Posted October 12, 2015

Posted October 12, 2015

From the “It Takes One To KNOW One” Department:

The Berlin Staatsoper presented a new production of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of German Unification (Tearing down the Berlin Wall). That isn’t really the BIG news item though. What made this production extra special was the unusual casting of the Meistersingers themselves with some names from the past:

Olaf Bär (age 58) Hans Foltz

Graham Clark (age 73) Kunz Vogelgesang

Siegfried Jerusalem (age 75) Baltasar Zorn

Reiner Goldberg (age 75) Ulrich Eisslinger

And the Meister of all Meistersingers Franz Mazura (age 91) as Hans Schwarz

Conducting: Daniel Barenboim (72 if you must know)

The photo from Die Welt shows from left to right: Graham Clark, Siegfried Jerusalem, Wolfgang Koch (obscured – Hans Sachs), Franz Mazura (with cane) and Olaf Bär.

The Five Meister Meistersingers took a separate bow together to roaring applause and later each took an individual curtain call.

The youngsters were: Klaus Florian Vogt, Julia Kleiter, Stephan Rügamer and Anna Lapkovskaja

photo credit: Die Welt