! Bake! Bake!   Each day on the spot!   Take away our hunger! (A gaily painted boat, filled with young girls in fine peasant costumes, arrives. The Apprentices go to the bank.)[15] APPRENTICES Hurrah! Hurrah! Girls from Fürth! Town pipers, play! Make it merry! (The Apprentices meanwhile help the girls out of the boat.) (The characteristic of the following dance, with which the Apprentices and girls come to the foreground, is that the Apprentices apparently only wish to bring the girls to the open place, but as the Journeymen keep trying to seize the girls, the Apprentices draw them away as if seeking to lead them to another spot and, in doing so, most of the time they make a tour of the whole circle, always delaying their original purpose in good-natured fun.). (David comes from the landing place and looks at the dance with disapproval.) DAVID You’re dancing? What will the Masters say? (The Apprentices make faces at him.) You won’t listen? Then I’ll enjoy myself too! (David seizes a young and pretty girl and mingles in the dance with great ardour. The onlookers are amused and laugh.)

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LEHRBUBEN (Die Lehrbuben winken David.) David! Die Lene sieht zu! (David, erschrocken, lässt das Mädchen schnell fahren, um welches die Lehrbuben sogleich tanzend einen Kreis schließen; da er Lene nirgends gewahrt, merkt David, dass er nur geneckt worden, durchbricht den Kreis, erfasst sein Mädchen wieder und tanzt nun noch feuriger weiter.) DAVID Ach! lasst mich mit euren Possen in Ruh’! (Die Buben suchen ihm das Mädchen zu entreißen; er wendet sich mit ihr jedesmal glücklich ab, so dass nun ein ähnliches Spiel entsteht wie zuvor, als die Gesellen nach den Mädchen fassten.) GESELLEN (am Ufer) Die Meistersinger! LEHRBUBEN Die Meistersinger! (Die Lehrbuben unterbrechen schnell den Tanz und eilen dem Ufer zu.) DAVID Herr Gott! Ade, ihr hübschen Dinge! (Er gibt dem Mädchen einen feurigen Kuss und reißt sich los.) (Die Lehrbuben reihen sich zum Empfang der Meistersinger; das Volk macht ihnen willig Platz. Die Meistersinger ordnen sich am Landungsplatze zum festlichen Aufzuge. Kothner kommt mit der Fahne im Vordergrunde an. Die geschwungene Fahne, auf welcher König David mit der Harfe abgebildet ist, wird von allem Volk mit Hutschwenken begrüßt. Der Zug der Meistersinger ist auf der Singerbühne, wo Kothner die Fahne aufpflanzt, angelangt; Pogner, Eva an der Hand führend, diese von festlich geschmückten und reichgekleideten Mädchen, unter denen auch Magdalene, begleitet, voran. Als Eva, von den Mädchen umgeben, den mit Blumen geschmückten Ehrenplatz eingenommen, und alle übrigen, die Meister auf den Bänken, die Gesellen hinter ihnen stehend, ebenfalls Platz genommen, treten die Lehrbuben, dem Volke zugewendet, feierlich vor die Bühne in Reih’ und Glied.)[1,3] LEHRBUBEN Silentium! Silentium! Macht kein Reden und kein Gesumm’!

[3]

(Sachs erhebt sich und tritt vor. Bei seinem Anblick stößt sich alles an; Hüte und Mützen werden abgezogen: alle deuten auf ihn.)

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APPRENTICES (waving to David) David! David! Lena’s looking! (David, alarmed, quickly releases the girl, round whom the Apprentices at once dance in a circle. Not seeing Magdalene anywhere, David perceives that he has been fooled, breaks through the ring, seizes the girl again, and dances more ardently than ever.) DAVID Ah! Leave me in peace with your jokes! (The Apprentices try to get the girl away from him; he evades them cleverly each time, so that there is a repetition of the previous business between the Journeymen and the girls.) JOURNEYMEN (at the landing place) The Mastersingers! APPRENTICES The Mastersingers! (The Apprentices at once break off their dance and hasten to the bank.) DAVID Heavens! Farewell, you pretty young things! (He gives the girl an ardent kiss and tears himself away.) (The Apprentices arrange themselves to receive the Mastersingers; the people cheerfully make room for them. The Mastersingers arrange themselves on the landing place for a grand procession. The Mastersingers’ procession begins, Kothner here comes to the front with the banner, on which is represented King David with his harp. At the sight of it the people cheer and wave their hats. The procession of the Mastersingers arrives at the platform, where Kothner plants the banner. Pogner leads the way with Eva, who is accompanied by richly dressed and festively adorned young girls, among them Magdalene. When Eva, surrounded by the girls, has taken the flower-strewn place of honour, and all the rest are in their places, the Masters on the benches, the Journeymen standing behind them, the Apprentices advance in ceremonious and orderly array and turn to the people.)[1,3] APPRENTICES Silence! Silence! No talking and no murmuring!

[3]

(Sachs rises and steps forward. At the sight of him all nudge each other; hats and caps are taken off: all point at him.)

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VOLK   Ha! Sachs! ’s ist Sachs!   Seht, Meister Sachs!   Stimmt an! Stimmt an! Stimmt an! (Außer Sachs singen alle Anwesenden die folgende Strophe mit.) ALLE   „Wach auf, es nahet gen den Tag;   ich hör’ singen im grünen Hag   ein wonnigliche Nachtigall,   ihr’ Stimm’ durchdringet Berg und Tal:   die Nacht neigt sich zum Occident,   der Tag geht auf von Orient,   die rotbrünstige Morgenröt’   her durch die trüben Wolken geht.“ –

[33]

(Von hier an singt der Chor des Volkes wieder allein, die Meister auf der Bühne, sowie die anderen vorigen Teilnehmer am Gesange der Strophe, geben sich dem Schauspiele des Volksjubels hin. Das Volk nimmt wieder eine jubelnd bewegte Haltung an.) VOLK   Heil! Sachs! Heil dir, Hans Sachs!   Heil Nürnbergs teurem Sachs! SACHS (der unbeweglich, wie geistesabwesend, über die Volksmenge hinweggeblickt hatte, richtet endlich seine Blicke vertrauter auf sie und beginnt mit ergriffener, schnell aber sich festigender Stimme)[32]   Euch macht ihr’s leicht, mir macht ihr’s schwer,   gebt ihr mir Armen zu viel Ehr’.   Soll vor der Ehr’ ich bestehn,   sei’s, mich von euch geliebt zu sehn. –   Schon grosse Ehr’ ward mir erkannt,   ward heut’ ich zum Spruchsprecher ernannt.   Und was mein Spruch euch künden soll,   glaubt, das ist hoher Ehren voll. –   Wenn ihr die Kunst so hoch schon ehrt, [14]   da galt es zu beweisen,   dass, wer ihr selbst gar angehört,   sie schätzt ob allen Preisen.   Ein Meister, reich und hochgemut,   der will heut’ euch das zeigen:   sein Töchterlein, sein höchstes Gut,   mit allem Hab’ und Eigen,

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TOWNSFOLK   Ha! Sachs! It’s Sachs!   Look, Master Sachs!   Begin! Begin! Begin! (Sachs excepted, all those present sing the following stanza.) ALL                

‘Awake! The dawn is drawing near; I hear a blissful nightingale singing in the green grove, its voice rings through hill and valley; night is sinking in the west, the day arises in the east, the ardent red glow of morning approaches through the gloomy clouds.’

[33]

(From this point onwards, the chorus of the people continue to sing alone; the Masters on the platform, as well as all those who had joined in the verse, watch the people’s elation. The Townsfolk again become excited and jubilant.) TOWNSFOLK   Hail! Sachs! Hail to you, Hans Sachs!   Hail to Nuremberg’s dear Sachs! SACHS (who as if rapt, has stood motionless, gazing far away beyond the multitude, at last turns a genial glance on them, and begins in a voice at first trembling with emotion but soon gaining firmness)[32]   You take it lightly, but for me you make it hard;   you do me, poor man, too much honour.   If I must submit to honour,   let it be that of seeing myself loved by you.   Great honour has already been done me,   when today I was named as spokesman,   and what my speech shall tell you,   believe me, is full of high honours.   If you already honour Art so highly, [14]   it was necessary to prove   that he who cleaves to it for its own sake   esteems it above all prizes.   A Master, rich and high-minded,   will show you this today:   his little daughter – his greatest treasure,   with all his goods and possessions –

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dem Singer, der im Kunstgesang vor allem Volk den Preis errang,   als höchsten Preises Kron’   er bietet das zum Lohn. –   Darum, so hört und stimmt mir bei:   die Werbung steh’ dem Dichter frei. –   Ihr Meister, die ihr’s euch getraut,   euch ruf’ ich’s vor dem Volke laut: –   erwägt der Werbung selt’nen Preis   und wem sie soll gelingen,   dass der sich rein und edel weiß   im Werben wie im Singen,   will er das Reis erringen,   das nie, bei Neuen noch bei Alten,   ward je so herrlich hochgehalten,   als von der lieblich Reinen,   die niemals soll beweinen,   dass Nürenberg mit höchstem Wert   die Kunst und ihre Meister ehrt!

[14]

[23]

(Große Bewegung unter Allen. Sachs geht auf Pogner zu.) POGNER (Sachs gerührt die Hand drückend) O Sachs, mein Freund! Wie dankenswert! – Wie wisst ihr, was mein Herz beschwert!

[23, 34, 14, 15]

SACHS (zu Pogner) ’s war viel gewagt; – jetzt habt nur Mut! – – Herr Merker! Sagt, wie geht’s? Gut? (Beckmesser, zu dem sich jetzt Sachs wendet, hat schon während des Einzuges, und dann fortwährend, eifrig das Blatt mit dem Gedicht herausgezogen, memoriert, genau zu lesen versucht und oft verzweiflungsvoll sich den Schweiß getrocknet.) BECKMESSER O! Dieses Lied!… Werd’ nicht d’raus klug und hab’ doch d’ran studiert genug. SACHS Mein Freund, ’s ist euch nicht aufgezwungen. BECKMESSER Was hilft’s? Mit dem meinen ist doch versungen: ’s war Eure Schuld! Jetzt seid hübsch für mich: ’s wär’ schändlich, ließt ihr mich im Stich!

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to the singer who in the song contest wins the prize before all the people,   as crown for the highest prize   he offers her as reward.   So hear, and agree with me:   the contest is open to the Poet.   You Masters who are bold to try,   I proclaim it to you before the people:   consider the contest’s rare prize,   and whoever shall succeed,   let him know himself pure and noble,   in wooing as in singing,   if he will win the laurels,   which never yet, among moderns or ancients,   were set so splendidly high   as by this lovely pure maiden,   who shall never regret   that Nuremberg with highest worth   honours Art and its Masters.

[14]

[23]

(Great stir among those present. Sachs approaches Pogner.) POGNER (presses Sachs’s hand, deeply moved) O Sachs! My friend! How worthy of thanks! You know well what makes my heart heavy!

[23, 34, 14, 15]

SACHS (to Pogner) You’ve risked much! Now have courage! Herr Marker! Say, how is it? Good? (He turns to Beckmesser, who during the procession and ever since has been continually taking the poem out of his pocket trying to commit it to memory, and constantly wiping the perspiration from his brow in despair.) BECKMESSER Oh, this song!… I can’t get it, and yet I’ve studied away at it long enough! SACHS My friend, it’s not being forced on you. BECKMESSER What use is that? My own is sung out; it was your fault! Now be kind to me! It would be disgraceful if you left me in the lurch!

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SACHS Ich dächt’, ihr gäbt’s auf. BECKMESSER Warum nicht gar? Die andren sing’ ich alle zu paar; wenn ihr nur nicht singt. SACHS So seht, wie’s geht! BECKMESSER Das Lied, bin’s sicher, zwar keiner versteht; doch bau’ ich auf eure Popularität. SACHS Nun denn, wenn’s Meistern und Volk beliebt, zum Wettgesang man den Anfang gibt. KOTHNER (hervortretend) Ihr ledig’ Meister! Macht euch bereit! Der Ältest’ sich zuerst anlässt! Herr Beckmesser, ihr fangt an: ’s ist Zeit! (Die Lehrbuben führen Beckmesser zu einem kleinen Rasenhügel vor der Singerbühne, welchen sie zuvor festgerammelt und reich mit Blumen überdeckt haben; Beckmesser strauchelt darauf, tritt unsicher und schwankt.)[1a] BECKMESSER Zum Teufel! Wie wackelig! Macht das hübsch fest! (Die Buben lachen unter sich und stopfen lustig an dem Rasen. Das Volk stößt sich gegenseitig lustig an.) VOLK Wie? Der? Der wirbt? Scheint mir nicht der Rechte! An der Tochter Stell’ ich den nicht möchte!   Seid still! ’s ist gar ein tücht’ger Meister!   Still! Macht keinen Witz![1b] Der hat im Rate Stimm’ und Sitz. Ach, der kann ja nicht mal stehn! Ei! Wie soll es mit dem gehn? Stadtschreiber ist er, Beckmesser heißt er!   Gott, ist der dumm!   Er fällt fast um!

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SACHS I should have thought you’d give it up. BECKMESSER A fine idea! I’ll outsing all the others if you’ll only not sing. SACHS Then see what happens. BECKMESSER The song! I’m sure no one will understand it: but I’m basing my hopes on your popularity. SACHS Well then, if Masters and people agree, let the song contest begin. KOTHNER (advancing) Bachelor Masters, make ready! The eldest shall appear first! Herr Beckmesser you shall begin, it’s time! (The Apprentices lead Beckmesser to a little mound of turf which they have beaten solid and richly bestrewn with flowers. Beckmesser stumbles up it, treads uncertainly and totters.)[1a] BECKMESSER The devil! How wobbly! Make it nice and firm! (The boys snigger and vigorously beat the turf. The people nudge each other, and crack jokes together.) TOWNSFOLK What, him? He’s wooing? Doesn’t seem to me to be the right man! In the daughter’s place I shouldn’t want him.   Be quiet! He’s a very able Master!   Quiet! Stop joking![1b] He has a vote and a seat in the council. Ah, he can’t even stand up straight! How will he get on? He’s the Town Clerk, he’s called Beckmesser.   Heavens! What a booby!   He’s almost falling over!

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LEHRBUBEN (in Aufstellung) Silentium! Silentium! Macht kein Regen und kein Gesumm’!

[3]

KOTHNER Fanget an! (Beckmesser, der sich endlich mit Mühe auf dem Rasenhügel festgestellt bat, macht eine erste Verbeugung gegen die Meister, eine zweite gegen das Volk, dann gegen Eva, auf welche er, da sich abwendet, nochmals verlegen hinblinzelt: große Beklommenheit erfasst ihn; er sucht sich durch ein Vorspiel auf der Laute zu ermutigen.) BECKMESSER „Morgen ich leuchte in rosigem Schein,   von Blut und Duft   geht schnell die Luft;   wohl bald gewonnen,   wie zerronnen;   im Garten lud ich ein   garstig und fein.“

[36]

(Beckmesser richtet sich wieder ein, besser auf den Füßen zu stehen.) DIE MEISTER (leise unter sich) Mein! Was ist das? Ist er von Sinnen? Woher mocht’ er solche Gedanken gewinnen? VOLK Hört ihr es? Wen lud er ein? Verstand man recht? Wie kann das sein? (Beckmesser zieht das Blatt verstohlen hervor und lugt eifrig hinein; dann steckt er es ängstlich wieder ein.) BECKMESSER „Wohn’ ich erträglich im selbigen Raum, –   hol’ Gold und Frucht, – (Er lugt in das Blatt.)          

Bleisaft und Wucht… Mich holt am Pranger der Verlanger, auf luft’ger Steige kaum, häng’ ich am Baum!’

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APPRENTICES (drawn up in order) Silence! Silence! No talking and no murmuring!

[3]

KOTHNER Begin! (Beckmesser, who at last, with much difficulty, has found a footing on the mound, bows first to the Masters, then to the people, then to Eva: she turns away; he leers at her in an embarrassed kind of way. He is extremely uneasy and tries to work up his spirits with a prelude on his lute.) BECKMESSER ‘In the morning I shine in a rosy light,   with blood and scent   the air moves fast;   probably soon won,   as if dissolved;   in the garden I invited   horrid and fine.’

[36]

(Beckmesser settles his feet more securely.) THE MASTERS (softly to one another) My! What’s that? Is he out of his mind? Where does he get such thoughts from? TOWNSFOLK Strange! D’you hear? Whom did he invite? Did we understand aright? How can that be? (Beckmesser surreptitiously takes out the paper and glances at it hurriedly; then he pockets it again anxiously.) BECKMESSER ‘I live passably in the same place,   fetch gold and fruit, (a peep at the manuscript)          

lead juice and weight. The aspirant fetches me from the pillory, on airy paths I scarcely hang from the tree.’

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(Er wackelt wieder sehr: sucht im Blatt zu lesen, vermag es nicht; ihm schwindelt, Angstschweiß bricht aus.) DIE MEISTER Was soll das heißen? Ist er nur toll? Sein Lied ist ganz von Unsinn voll! VOLK Schöner Werber! Der find’t wohl seinen Lohn. Bald hängt er am Galgen. Man sieht ihn schon! BECKMESSER (rafft sich verzweiflungsvoll und ingrimmig auf)   „Heimlich mir graut,   weil es hier munter will hergehn:   an meiner Leiter   stand ein Weib; –   sie schämt’ und wollt’   mich nicht besehn;   bleich wie ein Kraut   umfasert mir Hanf meinen Leib;   mit Augen zwinkend,   der Hund blies winkend,   was ich vor langem verzehrt,   wie Frucht so Holz und Pferd   vom Leberbaum.“ (Alles bricht in ein dröhnendes Gelächter aus. Beckmesser verlässt wütend den Hügel und stürzt auf Sachs zu.) BECKMESSER Verdammter Schuster, das dank’ ich dir! – Das Lied, es ist gar nicht von mir: vom Sachs, der hier so hoch verehrt, von eurem Sachs ward mir’s beschert. Mich hat der Schändliche bedrängt, sein schlechtes Lied mir aufgehängt. (Er stürzt wütend fort und verliert sich unter dem Volke.) VOLK Mein! Was soll das sein? Jetzt wird’s immer bunter! Von Sachs das Lied? Das nähm’ uns doch Wunder! KOTHNER (zu Sachs) Erklärt doch, Sachs!

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(He totters again, tries to read the paper, but cannot; his head swims, he breaks into a cold perspiration.) THE MASTERS What does this mean? Is he just mad? His song is quite full of nonsense! TOWNSFOLK A fine wooer! He’s getting his reward. He’ll soon be on the gallows, we can see it now! BECKMESSER (pulling himself together, full of despair and rage)   ‘I secretly grow afraid   because things are going to get merry here:   by my ladder   stood a woman;   she shamed and did not want   look at me;   as pale as a cabbage,   hemp wound about my body;   blinking its eye   the dog blew wavingly   what I long devoured,   like fruit, and wood and horse   from the tree of liver.’ (All burst into a peal of loud laughter. Beckmesser leaves the mound angrily and rushes towards Sachs.) BECKMESSER Damned cobbler! It’s you I thank for that! The song is not by me at all: by Sachs, who is so highly revered here, by your Sachs it was given to me! The disgraceful fellow has bullied me, palmed off his dreadful song on me. (He rushes away furiously and disappears in the crowd.) TOWNSFOLK My! What does that mean? Things are growing every more confused! The song by Sachs? That would amaze us! KOTHNER (to Sachs) Explain, Sachs!

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NACHTIGALL (zu Sachs) Welch’ ein Skandal! VOGELGESANG (zu Sachs) Von euch das Lied? ORTEL und FOLTZ Welch’ eigner Fall! SACHS (hat ruhig das Blatt, welches ihm Beckmesser hingeworfen, aufgenommen) Das Lied, fürwahr, ist nicht von mir: Herr Beckmesser irrt, wie dort so hier. Wie er dazu kam, mag selbst er sagen; doch möcht’ ich nie mich zu rühmen wagen, ein Lied, so schön, wie dies erdacht, sei von mir, Hans Sachs, gemacht.

[21b]

DIE MEISTERSINGER Wie? Schön das Lied? Der Unsinns-Wust? VOLK Hört! Sachs macht Spaß! Er sagt es nur zur Lust. SACHS Ich sag’ euch Herrn, das Lied ist schön; nur ist’s auf den ersten Blick zu ersehn, dass Freund Beckmesser es entstellt! Doch schwör’ ich, dass es euch gefällt,   wenn richtig Wort’ und Weise   hier einer säng’ im Kreise; und wer dies verstünd’, zugleich bewies’,   dass er des Liedes Dichter und gar mit Rechte Meister hieß’,   fänd’ er gerechte Richter. – Ich bin verklagt und muss bestehn: drum lasst mich meinen Zeugen ausersehn. – Ist jemand hier, der Recht mir weiß? Der tret als Zeug’ in diesen Kreis! (Walther tritt aus dem Volke hervor und begrüßt Sachs, sodann nach den beiden Seiten hin die Meister und das Volk mit ritterlicher Freundlichkeit. Es entsteht sogleich eine angenehme Bewegung. Alles weilt einen Augenblick schweigend in seiner Betrachtung.) [5, 16a]

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NACHTIGALL (to Sachs) What a scandal! VOGELGESANG (to Sachs) By you, the song? ORTEL and FOLTZ What a strange occurrence! SACHS (who has quietly picked up the paper which Beckmesser threw at him) The song in truth is not by me: Herr Beckmesser is wrong in every respect! How he came by it he himself may say; but I should never dare to boast that a song as beautifully conceived as this had been composed by me, Hans Sachs.

[21b]

THE MASTERS What? Beautiful? The song? This confused rubbish? TOWNSFOLK Listen, Sachs is joking! He only says it for fun. SACHS I tell you, gentlemen, the song is beautiful: only, it’s easy to see at a glance that friend Beckmesser has distorted it. But I swear it will please you   if someone in this gathering were to sing   the words and music properly. And whoever managed it would at the same time show   that he was poet of the song, and he would rightly be named Master   if he were to find just judges. I am accused and I must stand trial: so let me choose my witness! If anyone is present who knows me to be right, let him as witness enter this circle! (Walther advances from the crowd and greets Sachs, and then salutes the Masters and people on both sides with knightly courtesy. A pleasant stir runs through the crowd. All remain still and regard him for a moment in silence.) [5, 16a]

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So zeuget, das Lied sei nicht von mir; und zeuget auch, dass, was ich hier   vom Lied hab’ gesagt,   zuviel nicht sei gewagt. DIE MEISTER Ei Sachs, ihr seid gar fein! Doch mag es heut’ geschehen sein. SACHS Der Regel Güte daraus man erwägt, dass sie auch mal ’ne Ausnahm’ verträgt. VOLK Ein guter Zeuge, stolz und kühn; mich dünkt, dem kann was Gut’s erblüh’n. SACHS Meister und Volk sind gewillt zu vernehmen, was mein Zeuge gilt. Herr Walther von Stolzing, singt das Lied! – ihr Meister, lest, ob’s ihm geriet. (Er übergibt Kothner das Blatt zum Nachlesen.) LEHRBUBEN (in Aufstellung) Alles gespannt! ’s gibt kein Gesumm’: da rufen wir auch nicht „Silentium“! (Walther beschreitet festen Schrittes den kleinen Blumenhügel.)

[7]

WALTHER   „Morgenlich leuchtend im rosigen Schein,   von Blüt’ und Duft   geschwellt die Luft,   voll aller Wonnen,   nie ersonnen,   ein Garten lud mich ein, – (An dieser Stelle lässt Kothner das Blatt, in welchem er mit andren Meistern eifrig nachzulesen begonnen vor Ergriffenheit unwillkürlich fallen; er und die übrigen hören nur noch teilnahmsvoll zu. Walther scheint es – unmerklich – gewahrt zu haben und fährt nun in freier Fassung fort.)      

dort unter einem Wunderbaum, von Früchten reich behangen, zu schau’n in sel’gem Liebestraum,

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Give witness that this song is not by me; and give witness also that what I have here   said of this song   is not an exaggeration. THE MASTERS Well, Sachs, you are very artful! But we’ll let that pass for today. SACHS The value of a rule can be appreciated when sometimes it allows an exception. TOWNSFOLK A good witness, proud and bold! Methinks good can come of him. SACHS Master and people are of a mind to hear what my witness can do. Sir Walther von Stolzing, sing the song! Masters, read, see if he brings it off. (He gives Kothner the paper to follow.) APPRENTICES (drawn up in order) All is expectancy, there’s not a murmur: so we shall not call ‘Silence!’ (Walther mounts the small mound with firm steps.)

[7]

WALTHER   ‘Shining in the rosy light of morning,   the air heavy   with blossom and scent,   full of every   unthought-of joy,   a garden invited me (Kothner is so moved that he drops the sheet of paper which he had started reading, together with other Masters: he and the others listen with increasing attention. Walther seems, imperceptibly, to see this and continues more freely.)      

and, beneath a wondrous tree there, richly hung with fruit, to behold in blessed dream of love,

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was höchstem Lustverlangen. Erfüllung kühn verhieß, das schönste Weib: Eva im Paradies!’

(Meister und Volk leise flüsternd.) DIE MEISTER Ja wohl, ich merk’, ’s ist ein ander Ding, ob falsch man oder richtig sing’. VOLK Das ist was andres, wer hätt’s gedacht; was doch recht Wort und Vortrag macht! SACHS   Zeuge am Ort,   fahret fort! WALTHER   „Abendlich dämmernd umschloss mich die Nacht;   auf steilem Pfad   war ich genaht   zu einer Quelle   reiner Welle,   die lockend mir gelacht: –   dort unter einem Lorbeerbaum,   von Sternen hell durchschienen,   ich schaut’ im wachen Dichtertraum,   von heilig holden Mienen,   mich netzend mit dem edlen Nass,   das hehrste Weib,   die Muse des Parnass!“ DIE MEISTER ’s ist kühn und seltsam, das ist wahr; doch wohlgereimt und singebar. VOLK So hold und traut so fern es schwebt; doch ist’s, als ob man’s miterlebt! SACHS Zeuge, wohl erkiest;   Fahret fort, und schließt!

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boldly promising fulfilment to the highest of joy’s desires, the most beautiful woman: Eva in Paradise.’

(Masters and Townsfolk softly, aside) THE MASTERS Yes, indeed! I see, it makes a difference if one sings it wrong or right. TOWNSFOLK That’s something else entirely, who’d have thought it? What a difference the right words and the proper delivery make! SACHS   Witness, here present,   continue! WALTHER   ‘In the evening twilight, night enfolded me;   on a steep path   I had approached   a spring   of pure water,   which laughed enticingly to me:   there beneath a laurel tree,   with stars shining brightly through its leaves,   in a poet’s waking dream I beheld,   holy and fair of countenance,   and sprinkling me with the precious water,   the most wonderful woman,   the Muse of Parnassus!’ THE MASTERS It’s bold and strange, that’s true: but well rhymed and singable. TOWNSFOLK So gracious and familiar, however far off it soars, but we seem to be experiencing it with him! SACHS Well chosen, witness!   Continue and conclude!

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WALTHER   „Huldreichster Tag,   dem ich aus Dichters Traum erwacht!   Das ich erträumt, das Paradies,   in himmlisch neu verklärter Pracht   hell vor mir lag,   dahin lachend nun der Quell den Pfad mir wies;   die, dort geboren,   mein Herz erkoren,   der Erde lieblichstes Bild,   als Muse mir geweiht,   so heilig hehr als mild,   ward kühn von mir gefreit,   am lichten Tag der Sonnen,   durch Sanges Sieg gewonnen   Parnass und Paradies!“ – VOLK          

Gewiegt wie in den schönsten Traum, hör’ ich es wohl, doch fass’ es kaum. Reich’ ihm das Reis, sein sei der Preis; keiner wie er so hold zu werben weiß!

DIE MEISTER (sich erhebend)   Ja, holder Sänger, nimm das Reis;   dein Sang erwarb dir Meisterpreis! POGNER (mit großer Ergriffenheit zu Sachs sich wendend)   O Sachs! Dir dank’ ich Glück und Ehr’:   vorüber nun all’ Herzbeschwer’! EVA (zu Walther) Keiner wie du so hold zu werben weiß! (Walther ist auf die Stufen der Singerbühne geleitet worden und lässt sich dort vor Eva auf die Knie nieder. Eva, die vom Anfang des Auftrittes her in sicherer, ruhiger Haltung verblieben und bei allen Vorgängen wie in seliger Geistesentrücktheit sich verhalten, hat Walther unverwandt zugehört; jetzt während am Schlusse der dritten Strophe Volk und Meister gerührt und ergriffen, unwillkürlich ihre Zustimmung ausdrücken, erhebt sie sich, schreitet an den Rand der Singerbühne und drückt auf die Stirn Walthers, welcher zu den Stufen herangetreten ist und vor ihr sich niedergelassen, einen aus Lorbeer und Myrten geflochtenen Kranz; vorauf dieser sich erhebt, und von ihr zu ihrem Vater geleitet wird, vor welchem beide niederknien: Pogner streckt segnend seine Hände über sie aus.)

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WALTHER   ‘Most gracious day,   to which I awoke from a poet’s dream!   The Paradise of which I had dreamt   in heavenly, new-transfigured splendour   lay bright before me,   to which the spring laughingly now showed me the path;   she, born there,   my heart’s elect,   earth’s loveliest picture,   destined to be my Muse,   as holy and grave as she is mild,   was boldly wooed by me;   in the sun’s bright daylight,   through victory in song, I had won   Parnassus and Paradise!’ TOWNSFOLK   Lulled as if in most beautiful dream   I hear it well, but scarcely grasp it!   Give him the wreath!   His the prize!   No one can woo like him! THE MASTERS (rising)   Yes, gracious singer! Take the victor’s wreath!   Your song has won you the Masters’ prize. POGNER (turning to Sachs with great emotion)   O Sachs! I owe you happiness and honour.   Past now are all the cares of my heart! EVA (to Walther) No one can woo as graciously as you! (Walther has been led up the steps of the Singer’s platform and there sinks before Eva on one knee. Eva, having remained in peaceful, quiet composure throughout the song and having acted as if in a state of blissful reverie, has listened intently to Walther. Now at the end of the third verse, as the Townsfolk and the Master, deeply touched and affected, express their spontaneous approval, she rises, steps towards the edge of the Singer’s platform and crowns Walther, who has come to the stairs and kneels before her, with a wreath of laurels and myrtles. He rises and is led to her by her father, to whom they both kneel, Pogner extending his hands above them as a blessing.)

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SACHS (zum Volk gewandt, auf Walther und Eva deutend) Den Zeugen, denk’ es, wählt’ ich gut: tragt ihr Hans Sachs d’rum üblen Mut? VOLK (bricht schnell und heftig in jubelnder Bewegung aus) Hans Sachs! Nein! Das war schön erdacht! Das habt ihr einmal wieder gut gemacht! DIE MEISTER (feierlich zu Pogner sich wendend) Auf, Meister Pogner! Euch zum Ruhm, meldet dem Junker sein Meistertum! POGNER (mit einer goldenen Kette, dran drei große Denkmünzen, zu Walther) Geschmückt mit König Davids Bild, nehm’ ich euch auf in der Meister Gild’! WALTHER (mit schmerzlicher Heftigkeit abweisend)   Nicht Meister! Nein! (Er blickt zärtlich auf Eva.)  

Will ohne Meister selig sein!

(Alles blickt mit großer Betroffenheit auf Sachs.) SACHS (schreitet auf Walther zu und fasst ihn bedeutungsvoll bei der Hand) Verachtet mir die Meister nicht, [1a]   und ehrt mir ihre Kunst! Was ihnen hoch zum Lobe spricht, fiel reichlich euch zur Gunst. Nicht euren Ahnen noch so wert, nicht eurem Wappen, Speer noch Schwert, –   dass ihr ein Dichter seid,   ein Meister euch gefreit, dem dankt ihr heut’ eu’r höchstes Glück. Drum denkt mit Dank ihr dran zurück, wie kann die Kunst wohl unwert sein, die solche Preise schließest ein? – Das uns’re Meister sie gepflegt [3]   grad’ recht nach ihrer Art, nach ihrem Sinne treu gehegt,   das hat sie echt bewahrt: blieb sie nicht adlig, wie zur Zeit, [1b] da Höf’ und Fürsten sie geweiht,   im Drang der schlimmen Jahr’

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SACHS (to the people, pointing to Walther and Eva) The witness, I think, I chose well: do you bear ill will against Hans Sachs for doing so? TOWNSFOLK (breaking forth into demonstrations of joy) Hans Sachs! No! You thought it out excellently! You’ve made everything right again now! MASTERSINGERS (solemnly, turning to Pogner) Up, Master Pogner! Let it be your honour to announce to the knight his Mastership! POGNER (bringing forward a gold chain with three large medallions, to Walther) Adorned with King David’s picture I take you up into the guild of Masters! WALTHER (with vehement denial)   Not Master! No! (He looks tenderly at Eva.)  

I will be happy without Masterhood.

(All look disconcertedly towards Sachs.) SACHS (going towards Walther and grasping him meaningfully by the hand) Scorn not the Masters, I bid you, [1a]   and honour their art! What speaks high in their praise fell richly in your favour. Not to your ancestors, however worthy, not to your coat of arms, spear or sword,   but to the fact that you are a poet,   that a Master has admitted you – to that you owe today your highest happiness. So, think back to this with gratitude: how can the art be unworthy which embraces such prizes? That our Masters have cared for it [3]   rightly in their own way, cherished it truly as they thought best,   that has kept it genuine: if it did not remain aristocratic as of old, [1b] when courts and princes blessed it,   in the stress of evil years

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  blieb sie doch deutsch und wahr; und wär’ sie anders nicht geglückt, als wie wo alles drängt und drückt, ihr seht, wie hoch sie blieb im Ehr’: – was wollt ihr von den Meistern mehr? – Habt Acht! Uns dräuen üble Streich’: – zerfällt erst deutsches Volk und Reich, in falscher welscher Majestät kein Fürst bald mehr sein Volk versteht, und welschen Dunst mit welschem Tand sie pflanzen uns in deutsches Land; was deutsch und echt, wüsst’ keiner mehr, lebt’s nicht in deutscher Meister Ehr’.   Drum sag’ ich euch:   ehrt eure deutschen Meister!   Dann bannt ihr gute Geister; und gebt ihr ihrem Wirken Gunst,   zerging’ in Dunst   das heil’ge röm’sche Reich,   uns bliebe gleich   die heil’ge deutsche Kunst!

[5]

[1b]

(Während des folgenden Schlussgesanges nimmt Eva den Kranz von Walthers Stirne und drückt ihn Sachs auf; dieser nimmt die Kette aus Pogners Hand und hängt sie Walther um. Nachdem Sachs das Paar umarmt, bleiben Walther und Eva zu beiden Seiten an Sachsens Schultern gestützt; Pogner lässt sich, wie huldigend, auf ein Knie vor Sachs nieder. Die Meistersinger deuten mit erhobenen Händen auf Sachs, als auf ihr Haupt. Alle Anwesenden schließen sich dem Gesange des Volkes an.) VOLK   Ehrt eure deutschen Meister,   dann bannt ihr gute Geister; und gebt ihr ihrem Wirken Gunst,   zerging’ in Dunst   das heil’ge röm’sche Reich,   uns bliebe gleich   die heil’ge deutsche Kunst! (Als es hier zu der bezeichneten Schlussgruppe gelangt ist, schwenkt das Volk begeistert Hüte und Tücher; die Lehrbuben tanzen und schlagen jauchzend in die Hände.)    

Heil! Sachs! Nürnbergs teurem Sachs!

[19]

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  it remained German and true; and if it flourished nowhere but where all is stress and strain, you see how high it remained in honour – what more would you ask of the Masters? Beware! Evil tricks threaten us;  once the German people and the German empire  fragment under false foreign rule,  then soon no prince will be able to understand his people,  and foreign delusions and baubles will take hold of Germany; and no one would know any more what was German and genuine, if it did not live on in the tradition of the German Masters.   Therefore I say to you:   honour your German Masters,   then you will conjure up good spirits! And if you favour their endeavours,   even if the Holy Roman Empire   should dissolve in mist,   for us there would yet remain   holy German art!

[5]

[1b]

(During the following closing song, Eva takes the wreath from Walther’s head and places it on Sachs’s; he takes the chain from Pogner’s hand and puts it round Walther’s neck. After Sachs has embraced the young couple, Walther and Eva lean against Sachs, one on each side; Pogner sinks on his knee before him as if in homage. The Mastersingers point to Sachs, with outstretched hands, as if he were their leader. All those present join in the people’s song.) TOWNSFOLK   Honour your German Masters,   then you will conjure up good spirits! And if you favour their endeavours,   even if the Holy Roman Empire   should dissolve in mist,   for us there would yet remain   holy German Art! (As the final tableau is now formed, the people wave their hats and kerchiefs in their enthusiasm; in the meantime, the Apprentices clap their hands, shout and dance.)    

Hail, Sachs! Nuremberg’s dear Sachs!

[19]

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Select Discography At the time of publication, http://www.cs.hs-rm.de/~weber/opera/ meister/index.htm lists 151 complete performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on CD up until July 2013, including transfers of many ‘off-the-air’ broadcasts. No discussion in English of all these recordings is currently available. This guide’s selection highlights some of the leading interpretations available. YEAR

CAST Hans Sachs Walther von Stolzing Eva Sixtus Beckmesser David Veit Pogner Magdalene

CONDUCTOR/ORCHESTRA/ chorus

1937

Hans Hermann Nissen Arturo Toscanini Henk Noort Vienna Philharmonic Maria Reining and Chorus Hermann Wiedemann Richard Sallaba Herbert Alsen Kerstin Thorborg

Andante (live)

1943

Jaro Prohaska Max Lorenz Maria Müller Eugen Fuchs Erich Zimmermann Joseph Greindl Camilla Kallab

Music & Arts (live)

Wilhelm Furtwängler Bayreuth Festival and Chorus

326

LABEL

Select Discography 1951

Otto Edelmann Hans Hopf Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Erich Kunz Gerhard Unger Friedrich Dalberg Ira Malanuik

Herbert von Karajan Bayreuth Festival and Chorus

Naxos (live)

1956

Ferdinand Frantz Rudolf Schock Elisabeth Grümmer Benno Kusche Gerhard Unger Gottlob Frick Marga Höffgen

Rudolf Kempe Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin State Opera Chorus

Warner

1956

Hans Hotter André Cluytens Wolfgang Windgassen Bayreuth Festival and Gré Brouwenstijn Chorus Karl Schmitt-Walter Gerhard Stolze Josef Greindl Georgine von Milinkovič

Walhall (live)

1963

Otto Wiener Jess Thomas Claire Watson Benno Kusche Friedrich Lenz Hans Hotter Lilian Benningsen

Joseph Keilberth Bavarian State Opera and Chorus

Sony (live)

1967

Thomas Stewart Sándor Kónya Gundula Janowitz Thomas Hemsley Gerhard Unger Franz Crass Brigitte Fassbaender

Rafael Kubelík Bavarian State Opera and Chorus

Arts (live)

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die meistersinger von nürnberg 1968

Norman Bailey Reginald Goodall Alberto Remedios Sadler’s Wells Margaret Curphey and Chorus Derek Hammond-Stroud Gregory Dempsey Noel Mangin Ann Robson

Chandos (live) (in English)

1970

Theo Adam René Kollo Helen Donath Geraint Evans Peter Schreier Karl Ridderbusch Ruth Hesse

Herbert von Karajan Dresden Staatskapelle and Chorus

Warner

1975

Norman Bailey René Kollo Hannelore Bode Bernd Weikl Adolf Dallapozza Kurt Moll Julia Hamari

Georg Solti Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus

Decca

1976

Dietrich FischerDieskau Plácido Domingo Catarina Ligendza Roland Hermann Horst R. Laubenthal Peter Lagger Christa Ludwig

Eugen Jochum Deutsche Oper Berlin and Chorus

DG

1993

Bernd Weikl Ben Heppner Cheryl Studer Siegfried Lorenz Deon van der Walt Kurt Moll Cornelia Kallisch

Wolfgang Sawallisch Bavarian State Opera and Chorus

EMI

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Select Discography 1995

José van Dam Ben Heppner Karita Mattila Alan Opie Herbert Lippert René Pape Iris Vermillion

Georg Solti Chicago Symphony and Chorus

1997

John Tomlinson Bernard Haitink Gösta Winbergh Royal Opera House Nancy Gustafson and Chorus Thomas Allen Herbert Lippert Gwynne Howell Catherine Wyn-Rogers

Opus Arte (live)

2011

Gerald Finley Marco Jentzsch Anna Gabler Johannes Martin Kränzle Topi Lehtipuu Alastair Miles Michaela Selinger

Glyndebourne (live)

Vladimir Jurowski Glyndebourne Festival and Chorus

329

Decca (live)

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD At the time of publication, www.cs.hs-rm.de/~weber/opera/meister/ index.htm lists eighteen complete performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD up until July 2013. No discussion of all these recordings is currently available in English. An annotated list of versions up to 2003, including early and related films, both commercially released and otherwise, may be found in Ken Wlaschin, Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 441–42. This guide’s selection highlights some of the leading interpretations available. Year Cast Hans Sachs Walther von Stolzing Eva Sixtus Beckmesser David Veit Pogner Magdalene 1985

Conductor/Orchestra/ chorus

Bernd Weikl Horst Stein Siegfried Jerusalem Bayreuth Festival Mari Anne Häggander and Chorus Herman Prey Graham Clark Manfred Schenk Marga Schiml

330

Director/ Company/ Label

Wolfgang Wagner Bayreuth Festival DG Unitel

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD 1995

Wolfgang Brendel Gösta Winbergh Eva Johannson Eike Wilm Schulte Uwe Peper Victor von Halem Ute Walther

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Chorus

Götz Friedrich Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin Arthaus

1999

Robert Holl Peter Seiffert Emily Magee Andreas Schmidt Endrik Wottrich Matthias Hölle Birgitta Svendén

Daniel Barenboim Bayreuth Festival and Chorus

Wolfgang Wagner Bayreuth Festival EuroArts

2001

James Morris Ben Heppner Karita Mattila Hans-Joachim Ketelsen Matthew Polenzani René Pape Jill Grove

James Levine Metropolitan Opera and Chorus

Otto Schenk Metropolitan Opera DG

2008

Franz Hawlata Klaus Florian Vogt Michaela Kaune Michael Volle Norbert Ernst Artur Korn Carola Guber

Sebastian Weigle Bayreuth Festival and Chorus

Katharina Wagner Bayreuth Festival Opus Arte

2009

Falk Struckmann Johan Botha Ricarda Merbeth Adrian Eröd Michael Schade Ain Anger Michaela Selinger

Christian Thielemann Vienna State Opera and Chorus

Otto Schenk Vienna State Opera DG

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die meistersinger von nürnberg 2011

Gerald Finley Marco Jentzsch Anna Gabler Johannes Martin Kränzle Topi Lehtipuu Alastair Miles Michaela Selinger

Vladimir Jurowski London Philharmonic Glyndebourne Festival Chorus

David McVicar Glyndebourne Festival EuroArts

2013

Michael Volle Roberto Saccà Ann Gabler Markus Werba Peter Sonn Georg Zeppenfeld Monika Bohinec

Daniele Gatti Vienna Philharmonic Vienna State Opera Chorus

Stefan Herheim Salzburg Festival EuroArts

332

Select Bibliography Borchmeyer, Dieter, Drama and the World of Richard Wagner, trans. Daphne Ellis (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003) Carnegy, Patrick, Wagner and the Art of the Theatre: The Operas in Stage Performance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006) Deathridge, John, Wagner Beyond Good and Evil (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2008) Dreyfus, Laurence, Wagner and the Erotic Impulse (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press, 2010) Emslie, Barry, Richard Wagner and the Centrality of Love (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010) Grey, Thomas S. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Wagner (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) Gutman, Robert W., Richard Wagner: The Man, His Mind, and His Music (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968) Köhler, Joachim, Wagner’s Hitler (Cambridge and Oxford: Polity Press, 2000) Köhler, Joachim, Richard Wagner: The Last of the Titans (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2004) Millington, Barry (ed.), The Wagner Compendium (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992) 333

die meistersinger von nürnberg Millington, Barry and Spencer, Stewart (eds.), Wagner in Performance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992) Millington, Barry, The Sorcerer of Bayreuth (London: Thames & Hudson, 2012) Newman, Ernest, The Life of Richard Wagner, 4 vols. (London: Cassell, 1933–47; New York: Knopf, 1946) Osborne, Charles (ed.), Richard Wagner: Stories and Essays (London: Peter Owen, 1973) Rose, Paul Laurence, Wagner: Race and Revolution (London: Faber and Faber, 1992) Spotts, Frederic, Bayreuth: A History of the Bayreuth Festival (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1994) Tanner, Michael, The Faber Pocket Guide to Wagner (London: Faber and Faber, 2010) Treadwell, James, Interpreting Wagner (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003) Vazsonyi, Nicholas (ed.), Wagner’s ‘Meistersinger’: Performance, History, Representation (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2003) Vazsonyi, Nicholas (ed.), The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) Wagner, Cosima, Cosima Wagner’s Diaries, ed. Martin Gregor-Dellin and Dieter Mack, trans. Geoffrey Skelton, 2 vols. (New York and London: Collins, 1978–80) Wagner, Richard, Richard Wagner’s Prose Works, trans. and ed. William Ashton Ellis, 8 vols. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1892–99) 334

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg on DVD Wagner, Richard, Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1987) Warrack, John (ed.), Richard Wagner: ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) Weiner, Marc A., Richard Wagner and the Anti-Semitic Imagination (Lincoln, NB and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, with new postscript 1997) Williams, Simon, Wagner and the Romantic Hero (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

335

Wagner Websites* In English or with an English-language option Bayreuth Festivalwww.bayreuther-festspiele.de Richard Wagner Museum, Bayreuth www.wahnfried.de Richard-Wagner-Verbandwww.richard-wagner-verband.de Wagner Society UKwww.wagnersociety.org Wagner Society New Yorkwww.wagnersocietyny.org The Wagner Journal www.thewagnerjournal.co.uk The Wagnerian www.the-wagnerian.com

* Links valid at the time of publication in 2015. 336

Note on the Contributors Tim Blanning was Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and remains a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. He has been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1990. His most recent publications include The Triumph of Music (Faber Books, 2008) and The Romantic Revolution (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010). Peter Branscombe held the chair of Austrian Studies at the University of St Andrews. His publications include the Cambridge University Handbook to Die Zauberflöte and translations of works by Heinrich Heine and Otto Erich Deutsch’s Mozart: A Documentary Biography. John Deathridge is Emeritus King Edward Professor of Music at King’s College London. His recent publications include a new co-edited critical edition of Lohengrin (Eulenburg, 2007), Wagner Beyond Good and Evil (University of California Press, 2008) and the essay ‘Waiting for Wagner’ in Opera Quarterly (Oxford University Press, 2014). Áine Sheil is a Lecturer in Music at the University of York. She has published articles and chapters on the production and reception history of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, contemporary opera practice and opera-related arts policy. Hans Rudolf Vaget is Professor Emeritus of German Studies at Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts), having taught there from 1967 to 2004. His publications have chiefly been on Goethe, Wagner and Thomas Mann, most recently Thomas Mann der Amerikaner (S. Fischer Verlag, 2011). He was a member of the editorial board of wagnerspectrum, 2005–13. Arnold Whittall is Emeritus Professor of Music Theory and Analysis at King’s College London. His recent writings on Wagner include contributions to The Cambridge Companion to Wagner and The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia. His book of collected essays, The Wagner Style, will be published by Plumbago Press in 2015.

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Nicholas John, dramaturge and editor (1952–1996) Nicholas John played an important role at a pivotal time in postwar British opera. From 1976 until his untimely death in a hillwalking accident in 1996 at the age of forty-three, he was a central part of English National Opera, at a time when the company was instrumental in changing the nature of opera production in the UK. During the 1980s and 1990s, in what became known as the Power House years, the company embarked on an approach to opera which had a profound effect in Britain and beyond. With a succession of radical productions that resolutely treated opera as serious music theatre, ENO both challenged and shocked audiences. Nicholas John provided much of the literary and intellectual underpinning for this bold venture. Nicholas John initially joined ENO as publications manager, and his first aim in this position was to set about transforming the company’s programme books. He expanded their range and depth with highly illuminating essays by writers from much more diverse backgrounds than had previously been featured in opera programmes. He also included enlightening quotations and often unfamiliar images which helped convey the nature not only of the works themselves, but also, and perhaps more importantly, of the productions and the ideas which lay behind them. ENO’s programme books became models of their kind. Supported and encouraged by Lord Harewood as managing director and then Peter Jonas as general director, by the early 1980s ENO was being led by Mark Elder as music director and David Pountney as director of productions. New young directors and designers were regularly given the opportunity of presenting innovative productions of the standard operatic repertory, while at the same time the company extended its range by presenting works by neglected composers from the past and new operas by modern composers. The aims and scope of the company became increasingly ambitious, and in 1985 Nicholas John was appointed ENO’s dramaturge (the first such for any British opera company). In this capacity, he acted as the company’s literary advisor. His great love of opera and his extensive 338

knowledge of all areas of the repertory enabled him to work closely with conductors, directors and designers in the early stages of devising a production and to give advice on authentic texts, performance practice and the performance history of an opera. In addition to this, he had in 1980 begun work as editor of a series of opera guides with the publisher John Calder, in association with ENO. At the time of his death, sixteen years later, these had reached a total of forty-eight titles, covering no fewer than fiftyeight operas (some guides dealt with more than one work) and had moved beyond the central operatic repertory to include stage works by then relatively little-performed composers such as Monteverdi, Bartók and Tippett. These guides, which the present Overture series has built upon and expanded, became the most highly respected of their kind in the English-speaking world. They all included scholarly articles on the background and music of the operas, a full libretto with a singing translation in English, a musical thematic guide, copious illustrations, a discography and a bibliography. They were prized by opera-goers and professionals alike, and for many years no rehearsal of a British opera company would be complete without at least one copy of a Nicholas John opera guide on the production desk. In a preface to the guides, Nicholas John had explained the main idea behind the project: ‘As companions to the opera should be, they are well informed, witty and attractive’. The guides lived up to these ambitions. Nicholas John’s other publications extended to a number of important opera books which he edited, including one with Jonathan Miller, The Don Giovanni Book (1990), and another, Violetta and Her Sisters (1994), an examination of the background and responses to La traviata. He also compiled and edited the celebratory Power House: The English National Opera Experience (1992), the best available record of a truly remarkable period in post-war British cultural history. At the very end of his life, he was about to embark, with the collaboration of Lord Harewood, on a wholesale revision of Kobbe’s Complete Opera Book. His sudden death robbed the opera world of one of its most creative and knowledgeable figures. * * *

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Nicholas John’s great passion for opera lives on through the work of the Nicholas John Trust, not least through its nurturing of new young singing talent and other projects with opera at their core. His belief in the power of opera to enlighten and enrich our lives was embodied in all his work at ENO and in his opera guides and books. The present Overture series builds directly on the extraordinary achievements of his original guides, and the Nicholas John Trust is generously giving its support to enable all the guides in the new series now to be available as ebooks. Nicholas John worked before a time of electronic publishing, and one cannot but feel he would have applauded this extension to a broader public of such an important part of his legacy

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank John Allison and Erica Jeal of Opera, Charles Johnston and Mike Ashman for their assistance and advice in the preparation of this guide and Robin Gordon-Powell for his setting of the music examples in the Thematic Guide.

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