Recorded live at the Sydney Opera House, October 14, 1988 and performed by the Australian Opera Chorus and the Elizabethan Philharmonic Orchestra, this opera is the only comedy that Richard Wagner ever wrote. Set in Nuremberg in the middle of the sixteenth century, it is a parable of art told in terms of a simple human love story. Within the context of middle-class town life, the opera symbolises the eternal conflict between the need for change, with Walther at its forefront, and the conservative forces of a too strongly held critical tradition, personified in Beckmesser. Sung in German with English subtitles, the conductor is Charles MacKerras and the director is Michael Hampe.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
304544
Language
German
Audience classification
G
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)