Last Updated on October 12, 2024
Is Fidelity to Fidelio essential?
To what extent do we, as observers of injustice, have a responsibility to act? The new revival of Tobias Kratzer’s Fidelio production from the Royal Ballet and Opera seems to tacitly pose this question. As a concept, it does take Beethoven’s only opera to a new and interesting place.
Originally written as Léonore, Beethoven had a few false starts with Fidelio. For a start, It’s an unusual play to form an operatic substrate. The start has little to do with the end, there is a huge transition in style between the first and second acts and the ending is too indulgent. Fidelio covers themes of liberty, justice and love. The eponymous main man is actually Léonore, the wife of imprisoned Florestan. Léonore, posing as Fidelio, enters the prison where her husband is kept and attempts to ingratiate herself with the gaoler, Rocco. During the process, Rocco’s Daughter Marzelline falls in love with Fidelo and Léonore uncovers a plot by Pizarro to slowly kill Florestan.
The first act of Tobias Kratzer’s production takes place in France during the terror. A draped French tricolore looms large over the scene, soldiers brandishing bayonets march in and Pizarro rides a real black horse onto stage. Rainer Sellmaier’s designs are picturesque and striking and the whole feels like a well-done period setting. Act II blows that clean out the water from the moment the curtain rises. Florestan’s deep dark cell lands in the middle of a semi-circular audience on a bright white background. From this moment on the show becomes two parallel shows. The scripted and sung action on stage is seen alongside the reactions of the stage audience. We see how apathetic the onlookers are to Florestan’s desolation.
The stage audience does undergo transformations though, first feeling guilty about drinking while Florestan thirsts. Then, feeling guilty about snacking on chocolate while he starves. As Pizarro steams in to murder Florestan the audience flees in terror and eventually, galvanised by Marzelline’s heroism they rise up against the oppressor, becoming an explicit part of the scene. All this happens alongside an already gripping drama, twin threads woven into one impossibly tense rope. It makes for captivating theatre.
Unsurprisingly, given the composer, the music is wonderful. Conductor Alexander Soddy does masterful work building and sustaining the tension, released at times by climax and at times by silence. The overture to Fidelio is one of the greatest in all opera and through typical bullheadishness, Beethoven has written some of the most challenging but entertaining vocal parts.
Former Jette Parker artist Jennifer Davis plays Léonore. At first, Davis seems quite restrained and was even overshadowed at times by Christina Gansch’s Marzelline. However, as the show rolls through, Léonore becomes more open and passionate. Davis matches this energy leaping into soaring high notes which fill the Opera House.
Jochen Schmeckenbecher is a villainous, Robespierre-esque Pizarro. Each of the parts has spoken as well as sung sections and Schmeckenbecher stands out for his delivery, each word dripping with menace and bile.
Eric Cutler is Florestan. Florestan is always an odd contrast, he’s a dying, threadbare prisoner on his last breaths who somehow has the singing voice of a god. Cutler definitely matches the voice, from his first note he’s distinctive, rich and powerful. Clearly a world-class singer on good form.
Peter Rose sang well as Rocco and embodied a complex character deftly.
Kratzer’s production chops and changes the original libretto, adds new roles for characters, adds depth and even new texts from authors that aren’t there. It has preserved the potentially imperfect carcass of the original and moulded it into something new, effective and thoughtful. It may not be an entirely faithful Fidelio, but is Fidelity to Fidelio essential? Clearly not.
Fidelio runs until the 26th of October
Fidelio
Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden,
London WC2E 9DD
