Die Meistersinger in Edinburgh

A concert performance of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg” at the Usher Hall marked the end of this year’s Edinburgh Festival and the end of Brian McMaster’s tenure as Festival Director. A brief but effective tribute from his deputy brought prolonged and warm applause, which could easily have turned into an ovation had not McMaster stayed modestly in his seat.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. The performance was conducted by David Robertson and a very poor job he made of it. Yes, the climaxes were loud and thrilling (as they should be) but the orchestra throughout the opera was loud and raucous (as it should not be). Robertson's few rather limp attempts to quell the noise (even putting his finger to his lips like a school ma'am) were completely ignored as the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra roared its way through the score.

This meant that a lot of the magic and delicacy in this wonderful score was lost; it meant that the singers were constantly fighting to be heard; and it meant that the conversational passages (of which there are many) were more like shouting matches.

Why was Robertson engaged for this rather special event? He does not seem to have any special link with the Edinburgh Festival, his operatic pedigree is weak and his Wagner credentials even weaker.

Having got all that off my chest, the singers did an excellent job. I loved Toby Spence's excellent David, beautifully sung and characterised, and Andrew Shore's Beckmesser, sung rather than whined, and correctly avoiding the risk of caricature. Robert Holl was a bluff and avuncular Hans Sachs: I felt that even if Walther had not come along nothing would ever really have happened between this Sachs and Eva.

Jonas Kaufmann's debut in the role of Walther was everything I had hoped it would be, although his attempts at subtlety were lost in the torrent of noise from the orchestra. He sang beautifully and lyrically and looked every inch the romantic hero. I really enjoy the quality of his voice: the slightly husky, baritonal middle but also the clear ringing top notes. This is a role I hope he will return to.

It was good to see Matthew Rose taking a significant step forward in his career with his sonorous Pogner. A special mention for the nightwatchman of Paul Whelan. The two ladies (Hillevi Martinpelto and Wendy Dawn Thompson) were good without being memorable.

Finally, what a brilliant idea to line up all those marvellous old master singers as the Mastersingers: William Kendall, John Shirley-Quirk, Jeffrey Lawton, John Mitchinson, John Robertson, Philip Joll, Glenville Hargreaves, Richard van Allan. Most of them now in their seventies, at least two (if not more) of them sang Wagner with Goodall. I wonder what they thought of the conducting...