Fidelio — HDVDARTS

Beethoven Fidelio opera (1814 version) to libretto by Joseph Ferdinand von Sonnleithner, Stephan von Breuning, and Georg Friedrich Treitschke. Directed 2020 by Tobias Kratzer at the Royal Opera House. Stars Robin Tritschler (Jaquino), Amanda Forsythe (Marzelline), Lise Davidsen (Leonore/Fidelio), Georg Zeppenfeld (Rocco), Simon Neal (Don PIzarro), Filipe Manu (First Prisoner), Timothy Dawkins (Second Prisoner), David Butt Philip (Florestan), and Egils Siliņš (Don Fernando). Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Guest Concert Master Jan Schmolck) and the Royal Opera Chorus (Chorus Director William Spaulding). Set and costume design by Rainer Sellmaier; lighting design by Michael Bauer; video design by Manuel Braun; dramaturgy by Bettina Bartz. Directed for TV by Rhodri Huw. Sung in German. Released 2022, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

The 2019 Tobias Kratzer Tannhäuser at Bayreuth was perhaps that year’s most outrageously radical opera production. In 2020, Kratzer struck again at the Royal Opera house by severing the two-act Fidelio into two operas performed as a double bill. According to David Karlin, who saw this live and reported for bachtrack.com, each opera has its own Big Idea. Opera I, set in the French Revolution, is a costume drama showing how gory a revolution can be. Opera 2 is set in the present to suggest that it could happen again! All this “marks the transition from Mozartian Classical to Wagnerian Romantic.” H’m—another Big Idea! Beethoven never could figure out what to do with Fidelio; has Kratzer solved the riddle?

Critics seemed to agree that the singers and the orchestra are good in this show. For example, Steven Jude Teitjen, on pages 56 -57 of the June 2022 Opera News, flips out supporting Lise Davidsen, stating that were it not for her singing as “the rising dramatic soprano of the moment”, the “head-scratching” over Tratzer’s deconstruction of the plot wouldn’t be worthwhile. Gramophone magazine gave this Fidelio its Blu-ray Recording of the Month award for June 2022. Hugo Shirley, writing at page 84 of the June 2022 Gramophone, takes the bifurcation of the opera in stride and revels in the glories of Davidsen’s “wonderful Leonore”, great support from the rest of the singers, and the “fierce conviction” of the ROH Orchestra under Pappano.

Here’s a clip of the production from the Royal Opera House:

Buy on Amazon

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.