SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Garsington Opera Festival 2009 - Beethoven, Fidelio: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Garsington Opera, Douglas Boyd (conductor)  Garsington Hall, Garsington,  Oxfordshire,  UK  19.6.2009 (BK)

Cast:

Rebecca von Lipinski - Leonore /Fidelio
Peter Wedd - Florestan
Rocco - Frode Olsen
Don Pizarro - Sergie Leiferkus
Marzelline  - Claire Ormshaw
Jaquino - Pascal Charbonneau
Don Fernando - Pauls Putnins
1st Prisoner - Ben Thapa
2nd Prisoner - Aaron McAuley

Production:

Director - John Cox
Designer - Gary McCann
Conductor - Douglas Boyd

Helicopters and opera don't mix, that's for sure. Hats off then, to all the singers in this Fidelio,  most of whom were beset by  passing choppers taking worthies to Silverstone for the Formula 1 Grand Prix.  Rebecca von Lipinski, the production's Leonore /Fidelio  was particularly unfortunate: a  fly-by at  zero feet would challenge any singer but when it happens at the start of the 'Abscheulicher!' scena  then the question, 'Wo eilst du hin?' must feel desperately appropriate. Only mildly perturbed by the distraction, as far as anyone near her could tell, she dealt with it manfully.

This was Garsington's first ever Fidelio, placed in the experienced hands of veteran director John Cox and the conductor Douglas Boyd, whose Beethoven symphonies with the Manchester Camerata  have received a good deal of acclaim (reviews.)  It's a traditional enough production, faithful to the text and without extra tricksy messages,  which takes place in sets tailored skilfully to Garsington's cramped performing space by designer Gary McCann. A  minimum of  props - some scaffolding and three concrete cisterns - suggest Florestan's stygian incarceration very vividly. There are no real surprises in the production and its only head-scratching moment occurred in the final chorus when the women came on dressed as lamp-bearing vestal virgins.  Light conquering darkness and the   triumph of virtue in the end maybe, or  a quietly sly advertisement for Rossini's  Cenerentola or La Bonta in Trionfo which is also in this year's programme. Who knows?

On the strength of this performance, Douglas Boyd's reputation with Beethoven is very well founded. Apart from what felt like an immensely fast attack on the Act II finale, all of the glorious music flowed beautifully with sympathetic attention paid to the soloists, to the marvellously articulate Garsington chorus and to orchestral detail. The solo singing matched up to Garsington's best with not a misplaced note anywhere and particularly fine performances from Ms Lipinski, Claire Ormshaw and Sergei Leiferkus - a luxurious and menacing Pizarro by any standards - not to mention Peter Wedd's powerful Florestan. He sang so strongly at his first entry and in 'O namenlose Freude' that it was very hard indeed to believe that his character had  been living in total darkness on starvation rations for weeks. The only slight disappointment in the whole evening was Frode Olsen's Rocco -  an unusually amiable characterisation as it happens - whose singing felt strangely muted by comparison with Mr. Leiferkus's  stentorianism. Olsen has been a formidable Wotan in other venues and it would have been good to have heard rather more of his undoubted vocal quality.

Helicopters notwithstanding, this thoroughly enjoyable Fidelio received rapturous and well deserved applause from the audience - except for Don  Pizarro who was roundly booed at first in the best British pantomime tradition. Such a pity though that Jenson Button only came in sixth at Silverstone thirty six hours  later.

Bill Kenny

For details of the  remaining Garsington performances for this  season, visit: http://www.garsingtonopera.org/

Picture © Johan Persson

Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page