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The gutsy Berkeley Opera is taking on Wagner again, this time with its own reduced version of Die Meistersinger. Olivia Stapp had the opportunity to interview Artistic Director Jonathan Khuner after one of the recent rehearsals. 

Stapp: You have dedicat ed so much of your life to the Berkeley Opera. What keeps you going? 

Khuner: Berkeley Opera is the one arena in which I can bring to bear all my knowledge of music, opera particularly, and my skills in organization, love of working with people, and creat ive energy. Being a big fish in a small pond brings special rewards, not financially of course, but artistically and personally. 

I feel sure, after each performance, that I’ve made a bigger difference in the life of the few people involved (on both sides of the curtain, and in the pit) than I ever do at the most prestigious opera companies with which I work. 

At Berkeley Opera we are always creating something new, unique and irreplaceable, and our individual participants and audience members each carry away a larger portion of that experience. The satisfaction and thrill from that knowledge sustains me in the deepest hours of worry over limited budget and overwhelming demands of the huge medium on a small group.  

Stapp: Your renowned musical expertise has brought you engagements at the Met, Chicago, San Francisco, Bayreuth. You are a highly sought-after prompter. Tell us what that requires.  

Khuner: This invisible job is highly demanding, and can be extremely important in keeping an opera performance on keel.  

Stapp: Well, Jonathan, I certainly know from experience, how many performances were saved by having a knowledgeable prompter in the box, especially if the conductor is busy with the orchestra and doesn’t have that “extra arm” with which to cue singers in big ensembles. You are in the seat of the co-pilot.  

Khuner: The knowledge I bring to bear while sitting in the cramped prompter’s box (at the foot of the stage, in the center, with my head at floor level under a tiny hood opening towards the singers), are: languages—I work in English, French, German, Italian, Czech, Russian, and occasionally Armenian and Sanskrit; conducting—giving well-timed physical cues with absolute clarity and suggestiveness: musicianship—being able to anticipate when the performers are going to need extra help; and interpersonal—knowing the best style and timing for cueing each singer with his/her own style. 

Besides these ingredients of prompting, I also serve as conductor, pianist, coach, and occasionally violinist.  

Stapp: There are actually very few people like you who can approach operatic performance from such a variety of perspectives. But what about opera? Do you think that this art form is necessary, especially considering that it requires so much money to p roduce? 

Khuner: Art is not necessary, but it makes life livable. It is an expression of the human need for purpose. I find its function similar to that of religion, except that with religion, the shared experience tends to break down individuality and to o often dwells on belief in articles of dogma, while art celebrates both the collective seeking of meaning and the individual’s yearning for clarity in relation to the cosmos. And I love music because it so perfectly abstracts from experience all the ebbs and flows of physical and mental energy. 

Opera is of course the largest canvas for musical art, and applies music’s potential to characters and their stories in a richer way than any other medium. It is expensive and unreliable—so many people may do so many little things wrong and pull the experience away from perfection—but at its best it unites us in shared moments of passion and beauty. I believe that this something is still a vital ingredient in modern life. The challenge of devoting myself to this field is both exhausting and exhilarating. 

Stapp: I agree! Obviously, all of Wagner, and especially his Meistersinger, are important for you. What special meaning does it have for you? 

Khuner: My father, who was the best musician I ever met, had this opera in his blood from his earliest days in pre- and post-World War I Vienna. The love for this opera in particular was an important ingredient in the aesthetic tilt I received from him. 

Stapp: Where have you been able to find Wagnerian singers willing to participate in this musical experiment? 

Khuner: I was very fortunate to be introduced to Clayton Brainerd, a maturing Wagnerian bass-baritone on the American scene who happened to want to put Hans Sachs in his repertoire. I was thrilled that he agreed to take up the challenge of learning the whole role, and then committing to our reduced version in a regional production. He was lucky that of all the roles, we left his most intact, since so much of the meaning of the work derives from Sachs’ thoughts a nd relations to the other characters. Once Clayton agreed to be in the project, I built the rest of the cast around him. For the other roles I found wonderfully suited local singers. 

Stapp: I could not help but notice tonight that all participants in th e production seemed suffused with a sense higher purpose. But, what do you say to the purists who consider such a reworking of this masterpiece “heresy”? 

Khuner: First of all, they are right. But heresy is not always wrong. I don’t believe in the infallibility or cosmic superiority of even so great a genius as Wagner. His overall idea, and his musical execution of it, are undeniably great. But he deliberately overtaxes the audience with three such long acts (over four hours of music total), and there is much to be said for a loving compression, to make the experience more compatible with the limitations of a normal audience, not to mention a regional opera orchestra. 

There are definite gains in the faster pacing of our version. Although I admire the mag nificence of the original, I protest Wagner’s arrogance in deciding that he needn’t be economical in expressing his ideas. I’m sure that if he had wanted to, he could have said all he needed to in three hours. 

Even Wagner’s original concept was not for s uch a long epic, but rather for a modest, audience-hit, easily producible comedy. Because of his own grandiose tendencies, Die Meistersinger got out of hand, and became a huge work which even most sympathetic opera-goers find too extensive. Rather than ju st decline to produce the work on his terms, I am meeting his arrogance, by acting on behalf of the audience to make the experience more manageable. 

The reduction in forces, and Yuval Sharon’s use of commedia elements and lighter touches to decor and sta ging, put the piece more in tune with Wagner’s first thoughts on the subject. 

Stapp: Yes, this was supposed to be the short comic work that would fill his coffers, but he really lost control. What would you say in your defense to Wagner, if he were stil l around? 

Khuner: First: “Didn’t we make a lot of it better, actually?” Second: “You deserve it, for writing such an overlong opera in the first place!” Third: “See how many of the audience are leaving with real smiles on their faces, having been uplifte d by the wonderful music and singing, the meaningful story and high ideas, and not groaning over the aches brought on by hours of unrelieved sitting?” Fourth: “I apologize for all the wonderful moments we cut, and for the non-sequiturs created in the score!” 

Wagner might have approved of novel transformations, if respectful of the original, which I believe we have been, deeply (if not reverently). 

Stapp: So, you have made it more accessible? 

Khuner: Absolutely! Especially as ours is a serious version—we haven’t watered down the ideas, denied them, made fun of them, or uglified them for some modern anti-romantic posturing. Yuval has brought out nuggets of ideas, often submerged in grand productions, and made them sparkle and carry the comedy to a new b rilliance.  

I have been part of the Bayreuth experience, including Die Meistersinger, and I know that the discomfort of many stuffy hours in hard seats is practically guaranteed to destroy appreciation and enjoyment of Wagner’s great work far more that o ur modest alterations for Berkeley Opera’s version. This production is just one example of what I try to do with every Berkeley Opera show: bring an enlivened, focused representation of high quality to our local audience. 

The Berkeley Opera experience, including mine as artistic and musical 

director, is not reproducible.  

[I just hope it’s survivable!] 

Berkeley Opera presents Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at 7:30 p.m. July 16, 20, 22 and at 2 p.m. July 24.  

Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley. For more information call (925) 798-1300 or see www.berkeleyopera.org. 

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