Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Pogner, a wealthy member of Nuremberg’s Mastersingers Guild, decides to emphasize the importance of art by pledging his daughter, Eva, to the winner of their annual song competition. Walther, a knight, knows nothing of the masters’ rules but loves Eva and decides to compete. He is unable, however, to gain admittance in the Masters’ Guild because his trial song does not follow their rules. One of the masters, Beckmesser, also wants to win Eva, and he goes to serenade her. Hans Sachs, a wise poet and shoemaker, knows that Eva and Walther might elope. He foils both the elopement and Beckmesser’s serenade. The next morning he instructs Walther on how to turn a dream the knight had into a mastersong. At the contest, Beckmesser comes off as a fool, and Walther wins. Sachs gives Walther a lesson about the importance both of invention and tradition in art.