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Through most of the Chicago engagement in three years, the Metropolitan Opera has been cautious and successful, presenting a schedule of well-worn and favorites that have resembled a San Carlo Opera Company season in their combination of prudence and prosperity. Thursday night at the Opera House the singers from the big city dared venture off the beaten path, to sing Chicago’s first performance of “Die Meistersinger” in five years – and the incomparable but infrequent masterpiece proved the greatest triumph of the entire week, way out here in the hinterland.

In the pit was Fritz Reiner, one of the giants of the baton on the American musical scene today, respected for his splendid guest appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra but practically a stranger to the Opera House pit. His exemplary direction, noble in style, uplifting in concept despite the clear reflection of the proto-Goebbelian text in the score, was as warm as the heart of Hans Sachs and as eloquent as Richard Wagner could have wished it.

What a strange prodigality of scarce conductorial manpower it is when a maestro like Fritz Reiner is permitted to conduct some two dozen or fewer times a year from an opera pit, while lesser men juggle the few symphonic posts available!

The cast was almost all new to these roles since the last “Meistersinger” here, a few hours before V-E day back in 1945, but Herbert Janssen still cobbled on Hans Sachs’ bench and sang that greatest of Wagnerian heroes with a fervor that kindled the “Wahn! Wahn! Uberall Wahn! (Mad, Mad – the whole world is mad) with typical pathos. His wit was as radiant as his baritone, when he messed up Beckmesser’s serenade with unrhythmical poundings of a sly hammer. It’s a wonderful role, and Janssen has grown in it.

The unpleasant Beckmesser whose bloodless villainy is petty by operatic standards but whose meanness is monumental, was sung to a sniveling fare-thee-well by Gerhard Pechner, the only holdover in a principal role.

Set Svanholm, who has strutted about the Opera House stage many an evening in Wagnerian helmet and chain mail, was a pleasantly knightly Walther, who didn’t have to push too hard either for glamour or vocal color.

Astrid Varnay’s Eva (one of the few thankless roles in this generally rewarding opera) was not of ideal musical proportion, but was acted with genuine insight that places it high on the one-week season’s list of dramatic victories. Though her solos were not outstanding, her bantering with Janssen and her romantic duets with Svanholm were of an unusually lustrous quality.

Every one of the mastersingers seemed to enjoy his work, the chorus gave another of its intelligent performances which this column suddenly remembers it hasn’t praised enough this week; and the sets were less than lovely.

Search by season: 1949-50

Search by title: Die Meistersinger von N?rnberg,

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