Wagner Performances in Post-war Germany
A program announcing the performance of Wagner's Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) in the Opernhaus am Karl Marx Platz during the 1960/61 season.
Wagner's own anti-Semitic beliefs as well as his veneration by the Nazis required careful consideration in a program that announces the performance of his music in post-war Germany. Rather than promoting the strong nationalist tone that is presented in many of Wagner's operas, particularly in his operas on themes from German mythology, the performance of the music drama The Mastersingers of Nuremberg focuses on the more universal topic of artistic development. The program stresses the relevance of Wagner's musical drama to the present with its focus on the unique relation between the individual genius and the people. Wagner's work, the program emphasizes, warns us of “the dangers to art when its free unfolding is inhibited and constricted.” One can also identify a subtle moment of self-reflection in the program's depiction of the figure of the head of the chancery in the opera: “In his exactitude [he is] perhaps the most German figure of this German opera […] he knows […] everything that an artist should know, only one thing is missing: the spark without which all is for naught.”
