EIF: Fidelio
Usher Hall - 10/08/22
Eventually, a Triumph!
Concert versions of operas can be tricky, or revelatory. This performance of Beethoven’s only opera, ‘Fidelio’, was neither, but by the end it had struggled to the top. Rather like its main protagonist, Florestan, it had suffered in the beginning, but finally broke free from its shackles.
Some of the shackles were of Beethoven’s making, as ‘Fidelio’ has one of the most unlikely stories in the operatic repertoire, with its tale of an indomitable wife, dressing as a boy to free her incarcerated husband.
The opera begins as a lightweight period piece, with a love triangle of confusion, but it does have, being by Beethoven, the most sublime quartet ever written. The first act, as a whole, never really hangs together, albeit there are great moments – the quartet, Leonore’s great aria, ‘Abscheulicher!’ (wonderfully sung here by the late replacement, Emma Bell) and the amazing Chorus of Prisoners, who sing as they see the light of day for the first time in years.
It is only in the second act that the music breaks into the realm of the gods, and that was rather the feeling last night at the Usher Hall, where Sir Donald Runnnicles conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Philharmonia Voices and a good cast. By the time we got to the finale, the adrenalin was pumping, and Beethoven’s great vision of freedom from tyranny was made manifest.
In the meantime, we were treated to a performance which yet again revealed the problem of the semi-staged opera. As a one-off concert, and not part of an ensemble production (although many of the singers were associated with Sir Donald’s Deutsche Oper, Berlin), we had characters in ‘hinted-at’ costume, most people singing from memory, but not all, and entries and exits as needed. I would much prefer singers with scores at hand to refer to, on music stands, and any acting restricted to reactions to each other. There was more interaction between soprano and baritone in Saturday’s ‘Carmina Burana’ than in the whole of this ‘Fidelio’. You can’t expect a staging without lots of rehearsal, and it’s really hard to memorise an opera for a single performance (unless it’s a role you already know really well).
At least with a concert performance, the willing suspension of disbelief in reference to the physical appearance of the singers can be applied. This again was one of Beethoven’s operatic naiveties, to expect a soprano who can sing Leonore to be taken for a teenage boy, or to expect a tenor to sing the role of Florestan but look emaciated and at death’s door from starvation. In this performance too, it was necessary to believe that Rocco, the jailor, was old and decrepit, since Günther Groissbőck, the Austrian bass, seemed in the peak of health!
His was for me the stand-out voice on show last night, rich and even throughout the registers, and projecting well into the hall. Indeed it was a night for fine basses, as Sir Willard White, acting as narrator, to save us from the usual hours of German dialogue, and singing the Minister, Don Fernando, showed that he still has star quality. I also enjoyed the pert performance of Kim-Lillian Strebel as Marzelline, opera’s unluckiest heroine, who loses a husband because her intended is both married and a woman!
Clay Hilley, from Georgia, USA, was a forthright Florestan, demonstrating a fine tenor, if at times pushed a little sharp, but coping admirably with Beethoven’s unreal expectations. Emma Bell, standing in at very short notice for the indisposed Jennifer Davis, was a wholly convincing Leonore, dominating the stage and the ensembles with her full soprano voice, and singing Beethoven’s hardest role with aplomb! A special bravo to the Philharmonia Voices, trained by the ubiquitous Aidan Oliver, and the two solo prisoners, Robert Lewis and Thomas Mole.
Yet again, the star of the evening was Sir Donald Runnicles, conducting the magnificent Philharmonia Orchestra, with a passionate account of this great music, which by the finale had risen to a sublime level. I was at school with Donald, and readers will know our connection, but I am happy to say that there is no bias in my statement that he is the finest conductor to have come out of Scotland since Alexander Gibson, and we are lucky to have him whenever he comes home.
Cover photo: Andrew Perry
