This program captures a live performance of the Richard Wagner opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, recorded at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, under the direction of Katharina Wagner. Some of the vocalists featured in the performance include Franz Hawlata, Artur Korn, Michael Volle, and others.

Václav Neumann leads the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Choir, with soloists Gabriela Be?a?ková, Anne Gjevang, Günther Neumann, and Arthur Korn. This historic concert of December 14, 1989, given in support of the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia, was attended by many prominent personalities, including Václav Havel, just weeks before he became the President of Czechoslovakia (later, the Czech Republic).

Jessye Norman is a regal Ariadne, the mythological Greek heroine in this opera-within-an-opera, opposite the passionate Bacchus of the great James King. Kathleen Battle delivers the coloratura fireworks of Zerbinetta, the leader of a commedia dell’arte troupe that finds itself stranded on Ariadne’s island. Tatiana Troyanos and Franz Ferdinand Nentwig star as the young Composer and the Music Master in the opera’s prologue. James Levine brings out all the color and charm of Strauss’s brilliant chamber-sized score with its equal amounts of pathos and humor. Bodo Igesz’s production features sets by esteemed designer Oliver Messel.