Katharina Wagner in conversation with Clemens Risi, The Bayreuth ‘Meistersinger’: Some Thoughts on its Production

Clemens Risi: Throughout its history Die Meistersinger has, in its different interpretations, been a constant source of artistic conflict. At the same time the opera itself deals with an inherent conflict of values between conservators and reformers. To what extent can these conflicts, clearly rooted as they are in 19th-century debate, be applied to our contemporary debate about so-called Regietheater (director’s theatre) – which the production towards the end on the festival meadow would at least suggest?