In 2020, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. They prepared for large-scale celebrations ahead of time, including choosing a new project for a concert hall in his hometown of Bonn. But current events have brought down the holiday schedule of concerts and performances, so the premiere of Fidelio at the Theater an der Wien has become a purely television event: a specially made rehearsal recording was shown on ORF Austrian national television last Friday.
On the one hand, such a turn is a great disappointment for the creators of the play and music lovers, on the other hand, the premiere was attended by almost 380,000 TV viewers, each of whom was able to appreciate the production in all the details of the image and sound. Recording is available until March 27
on the channel's website (Russians will need a VPN), at any time - on the paid resource MyFidelio or in other parts of the Internet.
Naturally, the perception from the auditorium is always different from the video recording, but the restrained set design by Barkow Leibinger (the project partner Frank Barkow, Frank Barkow, GAP - Antje Stekhan, Antje Steckhan was responsible for) looked clearly no worse on the screen than live. It is an endless staircase reminiscent of the works of M. K. Escher, has become a universal space for an equally universal plot of "Fidelio" - about bondage and freedom.
The steps provided the opportunity for a variety of mise-en-scènes, thought out by Christoph Waltz, who also made sure that the soloists were comfortable singing - a rarity in the "director's opera" of our time. The staircase allowed the artists to appear and disappear effectively, and created a lot of associations among the audience - from the obvious ascent and descent to the aperture of the movie camera, the cave-refuge, the labyrinth, hopelessness and threat, but also the harbinger of change. British cinematographer and lighting designer Henry Braham used the set as a backdrop for his own design - say, at a key moment, the staircase becomes like wings - perhaps a dove of peace or the "angel Leonora" that her husband Florestan sees dying in prison. although this episode appeared in the final, third version of the opera, while the Theater an der Wien gave a much rarer second, 1806.
