Triumphantly premiered in 1868, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg evokes the singing guilds of mid-16th-century Nuremburg, a focal point of the Northern European Renaissance. Wagner’s only mature comic opera concerns the young knight Walther von Stolzing’s love for Eva whom the town clerk Beckmesser also covets. Against the background of a singing contest, cobbler-singer Hans Sachs’s nobility ensures the reconciliation of youth and age, and tradition and innovation. Deutsche Oper Berlin’s provocative new staging was considered ‘entertaining throughout’ and ‘thought-provoking’ by BR Klassik.

Conductor John Fiore continues to be a regular guest at many of the world’s leading opera houses. In Europe, he has appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, National Theatre in Prague, Zurich Opera and conducts widely in his native USA – he has given over 100 performances at The Metropolitan Opera, New York.

Danish bass-baritone Johan Reuter recorded Tristan und Isolde under Marek Janowski for Pentatone: ‘Johan Reuter is an outstanding Kurwenal, virile, exciting and lyrical in the first Act, sympathetic and admirable in the third’ (Musicweb International).

Albert Pesendorfer sings in Naxos’s Ring cycle on 2107001 / NBD0156VX: ‘Hagen is the vocally and physically imposing Albert Pesendorfer, wonderfully baleful in his night watch’ (Musicweb International). Ya-Chung Huang also sings in this production. Of his Siegfried, Financial Times (London) wrote: ‘It is Ya-Chung Huang’s first Mime, too, and he brings redeeming depth and subtlety to the role’.

Philipp Jekal sings on Naxos’s recording of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (2110657 / NBD0108V): ‘[Jekal]... throws himself admirably into the part [of Don Estoban]’ (Opera News).