The Mastersingers at English National Opera wins all the prizes
I ENTERED the Coliseum Theatre in good time for the 3pm start of Wagner's Mastersingers.
When I came out and looked at my watch, I was amazed to see that it was 9pm and I wondered where all the time had gone.
Wagner has a way of carrying you along on the emotional power of his music and this glorious production by Richard Jones has an energy and vitality about it that adds to its irresistible appeal.
The plot is simple and comic: the town of Nuremberg is to hold a singing contest with the winner receiving the hand in marriage of Eva, the daughter of the Mastersingers' leader.
Eva herself is none too happy at this prospect, unless the winner turns out to be the young knight Walther von Stolzing with whom she is besotted.
But Walther is not even a Mastersinger so does not even have the right to enter the contest.
The favourite is therefore the pompous Sixtus Beckmesser, who will do anything he can to keep Walther out of the competition.
Forget Britain's Got Talent, and The X Factor, and The Voice, if you want to hear a real singing contest packed with glorious British talent, The Mastersingers at the English National Opera wins all the prizes
Galloping to the rescue, however, comes the cobbler Hans Sachs, who hatches a plot that will wreck Beckmesser's chances and have Walther recognised as the most suitable winner of the contest.
The glorious thing about the production is that it is played for the comedy it really is.
All too often a reverential respect for Wagner's music results in a dilution of the fun, but this production gets it just right.
Iain Paterson is wonderful as Hans Sachs, mixing comedy and anguish in perfect proportion.
Andrew Shore, always one of the finest of our singer/actors, is a real Malvolio of a Beckmesser, seething with self-satisfaction and villainy, and Gwyn Hughes Jones, as Walther von Stolzing, brings just the sort of nobility and clear and passionate voice to the role that you feel deserves to win the contest.
To complete the main roles, Rachel Nicholls is a delightful Eva, looking the part and combining emotion, vulnerability and occasional petulance in just the right proportions.
Best of all, however, by a very short head, comes the performance of the orchestra under Edward Gardner, who gets the balance absolutely perfect between Wagner's magnificent score and the sheer fun of the story to deliver real exhilaration.
Forget Britain's Got Talent, and The X Factor, and The Voice, if you want to hear a real singing contest packed with glorious British talent, The Mastersingers at the English National Opera wins all the prizes.
