Remmert Velthuis / Rezensionen

With this ' Fidelio' the Touring Opera travels through the country, albeit with two pieces from the original 'Leonore' (the above-mentioned overture and a recitative) and without the spoken texts from Beethoven's composition intended as 'Singspiel'. The same stylization was evident in the austere design (set, costume and void design by Steffen Aarfing ) of the staging. There are hardly any set pieces; all scene-determining indications are realized with sophisticated lighting (design Lee Curran ) and with Aarfing's exciting video images on a transparent intermediate screen and on the back wall. The overall picture is that of a cold prison. The actor/singers came up in the closing bars of the overture. From their midst, the couple Jacquino and Marzelline remained to sing the duet 'Jetzt, Schätzen, jetzt sind wir allein'. Jacquino, worker in prison, is in love with the jailer's daughter, but she, Marzelline, has set her sights on another worker named Fidelio. Without further explanation, Marzelline moved on to her aria 'O wär ich schon mit dir.' Which gave the impression that she would soon be together with Jacquino, but that aria focuses precisely on Fidelio. WONDERFUL VOCAL LINE-UP By deleting the spoken texts, the relationships between the scenes disappeared. That is how it always went in this production that the Reisopera is realizing together with the Royal Opera of Copenhagen and the Wielki Theater of Warsaw under the direction of John Fulljames . So you have to know the story about the woman (Leonore) who manages to rescue her husband (Florestan) with a ruse from a deep dark prison, run by the vengeful Don Pizarro, to follow and understand the connection between the sung scenes. This stylized 'Fidelio' was already performed in Copenhagen in 2020, and in Warsaw in 2021; due to the corona vicissitudes, the Dutch performance is only now following, newly rehearsed by Aylin Seda Bozok with a truly beautiful vocal line-up. TIGHT ORCHESTRAL SOUND The stylized setup was immediately audible in the overture. Otto Tausk made the orchestra play with tight, powerful expression, evoking tension by sometimes reducing the volume considerably and by inserting small interruptions in the musical progress. As if the breath was held for a moment. Tausk also kept the reins tight in the interaction with the singers, but left enough room for lyricism and drama in the elaboration by the soloists. For the Dutch Kelly God , who is causing a furore abroad, it was the first time she sang and acted the role of Leonore, alias Fidelio. With a big voice and with clear guts in her playing, she impressed as a robust woman who does not give way to the mental and physical violence of the prison director Pizarro. In her recitative 'Abscheulicher, wo eilst du hin' she gave great voice to the anger she experiences. Possibly because of the tension of this scene, she seemed to force herself vocally. She made an impression with the subsequent aria 'Komm, Hoffnung', beautifully surrounded by horns. The most beautiful moment in her role was of course the confrontation with her imprisoned husband Florestan. Restrained but firm, she approached him, resisted with elan the ferociously swinging Pizarro with a knife and discharged in the most famous part of the opera, the duet she sings with the liberated Florestan: NAVALNY Just as the hefty figure of Kelly God in loose-fitting worker's suit could not be transformed into a credible male figure that Fidelio should actually be, the American tenor Bryan Register also did not look like a prisoner who had to be locked up alone for two years and had to live on meager rations . pay for his pursuit of justice. In a haunted voice, Register sang his desperation aria "Gott, welch Dunkel hier." His misery logically led my thoughts to a similar situation in which Aleksei Navalny finds himself, punished for his protest. It moved me all the more that wife Leonore as 'Retterin' was able to free her 'Navalny'. That moment was worked out excitingly in the direction. For several minutes, Register and God continued to stare at each other from a distance as if the 'nameless Freude' were a mirage. Very slowly they stretched out their hands towards each other and finally embraced each other in a sudden movement and remained still in that pose. Two hands appeared on the background, the fingers of which grew together while the strings of Phion played the molto adagio movement from the string quartet opus 132. A special experience. TERRIFYING Don Pizarro, who had the troublesome Don Florestan kidnapped and imprisoned, was portrayed with powerful expression in acting and singing by the Dutch bass-baritone Bastiaan Everink,dressed in a mafia-like suit of shiny fabric. His revenge aria 'Ha, welch ein Augenblick' sounded terrifying. To get around the lack of spoken dialogue between Pizarro and Rocco, this aria was swapped with the (sung) duet between Pizarro and Rocco. In the spoken dialogue, Pizarro barks at his jailer: 'Die Depeschen'. He asks for incoming telegrams, a revolutionary, brand new means of communication at the time. One states that Justice Minister Don Fernando is coming to investigate Pizarro's prison. This leads to the revenge aria 'Ha, welch ein Augenblick'. To replace the package of messages, Pizarro was manipulating with a mobile phone. By deleting the question 'Die Depeschen' a completely unclear gesture. In more scenes it became clear how clumsy the removal of the dialogues turned out to be. Like the moment when, in the first act, jailer Rocco gives permission for a marriage between Marzelline and Fidelio, but first gives the advice that you need money: 'Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben, kann man nicht ganz glücklich sein'. Recited by the German bass Yorck Felix Speer with a nice bourgeois expression. Daughter Marzelline lets it happen. She is full of Fidelio whom she admires for his energy. Lovely like Armenian soprano Julietta Aleksanyan, her small stature in a frumpy black dress, with a white voice, mixed in the trio with Yorck Speer and Kelly God (convincing from the top of her lungs 'Ich habe Mut'). That love story between Marzelline and Fidelio is rather concealed in this production. Jacquino (Norwegian tenor Petter Moen ) also drops out due to the deletion of dialogues. PICTURE RHYME The choir has a wonderful role in 'Fidelio'. The prisoners' choir 'O welche Lust, in freier Luft' (with excellent solos by Bram van Uum and Remmert Velthuis), was sung with intense tension by the choir Consensus Vocalis (rehearsed by Alistair Digges), while the exuberant ' Heil sei den Tag' contributed to the substantial sound mass of a grandiose finale. The beautifully singing Dutch bass-baritone Frederik Bergman excelled in thislike a stately Don Fernando. Conductor Otto Tausk and the Phion orchestra put a sizzling sound under the final, which was also exciting in terms of direction, which was also enlarged on the screen on the background. Very nice how Kelly God walked towards the camera, so that her face with the bright eyes rhymed with the opening images: Leonore / Fidelio.

It is very enjoyable to hear the light but far-reaching bass of Rocco (a relaxed playing Yorck Felix Speer) and the beautiful tenor of Florestan (Bryan Register). Don Pizarro (baritone Bastiaan Everink) plays his anger just unbelievably over the top, especially because his presence is always accompanied by superimposed lightning bolt projections. Unfortunately, prison inspector Don Fernando doesn't get to the very end, because bass-baritone Frederik Bergman is the freshest of them all. The choir Consensus Vocalis is also good, especially in 'O welche Lust im freier Luft', when the prisoners take turns whispering to each other to sing softly. Orchestra Phion conducted by Otto Tausk has beautiful moments, especially when the oboe predominates or the trumpets of the approaching inspector sound from afar. The otherwise empty dark and light box will eventually get a bit boring, but a few nice ideas have been made with light projections. In the quartet 'Mir ist so wunderbar', in which a singer always joins in, only the first singer stands in a vertical beam of light at the beginning. Slowly, a second vertical beam shifts from the first to the second singer, arriving exactly as his vocal line begins. This goes on twice more. The result: a decor that seems illuminated from behind bars. After the break, when we are in the deepest dungeons, pillars hang almost to the ground. There is a lamp underneath. The small circles of light that fall through them on the floor resemble the scanty light that falls through crevices in the dungeon cells. It is strange that huge factory hall windows are projected on the backdrop. Projections of arms in the air, or two hands reaching to each other as Leonore and Florestan are reunited (after being separated for a long time by a beam of light, despite the fact that they have long been singing about their wonderful reunion hug) are a bit too esoteric. Add to that the somewhat minimal and predictable direction, and you come to the conclusion that this Fidelio has more light than acting inventions. The joy of the released prisoners at the end, which is filmed on stage with a few mobile phones and projected large on the back curtain, is touchingly believable. In any case, the chance to hear Beethoven's only opera is not one to pass up.