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May 27, 2005
Fidelio in Glasgow
For the last production of the 2004-5 season, Scottish Opera revived its 1994 production of Fidelio. The first performance on 25 May was a gritty, lumpy, choppy affair which finally won out against its flaws to deliver the powerful message of the drama.
The success of the evening was largely die to the supporting singers. Ulrich Dünnebach was a fine Rocco, singing with such beauty, elegance and good diction that the jailer could have been mistaken as one of the heroes of the drama. Sharper direction might have made it clearer that he was there for the money rather than to rescue Fidelio! Sarah Redgwick was an enchanting Marzelline with beautiful diction. No doubt a singer to watch in the future. Peter Sidhom was a manic, blustery Don Pizarro who shouted as much as he sang, but was absolutely effective as the villain.
Elizabeth Byrne has an attractive youthful voice, but from her first entry as Fidelio/Leonore it was apparent that she would be paying less attention to the text than the other singers. She also had a tendency to be shrill. For some reason the production did not include any transformation from the male Fidelio to the female Leonore (normally indicated by the soprano letting her hair down, donning a skirt or whatever) and poor jilted Marzelline may have been left wondering whether her Fidelio in the badly-fitting grey suit had turned out to be gay. As Florestan, Ian Storey produced ringing, dramatic tones, but without being able to sustain the music, and the words, to the ends of the lines.
The orchestra of Scottish Opera can often be the true hero of the night but on this occasion they were off form, with intonation problems and wrong notes. Richard Armstrong began the evening with a choppy account of the overture, and proceeded with a reading that was consistently dramatic, rather than smooth or beautiful.
The production was updated to a 20th-century ‘gulag’. A black, curtain-less set was used, divided into small, separately-revealed spaces, that was only opened up, full stage, for the prisoners’ chorus. This was effective, though it left the singers with little personal space to manoeuvre in, to the extent that it was possible to notice when they weren’t followed the blocking!
Unfortunately some short, over the top, effects spoilt the general austerity of the conception: simultaneous purple, yellow and red lighting of the climax to the dungeon scene and a sudden backcloth of incongruous skyscrapers right at the end of the opera. Simon Daw was credited, unusually, as ‘Revival Designer’, after Stewart Laing as ‘Original designer’, implying that the sets had been changed to some extent, while Tim Albery returned as director.
Posted by Simon Holledge at May 27, 2005 11:57 PM
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