Fidelio reviews - Melbourne City Opera

Some of us believe that Beethoven’s only opera soars above all others, transcending Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. In Fidelio, apart from Rocco’s act one aria about gold, the plot surges onward, no matter how improbable its climax, when the disguised heroine faces down the villain and rescues her prisoner-of-conscience husband. Starting with the courting of Marzelllne and Jacquino, the work moves inexorably to its celebration of the wife.

Melbourne City Opera is presenting a concert version of this opera with all dialogue replaced by short narrative interpolations. Erich Fackert’s orchestra began well with the overture crisply accounted for; thereafter, only a few problems emerged, like uncertain low strings at the start of the Mir ist so wunderbar canon/quartet, and some dodgy horn notes.

In Melba Hall, the singers had to work to be heard, standing in front of the company’s resonant and wind-heavy band. Gary Rowley as the villainous Don Pizarro strained to project his low register in the towering solo Ha! Welch ein Augenblick!, but his dark-hued bass made its mark in the act one finale and the crucial dungeon scene. He was well partnered by Jerzy Kozlowski as the benign jailer Rocco; despite some tentativeness in the act one ensembles, Kozlowski gained assurance, notably at the work’s end when he reveals Pizarro’s machinations.

As Fidelio/Leonora, Suzanne Ribet produced another fine performance. She took to the taxing Abscheulicher! solo with gusto, notably in the concluding Ich folg dem inner Triebe, and swept through the final scenes without faltering. Company veteran Salvatore Granata sang a penetrating Florestan, wrenching every dramatic possibility out of his soliloquy Gott! Welch Dunkel hier! Later, he blazoned out the heaven-storming final Wer ein solches Weib errungen with Heldentenor energy.

Despite some rough patches, this version of a rarely performed work yields fine accomplishments throughout its length.

Rip snorting
Beethoven composed only one opera, Fidelio, a triumphal work about the dawning of political freedom in Europe.

Its story is deceptively simple: Leonore, wife of a political prisoner disguises herself as a prison guard, Fidelio, and liberates her husband, Florestan, as he is about to be murdered by his captor, Don Pizarro.

This apparently simple plot distils the spirit of emergent liberalism, and the security and constitutional rights it offered millions of downtrodden folk at the start of the 19th century.

Beethoven’s stirring score is a dynamic essay in the transformation of darkness into soaring light, one that moves along at a cracking pace carrying all before it.

Melbourne City Opera’s new production is an ebullient and joyful staging of the work, a piece of lusty music-making that should please fans of German opera and/or the great composer.

The directors correctly conceive the orchestra as a star of the show, and give us a concert version that substitutes an unobtrusive linking narration (spoken by Michael Strong) for the opera’s German recitative. The orchestra, under Erich Fackert, occupies most of the small stage, and in the intimate surroundings of Melba Hall, the soloists at the front of stage seem to be thrust among the audience.

The musicianship is not flawless On opening night, the horns sometimes sounded murky, though the trumpet solo that Florestan’s liberation was at hand, was just right. There were minor blemishes of pitch and timing among the strings, and some of the singers were put to the test.

Nevertheless, there was some rip-snorting singing from the show’s heavies — bass-baritones Gary Rowley (as Don Pizarro) and Jerzy Kozlowsky (as the chief jailer Rocco) — and a suitably strong performance from Suzanne Ribet in the title role.

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