In 35 years’ acquaintance with Meistersinger, this was by far the slowest, dullest, most insipid I have seen. Apparently oblivious to the composer’s instruction to take the music at a “moderately moving” pace, Vladimir Jurowski holds up each phrase for inspection, polishes it, presents it for our admiration – then proceeds to do the same with the next, and the next. He may knock the bombast out of the music, but his tempi suck the life out of it too, stretching the singers’ capacity to breathe.
Wagner’s long dialogues and introspective monologues need to be sewn into a seamless arc if the structure of each act is not to sag: here they go on forever. – Financial Times
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