Nuremberg’s Got Talent: Barry Millington finds little to lift the spirits in the Munich ‘Meistersinger’

Review of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed Bösch, conducted Kirill Petrenko, Munich, 2016.

November 2016, Volume 10, Number 3, 68–70.

No one who saw David Bösch’s Covent Garden Il Trovatore last season, or any of the other recent productions that exemplify his anti-Romantic aesthetic, will be greatly surprised to hear that his Meistersinger for Munich is decidedly short on elder blossom. As with Trovatore, Bösch is anxious to show that Meistersinger has a darker side – as indeed it does – though whether, given its flawed dramaturgy and indifferent direction, this production hits the target is a moot point.