Triumphantly premiered in 1868, "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" evokes the singing guilds of mid-16th-century Nuremburg, a focal point of the Northern European Renaissance. Wagner's only mature comic oper a concerns the young knight Walther von Stolzing's love for Eva whom the town clerk Beckmesser also covets. Against the background of a singing contest, cobbler-singer Hans Sachs' nobility ensures the reconciliation of youth and age, and tradition and innovation. Deutsche Oper Berlin's provocative new staging was considered 'entertaining throughout' and 'thought-provoking' by BR Klassik