Organization

Singer

Tenor

Torsten Kerl

Florestan

Soprano

Ann Petersen

Leonore

Baritone

Krzysztof Szumanski

Don Pizzaro

Bass

Krzysztof Borysiewicz

Rocco

Daniel Sutin

Don Fernando

Emil Ławecki

Jaquino

Maria Stasiak

Marzelline

Stage director

John Fulljames

Lighting designer

Lee Curran

Costume designer

Steffen Aarfing

Set designer

Video designer

Chorus master

Mirosław Janowski

Lidia Kitlińska

First prisoner

Jacek Kostoń

Second prisoner

Mirosław Gotfryd

Conductor

Lothar Koenigs

Anna Terlecka-Kierner

Nederlandse Reisopera

Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa

Others

Chorus of the Polish National Opera

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Polish National Opera

German

Fidelio

Warsaw

Poland

Fidelio Beethoven

Public

Polish

Approved

Ludvig van BeethovenFIDELIOOpera w dwóch aktachPremiera: 24.10.2021, TW-ONKoprodukcja: The Royal Danish Theatre, Kopenhaga; Nederlandse Reisopera, Enschede D...

Beethoven believed in the fall of royal tyrannies. He looked hopefully towards France, where in his youth a great revolution broke out, heralding the end of political subjugation. He also admired the heroic leader Napoleon until he was crowned emperor of the French. The composer hated authority and censorship, he was a flesh-and-blood democrat, the first free artist in the history of music, whose life motto was to get as much money as possible from aristocratic admirers, but never to flinch before them.

As he prepared to write the opera, he looked through dozens of libretto materials, but he liked only one play: Leonora, the marriage love of Jean-Nicholas Bouilly, in which justice triumphs over despotism, and fidelity overcomes adversities. In this work Beethoven not so much illustrates as recreates the act of revolution on stage like a holy mass , wrote the music theorist Theodor W. Adorno.

Ironically, the creator of Fidelio never experienced the marital love he celebrated, and the premiere of his opera for freedom (1805) took place in Vienna, which was conquered by Napoleon, who then only sought to expand his empire. The hope of a force majeure intervention is fulfilled in  Fidelio . After the French Revolution, a peculiar opera genre was created, named after the German Schrecken und Rettungsoper , which can be translated as "an opera of horror and unexpected salvation". And that's what Fidelio is . Providence existsHis wife Leonora, still in masculine disguise, still unrecognized by him, exclaims to Florestan. In the opera's finale, the "inspector" appears, he takes away the power he abused by Pizarr, filling the state prisons beyond measure. "Unexpected Salvation" has come. One may ask: what is the highest instance for us today? In the 21st century, we cannot share Beethoven's belief in punishing bad guys and throwing down all tyrants once and for all. We know that those who have power will not hesitate to abuse it and will certainly not want to give it up.

English

Fidelio by Beethoven, From (2021/2021), Directed by John Fulljames,, Conductor Lothar Koenigs, Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Warsaw, Poland

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Co-Producer

Program, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues