Helden Bass Baritone

Just as Wagner’s music dramas can be approached on various levels and seen through all sorts of prisms, there are distinct compartments under the general heading of learning the roles they contain. Hans Sachs is reputedly the longest role in all opera (judged by the number of words at any rate). To a certain extent, what’s required is a function of a singer’s own notions of what will 'do'. I was in a Ring once where during a performance of Götterdämmerung, one of the Rheinmaidens asked: “So, are you Hagen’s father?” (I was indeed Alberich). This matter had not interested her for the weeks and months of preparation prior. 

This is why I’m always banging on about the importance of acquiring cultural hinterland over the course of a lifetime. It’s like buying up real estate. Then, when a role comes along one can complacently look out over one’s existing cultural domain and a whole lot of relevant things which will enhance one’s performance will come running towards one of their own accord like creatures across a field. So, I don’t have to do much research when getting to grips with Sachs. I know a good deal already. I also have in my head the performances of singers far greater than I in the role. This means I can start hacking away at the prosaic matter of getting my head around the notes and words. I don’t need to orientate myself. The anatomy of the role reminds me of when I climbed Ayers Rock as a child in that there’s a point where you think you’re well advanced only to come over a ridge and find that there’s more than half the journey to go. In Hans Sachs that point is the start of Act 3. Act three is vast and accounts for more than half the role. The first discreet task is to get the whole thing to the point where one can sing it with the book. That’s not so hard but in the case of Sachs it is a uniquely long job. 

The next stage is what I call the hard core memorisation. That’s the marathon, endurance phase. Because of the unique size of this role, I have broken up the pattern somewhat by going back for sweeps through sections where my memorisation is already advanced while otherwise working hard at the much less assimilated bits. The reasons for this are several. Firstly, one doesn’t want to lose one’s gains by leaving it too long. Secondly, it can serve to keep one’s spirits up because it encourages a sense that there has indeed been some progress and that it is going in, slowly but surely. Thirdly, it is a good use of time to go back to bits one already knows fairly well when one’s schedule won’t stand the harder work of hard core memorisation. 

In theory, the final learning phase comes after pushing through to the end of the up close memorisation phase. That final phase is the grand sweeps through long sections or even the whole role if possible. This has to happen as often as possible. Hopefully this can be timed so that one is thoroughly ready for the first day of rehearsals. With Sachs, complacency is the enemy and I’ve seen people come a cropper and fall short, like trying to leap a ravine and not making it, because they thought it was just another role. But even this is not the end. One has to sing it in and work out how on earth to sustain vocally a role which, sung without stopping, lasts two and a half hours. Now I’d better get back to work!

Also, see:

Photo by Jeff Busby.: As Beckmesser,  in Die Meistersinger. Opera Australia, 2018.

https://bpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.unimelb.edu.au/dist/6/184/files/2024/03/Context-49.04.Interview-cf3dac4986ef50a2.pdf