In 1876, Richard Wagner inaugurated his Festspielhaus in the Bavarian market town of Bayreuth with the world premiere of his four-night cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Since then, his festival has recycled the 10 works of his maturity nonstop. This year’s title is Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the ponderous Master’s only comedy. To direct, the festival has engaged Matthias Davids, whose bread and butter at his home company in Linz is musicals—The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Saturday Night Fever, Sweeney Todd, and so forth. Cuckoo or stroke of genius? Though conceived as a fleet, lighthearted bit of fluff, Die Meistersinger evolved into a huge-hearted, intellectually substantial historic epic on the scale of Götterdämmerung. In climactic sequences like the street fight at the end of Act Two (set as a colossal double fugue) or the parade of the Masters on the fairground in Act Three, a healthy shot of show-biz pizzazz is by no means amiss. Georg Zeppenfeld takes the central role of Hans Sachs, the deep-thinking, quick-witted cobbler whose songs all Nuremberg adores. Christina Nilsson is Eva, the goldsmith’s daughter who is up for grabs at the Masters’ annual sing-off. Michael Spyres sings Walther von Stolzing, the aristocrat who comes from behind to win her hand. Daniele Gatti conducts. —Matthew Gurewitsch