Hans Sachs is the shoemaker-poet in Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
The opera is set in sixteenth-century Nuremberg and portrays the city’s guild of Meistersinger, or master singers. Hans Sachs, based on the historical cobbler and poet of the same name, is the work’s central elder figure. He recognizes the talent of the young knight Walther von Stolzing and helps guide the contest’s outcome.
Wagner wrote the music and German libretto. The opera premiered at the Munich Court Theatre on 21 June 1868, conducted by Hans von Bülow. Unlike many of Wagner’s mythic dramas, it is a comedy set in a recognizable historical community.
Hans Sachs is sometimes mistaken for the opera’s romantic hero. Walther is the young singer who wins Eva’s love, while Sachs acts as mentor, philosopher, and mediator. The title refers to the masters’ singing guild rather than to a single individual.