Hans Sachs (left) at 2017 Bayreuth Festival I wrote a little preview of the San Diego Symphony livestream entitled Wagner meets Mozart and mentioned that I didn’t quite understand how the concert hung together. After watching the livestream, I still don’t get it. The concert started with an all-brass arrangement of the Act III Prelude from Wagner’s Meistersinger. Hans Sachs, the meistersinger, is awake in his study lost in thought after the riots which swept through the town the previous night. Sachs has a lot to think about at this point in the opera. Themes such as the advent of old age, the plight of a widower with no children, and the possibility of new love that is nothing more than the wisp of a dream crowd his thoughts.