Newspaper Article

Here comes summer

Plumley, Gavin, Orr, Gillian, Montgomery, Hugh, Williams, Holly, Pritchard, Claudia

2015

Overview

Every July, like migrating birds, my fella, my dog and I go south for a month of reading and recuperation - our hound's book list is, of course, the most imposing. As well as planning stopovers along the way, I create an exhaustive playlist, impeccably timed to burst into Die Meistersinger von Nrnberg as we drive over the German border. Wagner's near five-hour epic is my idea of summer, beginning on a balmy day in 16th-century Nuremberg and quickly turning into a barmy night. \"Madness! Madness! Everywhere!\" shouts cobbler-poet and Renaissance man Hans Sachs, my operatic hero. Why all the fuss? Well, summer means a song contest and the local Mastersingers have begun squabbling over the rules and are even copying each other's entries. After a night of rioting, they gather in the meadows outside the city for their Eurovision meets Schopenhauer showdown - after all, it wouldn't be Germany without a bit of impenetrable philosophy! Rather than the old bastions, it is the young Walther who bags the prize, the hand of goldsmith Pogner's daughter Eva, with \"Shining in the rosy light of morning\". It's a pure hit of musical Vitamin D. But Wagner doesn't miss the melancholy of the season either. As Walther claims Eva, the compassionate Sachs's hopes evaporate. Her friend for years, he nonetheless realises that Walther is the \"right man\" for Eva and a new guardian for the Mastersingers' traditions. Who needs Scott McKenzie's \"San Francisco\" when you can have Wagner's summer of love?

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Derain, Andr