Well, not so fast - although Walther’s untrained art has a freshness and beauty that are new, it’s also undecipherable without the basic tenets of craftsmanship that are imparted to him by the kindly old singer and cobbler Hans Sachs. Into this setting comes the young knight Walther von Stolzing, who wants to bypass the elaborate rules of the master singers’ guild and succeed through the power of sheer unmediated inspiration. Set among the musical craftsmen of 16th century Nuremberg, it paints a portrait - heavily romanticized but not entirely removed from historical reality - of a world in which writing a song and turning out a solid pair of shoes are viewed as two aspects of the same creative process. “Meistersinger” thrives on that expansiveness, not merely because of the scale of Wagner’s writing but also because the piece tackles no less momentous a subject than the creation and understanding of art. Wherever you turn, the vistas seem to extend into the distance. Yet what this production offers in place of sleekness or propulsion is a wealth of finely observed detail, both musical and theatrical, that helps create a world that feels as boundless as that opening tableau. The company has advertised the performance as running 5½ hours, but the truth is closer to six, and no one, I think, has ever plausibly claimed that “Meistersinger” is a miracle of dramaturgical focus (in contrast with the “Ring” operas, which are almost as long and have not one inessential measure). It also means recalibrating your internal clock to embrace the scale of the affair without impatience or distraction. The result is an often glorious immersion in Wagner’s distinctive sound world, with a gleaming performance from the Opera Orchestra led by conductor Mark Elder, a large and largely first-rate cast, and a stage production that passes up no opportunity to fill in the specifics of the panorama.
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