Beethoven – Fidelio: Melanie Diener/Roberto Sacca/ Zurich Oper/Bernard Haitink
Opus Arte DVD
Sullivan – Ivanhoe: Neal Davies/Toby Spence/Janice Watson/BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Chandos CD
Meyerbeer – Il Crociato in Egitto: Michael Maniaci/Patrizia Ciofi/ Teatro La Fenice/Emmanuel Villaume
Naxos CD
Fidelio, a cry for human freedom, speaks to us all. This fascinating Zurich production by Katharina Thalbach, emphasises the opera’s eternal and universal qualities. We are not only in the cells of particular prison, we are in a subterranean dungeon, with labyrinthine echoes of Piranesi and even Leonardo da Vinci. The costumes are not “period,” but carry their own symbolic power. Leonora has an almost Hollywood heroic quality and Pizarro the tailored suit of a gangster boss. And it really does work. Standard of performance is high under Bernard Haitink’s direction although one does feel the need for a bit of abandon in the closing pages. He may well say, with Florestan: “Susse Trust in meinem Herzen, meine Pflichte habe ich getan”. He has indeed. The sound is bright and clear throughout.
Ivanhoe is a real curiosity. Arthur Sullivan’s grand Walter Scott opera was first performed to inaugurate the Royal English Opera House (today’s Palace Theatre) in 1891 and ran for an astounding 160 performances and was subsequently neglected. The libretto by Julian Sturgis seems a bit fustian for modern taste and the music varies from pastiche folksy-ballad stuff to the familiar Sullivan light operatic and unconvincing bombastic “big moments”. But pleasant things happen along the way. Rowena’s aria is a gem. The singing is impressive. Originally planned for the late Richard Hickox, it is here dedicatedly handled by David Lloyd-Jones.
French grand opera was more or less invented by German-born Giacomo Meyerbeer and featured spectacular staging of historical subjects with elaborate scenery, stage effects and lighting; plenty of work for chorus and stage bands, applause entrapping arias with rich and complex final acts. Narked by having his Rienzi declined for production in Paris, Wagner described Meyerbeer as “effects without causes”. Meyerbeer’s greatest triumphs are Les Huguenots (1836) and Le Prophete (1849). His masterly grand style was eclipsed by the craze for bel canto and then eclipsed by the mighty Verdi and Wagner.
In 1825, British newspapers enthused as London anticipated the experience of an opera by the 33-year-old Meyerbeer, Il Crociato in Egitto, starring a genuine castrato and relishing a composer alleged to combine Italianate melodiousness with German harmonic richness.
The Morning Post was slightly disappointed: “It is delightfully rich in melody, and its vocal as well as its instrumental harmonisation command high admiration. But it cannot be said that Meyerbeer compares with Rossini in his production of orchestral effects, or that he attains in any way to the genius displayed in the finest conceptions of that master.”
Il Crociato was a far more polished work than any by Rossini, the critic thought, but ultimately would not bear comparison with any of Rossini’s greatest operas. Nevertheless, this fine recording of Meyerbeer’s crusader melodrama is a great deal of fun. The lead is superbly assumed by counter tenor Michael Maniaci.
