Salzburg Festival 2015: Fidelio

Beethoven's only opera 'Fidelio' is not one of his best works and will never go down as one of opera's masterpieces. This reviewer does have a good deal of fondness though, and it is one of not many operas that has mostly been served very well on DVD.

The story is fragmented and sometimes lacks momentum, but has some great dramatic moments as well, the characters are well-characterised though very demanding on the voice and not easy to portray (like Florestan being too healthy, Leonore convincing as a boy or not and Pizarro not being sinister enough or too stock) and Beethoven's music is wonderful. "O Welche Lust" (one of opera's most poignant choruses), "O Nameleuse Freunde", "In Des Lebens", "Abschuelischer", "Ha Welch Ein Augenblick" (one of my favourite villain arias) and especially the sublime quartet "Mir Ist So Wunderbar" are notable standouts.

Of a very solid and mostly very good DVD competition this Salzburg production directed by Claus Guth is the weakest one by a long way. The 1998 Stuttgart production is worse, at least this production is well sung and performed (that production only had three performances, the Rocco, the Jaquino -coincidentally from Jonas Kaufmann- and the Marzelline that were good), but it is not on DVD so can't be counted.

Starting with what is good, the prison setting looks like a prison and is very effective with frighteningly stark lighting. It's also very well filmed, one of the better filmed 'Fidelios' and almost cinematic in places. The orchestra play beautifully with plenty of energy, power and nuances, the chorus are poignant and rousing though with little to do dramatically and Franz Welser-Möst gives a dynamic and lurching account of the score with a "Leonore 3 Overture" (also a highlight and breaks up the contrasting acts very well indeed and doesn't grind the action to a halt) that brims with thunder and furious energy.

Even better is most of the singing, with Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan giving the production's standout performance. Always have loved his chocolatey tenor voice with its baritone-like tendencies, and the role doesn't sound too heavy for him either surprisingly as Florestan is a very strenuous sing. He actually looks like a broken prisoner and is affecting in his torment and determined. He is very well partnered by the very committed performance of Adrianne Pieczonka, who sings tirelessly and plushly the whole production even in the punishing "Abscheulischer", all of which more than makes up for the occasional lack of subtlety.

Hans-Peter König is the most consistent in support, singing with a dark firm voice and characterising Rocco with dignity, humour, conflict and benevolence. Olga Bezsmertna is a pert and appealingly voiced Marzelline and Norbert Ernst's Jaquino is very strongly played.

Less good were Tomasz Konieczny and Sebastian Holecek. Konieczny often sings with thunder and doesn't resort to shouting, blustering or barking like some Pizarros have done in the past, but does sound very under-powered in the lower register, he does struggle with "Ha Welch Ein Augenblick". He is also not really sinister enough for Pizarro, one of the most irredeemably evil characters in opera. Holecek doesn't appear until the end, and while there is some attractiveness in his acting he is given very little to do dramatically and often resorts to stand-there-and-sing acting.

Much more problematic is the staging. The costumes are even for modern dress not very attractive and not particularly appropriate, and the spoken dialogue which may be awkward to some but moves the story forward and explains a good deal without over-explaining is replaced with poorly recorded and quite frankly bizarre.

Claus Guth's staging deserves a paragraph of its own because to this reviewer it just doesn't work, not in a while have I seen a production that raises more questions than answers. It often makes complete nonsense of the text, the words describing Florestan's state in the dungeon are very specific but constantly contradicted, there was really no point of the shadow doubles and they convoluted the final scene and the ending was incoherent as is a lot of the production where those seeing the opera for the first time will have absolutely no idea who the characters are or what's going on in the story. Have been familiar with 'Fidelio' for a good while, and even this reviewer was confused.

Overall, very good musically but doesn't work. 5/10 Bethany Cox