Wagner booed over opera

Katharina’s [the great grand-daughter of Richard Wagner] idea of turning the Mastersingers into Masterpainters initially seems rather arbitrary and sits awkwardly with the libretto. After all, Stolzing wants to become a Mastersinger so as to win Eva’s hand in a singing competition.

All I can say is, it takes real Chutzpah, even on the part of a distant relative of Richard Wagner, to stage Die Meistersingers as Die Meisterpainters.   How do you turn an opera about singing into an opera about painting?   I guess that’s the part that “sits awkwardly.”