Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

Performative elements and sources
261
emphasise the dark side of his character, but Theo Hilder’s interpretation
was more grotesque and vulgar than expected. The final chorus in which
the soloists also took part was powerful – the 24-member theatre choir getting
support from amateurs (RZ, 24.12.1901).
Adaptations and the orchestra Of the materials connected with the performance
of Wagner’s operas on the Tallinn stage only the vocal score of Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg has been preserved. It was used in the season
of 1901-02 and the conductor was Theo Ritte-Schwarzwald. On the very
first page is the conductor’s note that the score is his adaptation for the
Tallinn theatre (TMM, Mo 256). 20 Numerous pencilled remarks give an idea
of what the performance was like and how it might have sounded.
First of all: about the cuts. These mainly concern chorus scenes that
have been shortened, and also on-stage music. There are also cuts in some
of the longer dialogue scenes in the second act (Sachs and Walther, Sachs
and Beckmesser, Sachs and Eva). In Sachs’ speech to Walther and others
(Act II, scene 5) the lines concerning the decreasing role of the aristocracy
in keeping German art alive and the dominant role of the burgher class are
left out: “That our Masters have cared for it / rightly in their own way /
cherished it truly as they thought best / that has kept it genuine:/ if it did
not remain aristocratic as of old / when courts and princes blessed it / in
the stress of evil years / it remained German and true; and if it flourished
nowhere/ but where all is stress and strain / you see how high it remained
in honour – / what more would you ask of the Masters?” 21 . Directly after the
“leap” the important and polemical lines “Beware! Evil tricks threaten us”
(“Habt Acht! Uns dräuen üble Streich’”) appear.
Other notes concern the dynamics. Wagner’s directions were sometimes
clarified and brought out in order to achieve a balance between the orchestra
and the vocal part. The orchestra at the time contained 30 instrumentalists,
but local amateur musicians were also engaged for the performance of
Die Meistersinger. (How they managed to fit into the orchestra pit is another
matter.) This performance was one of the rare occasions on which the reviewer
complained that the orchestra was too powerful, in the reviewer’s
20 The vocal score was published by Peter Jürgenson, Moscow 1898: text in German
and Russian.
21 “Dass uns’re Meister sie gepflegt / grad recht nach ihrer Art, / nach ihrem Sinne treu
gehegt,/ das hat sie echt bewahrt: / blieb sie nicht ad’lig, wie zur Zeit, / wo Höf’ und
Fürsten sie geweiht, / im Drang der schlimmen Jahr’ / blieb sie doch deutsch und wahr;
/ und wär’ sie anders nicht geglückt, / als wie wo Alles drängt’ und drückt, / ihr seht,
wie hoch sie blieb in Ehr’: / was wollt ihr von den Meistern mehr?”