Opera FIDELIO by Beethoven at CCB. Conjugal Love. Triumph over injustice, fidelity
The only opera by Beethoven that had the title Leonora and then FIDELIO, with text by Josef Sonnleitner, the work was subject to several versions, ending up being altered and reduced into 2 Acts in 1806, ending up being the final version in 1814.
The 1st version premiered in Vienna in 1805, with the invading Napoli troops among the audience. The 1st Act is divided into 2 scenes, even by Mahler!
In this current production from Hamburg in partnership with Teatro São Carlos, in Lisbon, with a dictator Pissaro, Leonora, the wife of the political prisoner, disguises herself as a man to get into her husband's saddle! When opening the curtain (staged by George Delnon) we come across a modern room with large panoramic windows overlooking a garden, which is designed to have movement that is somewhat decorative but always outside the context and time in which the action took place. Now this has been happening, for some years or decades now, in almost all theaters in the world. The directors, in a general philosophy and conception, want to innovate in order to hear more with their eyes to perhaps attract a younger audience or perhaps, less knowledgeable in lyrical singing (belcanto).
However, as the opera progresses, some drawer rooms open to form the prison, in short...
As for the main singers, foreigners, Fidelio sung by the soprano Gabriela Scherer, we would like it to have better brilliance and"Flato" and involvement of a dramatic soprano, which the role requires, her husband Florestan was the lyrical Tenor Maximilian Schmitt, without the due dark voice and without being itself, a helden tenor.
Rocco: baritone Joshua Bloom, Marcelina: Susana Gaspar, Pizarro: Boaz Daniel, Jaquino: Leonel Pinheiro, and others.
The orchestra led by Maestro Graeme Jenkins conducted with vigor, although there were some disagreements with the singers.
The Choir was reinforced, delivering an intense sound typical of Beethoven.