There are specific operatic scenes that by no means fail to tingle the scalp. Tosca stabbing her lecherous blackmailer to dying, or Carmen keeping off her murderous ex, for instance. However the second when Fidelio reveals himself to be a lady, heroically saves her husband, after which pulls a pistol on her evil nemesis, is a firecracker to beat all of them. Fidelio was first premiered on November 20, 1805. To mark its anniversary, let’s check out what makes Beethoven’s solely opera such a sizzling property.
A heroic woman-man? Within the early nineteenth century? Appears fairly trans-radical. What’s the plot?
Leonore, disguised as a younger man referred to as Fidelio, is working in a Spanish jail the place she suspects that her husband Florestan is being held as a political prisoner. Finally, she discovers him in a dungeon. When the evil governor Don Pizarro orders him to be murdered, she reveals herself as Florestan’s spouse, flings herself in entrance of him as a human protect, and pulls out a gun. A minister of the king arrives within the nick of time to denounce Pizarro and restore justice. The climactic pistol/revelation scene is an actual wowser.
It’s bought elegant music. It’s about liberty, justice, and freedom. It’s bought a villain, it’s bought heroism, it’s bought a dungeon… what’s to not like?
Maintain on. Earlier on you mentioned ‘first premiered’. Isn’t {that a} tautology?
Mwaaahaha! You fell into my lure. There are three variations of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio. The primary, in 1805, was thought-about a bit too lengthy and dramatically wobbly. The second was a hasty scissor-job staged a couple of months later in 1806. The third, from 1814, presents a whole overhaul of the work, and that is the highly effective model normally carried out right this moment.
To keep away from confusion – nicely, a few of it anyway – the primary two variations normally now go by the title Leonore.
Who wrote the libretto?
A complete clutch of individuals, none of whom are very well-known. It was based mostly on a French work by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal (Léonore, or Conjugal Love), which was considered one of a heap of ‘rescue operas’ which turned fashionable within the aftermath of the French revolution. At the least three different composers set the work (each in French and Italian) earlier than Beethoven, however his is the one one nonetheless within the repertoire.
Revolution, tyranny, political prisoners… Sounds a bit heavy for me.
There may be additionally a rom-com kind subplot, however it’s not fairly on the identical degree as the remainder of the work, so I used to be relatively hoping you wouldn’t make me carry it up. A younger lady referred to as Marzelline falls in love with Fidelio, making the lovelorn prison-warder Jacquino jealous. They squabble and kvetch quite a bit at first of the opera. However Beethoven appears to neglect about poor Marzelline in Act 2. She learns that Fidelio is a lady solely on the very finish, and her plotline is wrapped up earlier than you may blink. She’s what you would possibly name a disposable character.
You would say that having any type of knockabout comedy in a piece about transcendental beliefs of liberty is a mistake. However oddly, the one truly heightens the opposite.
Some other issues?
Nicely, now you come to say it, there are a few issues. It’s laborious to imagine that Florestan doesn’t acknowledge his spouse till the ‘big reveal’, even when she is dressed as a boy. And the opera is definitely a kind of Singspiel, which implies that there’s spoken dialogue between the numbers. On the entire, opera singers hate switching backwards and forwards between speech and music, and it might probably really feel a bit laborious for non-German audiences to adapt to. But when you may get over that, the delights greater than make up for it.
Reminiscent of?
The ‘Prisoners’ Refrain’ from Act 1 is an unforgettable spotlight. Fidelio/Leonore persuades the chief jailer Rocco to let the prisoners out to really feel contemporary air and daylight, in order that she will be able to seek for her husband. Their refrain ‘O Welche Lust’ (‘O, What Joy’) is an expression of musical ecstasy, all of the stronger for the environment of constraint.
When Leonore overhears Don Pizarro’s plot to homicide her husband, she sings one of many biggest soprano arias of terror and hope within the repertoire. It begins with declamation ‘Abscheulicher!’ (Monster!), and strikes right into a melody filled with longing, to the phrases ‘Komm, Hoffnung’ (‘Come, Hope’).
One other nice emotional outpouring comes at first of Act 2, when the motion strikes from the jail courtyard to the dungeon. After a brooding introduction, we lastly meet Florestan in his chains: he sings ‘Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!’ (‘God! How dark it is here!’). He goals of his spouse coming to avoid wasting him.
Right here’s Jonas Kaufmann, our present biggest Florestan, singing this virtually impossibly tough aria.
And at last, when Leonore frees her husband, and the refrain then joins within the festivities to shut the work, the opera turns right into a celebration of affection and liberty.
Beneficial Recording
“An exceptional Florestan – arguably the finest since Jon Vickers’s – from Jonas Kaufmann wonderfully conveys his moral greatness as well as the extremity of his suffering.” – Tim Ashley, The Guardian
