Organization

Conductor

Donald Runnicles

Dominic Limburg

Stage director

David Hermann

Costume designer

Johannes Schütz

Set designer

Lighting designer

Ulrich Niepel

Chorus master

Jeremy Bines

Dramaturge

Carolin Müller-Dohle

Singer

Bass

Thomas Lehman

Don Fernando

Philipp Jekal

Baritone

Markus Brück

Don Pizzaro

Jordan Shanahan

Tenor

Robert Watson

Florestan

Klaus Florian Vogt

Soprano

Ingela Brimberg

Leonore

Flurina Stucki

Tobias Kehrer

Rocco

Ante Jerkunica

Elisa Verzier

Marzelline

Meechot Marrero

Gideon Poppe

Jaquino

Ya-Chung Huang

Kieran Carrel

First prisoner

Artur Garbas

Second prisoner

Sua Jo

Albert Pesendorfer

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Orchestra

Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin

Others

Choir of the Deutsche Oper Berlin

German

Fidelio

Berlin

Germany

Fidelio Beethoven

Public

English

Approved

Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, which took him 10 years of his life to complete and which he revised a number of times, is a tour de force in several respects. Firstly, it is considered one of the archetypal operas devoted to the theme of liberty. The main female character, Leonore, is one of the great heroines of the operatic canon, disguising herself as a man and penetrating a prison to free her unjustly jailed husband, Florestan. And yet the work manages to this day to fend off simple black-and-white interpretations, despite regular efforts by commentators to harness the opera and its protagonists for partisan purposes. The idealistic, humanist appeal in Beethoven’s music is universal and defies categorical unambiguity.

Secondly, Beethoven pulled off the first-ever specifically German opera. His fusion of rescue opera, humanist oratorio and melodrama for the burghers went on to serve as a model for what a German romantic opera might be.

This rendition of Beethoven’s masterpiece is largely a collaboration between David Hermann, whose past association with the Deutsche Oper Berlin spans works as varied as THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, ORESTE and THE MAKROPULOS AFFAIR, and the stage and set designer Johannes Schütz. This is the second time the pair have worked together on a »prison piece«. Following their production of Janácek’s FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD at the Oper Frankfurt they now return to the themes of liberty and imprisonment and issues relating to power, powerlessness and manipulation.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble