Graham Vick's production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was generally considered to be the embodiment of all that was best of the Haitink era at the Royal Opera House. First seen in 1993, it won every award going, and its subsequent revivals acquired almost symbolic resonance. A flawlessly integrated ensemble staging, it was the last opera to be performed at Covent Garden before the house closed for refurbishment. Haitink later bowed out with it, choosing the final scene as the closing item in his farewell gala.
Reviving the production under the new regime, with very different performers, is consequently nothing if not brave. Vick has overseen the staging himself, moulding it around his largely new cast, and its strengths and occasional weaknesses remain. The work's overt nationalism, troublesome to many, is glossed over. The vast plethora of detail, with each of the master singers allotted a sharply defined character, still impresses. The tone is nostalgic, the humour tender - except for those moments when midsummer madness takes over and Vick swings into either crazy surrealism or swirling, Breughelian ebullience.
Yet an imbalance has crept in. Much of the production's original impact derived from the immaculate sparring between John Tomlinson's Sachs and Thomas Allen's Beckmesser. The roles are now played by Jan-Hendrik Rootering and Eike Wilm Schulte respectively, and their interpretations are not nearly so engaging. Rootering sings Sachs's music with noble beauty, and his bearlike, imposing presence often produces the impression of great stillness on stage. You miss the flashes of knowingness, however, and he doesn't establish the depths of Sachs's feelings for Amanda Roocroft's mature-sounding Eva until very late in the proceedings. The diminutive Schulte, meanwhile, avoids pathos and pushes Beckmesser towards caricature, flapping in his black robes around Rootering like a deranged crow and listening to Robert Dean Smith's effortlessly sung Walther with odious venom.
The conductor is Mark Wigglesworth. He has the makings of a fine Wagnerian, though at present his judgment of the ebb and flow of the music's span is less than perfect, and his fondness for spaciousness leads to occasional lapses in pacing and a few longueurs. But the playing is glorious, with a rich, autumnal radiance flowing from the orchestra throughout.
· In rep until December 2. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
