3. Singing Competition "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" 2020

The "Meistersinger von Nürnberg" singing competition, launched by the Nuremberg State Theatre, will take place every two years since 2016, in the city of the Meistersinger and will particularly devote itself to fostering the German category.

The Nuremberg State Theatre is the largest in Bavaria, and one of the largest multi-purpose venues in Germany, with 650 permanent employees in the fields of opera, theatre, ballet and concerts, and stages more than 700 productions a year. The Nuremberg State Theatre could continue to further its capacity in all artistic fields and enhance its national reputation in the years to come. Particularly due to the numerous international co-productions with theatres in Strasbourg, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and also in Venice, Belfast, Paris, London, Graz, Berne, Vienna and Nice, the Nuremberg State Theatre has become an important cultural ambassador for the city of Nuremberg.

Nuremberg itself has a rich musical and operatic history, which can be traced right back to the Middle Ages. And thus the former imperial castle was a centre of troubadour songs, and the churches of St. Sebald and St. Lorenz, as well as the numerous monasteries, formed important centres for church music and mystery plays. Fastnachtspiele (Shrovetide plays) - particularly those by Hans Sachs (1494-1576) - became popular, singing schools were established, and Nuremberg became the famous city of the Meistersinger. This connects Walther von Stolzing, Tannhäuser and Wolfram von Eschenbach with Nuremberg and the region; the first surviving German opera "Seelewig" (1644) by Sigmund Theophil Staden has its origins in the imperial city.

In the 19th century, Nuremberg finally became a place of longing for the Romantics. The medieval cityscape and its rich traditions meant that it had the appearance of the ideal German city. And in such a way, Richard Wagner discovered the imperial city of Nuremberg, the poet Hans Sachs and the world of the Meistersinger as a theme for the concert hall, and thereby immortalized the name of the city in world-wide opera repertoire. Above all however "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg "(1868) stands for the utopia of a free civil society, in which questions of art, tradition and progress are illustrated through song and are brought to a state of balance.