|
|
|
|
Financial Times, August 17, 2015 |
George Loomis |
|
Beethoven: Fidelio, Salzburger Festspiele, 4. August 2015 |
|
Fidelio, Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival
|
|
In spite of full-bodied playing and gorgeous singing, Claus Guth’s
production is stilted and sterile |
|
It all takes place in an attractive but unfurnished and windowless panelled
room devoid of props. Eerie noises, including heavy breathing and ominous
rumblings, replace the opera’s spoken dialogue, which is completely excised.
Two of the characters are paired with silent doubles, one of whom
intermittently communicates by signing. The lighting (by Olaf Freese) is
more sinister than dramatically apt. And Florestan, the political prisoner
whose rescue by his heroic wife Leonore constitutes the shining moment of
Enlightenment-inspired opera, drops dead at the final curtain.
These
are some of the ways Claus Guth’s sterile new production, with sets and
costumes by Christian Schmidt, drains Beethoven’s robust opera of its red
blood. There are musical rewards, though, chief among them full-bodied
playing by the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst’s inspiring
leadership; their rousing interpolation of the Leonore Overture No. 3 was
the evening’s high point. A close second was Jonas Kaufmann’s gorgeously
sung Florestan. His first note began with a disembodied pianissimo that
slowly swelled to a vigorous fortissimo, although that came off as a neat
vocal trick compared to the hearty cry on the word “Gott!” Beethoven was
after. Much less successful were the jerky movements Kaufmann was called
upon to make to suggest the character’s paranoia, an affliction contradicted
by the heroic diction of Florestan’s every utterance. It reminded me of
Guth’s misguided La Scala 2012 production of Lohengrin, in which Kaufmann’s
knight was treated as an anti-hero.
Apart from a couple of high notes
that went askew, Adrianne Pieczonka was an impassioned, believable Leonore
in voice and deed; given the stilted acting around her, you thought maybe
she didn’t get the memo. As the villainous Don Pizarro, Tomasz Konieczny
sang strongly, unfazed by the role’s awkward tessitura. Hans-Peter König was
a sonorous presence as the jailer Rocco but looked like a bank officer. A
programme essay left one in the dark about what Guth was up to, except to
suggest that, as Fidelio was subjected to heavy revision before the score
reached its final form, directors have the right to experiment. An audience
paying up to €430 a ticket deserves better.
|
|
|
|
|
|