Beethoven - Fidelio
by Leonard Bernstein, Otto Schenk
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gundula Janowitz, Hans Sotin, Lucia Popp, Manfred Jungwirth, Rene KolloDirector: Leonard Bernstein, Otto Schenk
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.0
Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 147 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Movie Reviews of Beethoven - Fidelio
Movie Review: Fidelio fast and furious.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have not heard Fidelio in a long time, and watching/listening to this performance now was a revelation, mostly to Beethoven's music and style. My major question has been for a while - why did he stop at writing just one opera, this one, and never composed another opera ever again? I think I heard loudly some answers - in short, he was probably not happy to continue in a style universally approved and admired for the time, that is, of Mozart and soon Rossini; yet his innovations, where he really shows that he is different, were severely criticized in this opera, as much as many parts of his Symphony No. 9. His contemporaries criticism was aimed as such parts dear today as "O namenlose Freude!" - it was found naïve, pompous and distasteful. Thus, he found a limitation in himself since he could not outperform Mozart writing in his style, and for furthering his own style perhaps he lacked patience or courage or a devoted patron - something that Wagner will have 50 years later.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Beethoven had continued, we would not have Wagner as we know him - everything he had to say would have been said and expressed by a greater genius of Beethoven. Maybe because Beethoven had just one opera, Wagner wrote only them, and never any symphonic music, as to avoid a direct competition - he certainly knew he had a lesser talent; and he mined profusely in Beethoven. Let's see how the music evolves.
The opera starts very pleasantly; the beginning has no particular signature and reminds of the start of Le Nozze with the dialog of two commoners, Marzelline and Rocco. As it proceeds and the father narrates his down-to earth dreams about what a secure future should mean for his daughter in his aria `Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben", we hear unmistakably "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from Don Giovanni - a song that Zerlina, also a commoner, sings to her groom Masetto.
This mood changes to Mozart's Requiem in the great Pizarro aria "Ha! Welch ein Augenblink!" - very fitting, since he is plotting to kill the prisoner, his enemy Florestan.
Next, we hear recitative and aria by Leonore "Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?" and from here one might say, Wagner starts - it could be Senta, Isolde, Kundry - but the root is here, and it is not Mozart anymore, it could not be. What follows is the development of Beethoven's own music and style, and only in a very few moments there is any remaining trace of Mozart - perhaps in the moment in `Es schlagt der Rache Stunde", a great quartet in Florestan prison cell; when the trumpet is heard the music suddenly reminds so of Il Commendatore arrival in Don Giovanni; promptly, Pizarro leaves.
The following scenes are progressively filled with music of marriage of mighty sublime and pompous idealism, so very Symphony No. 9, divinely beautiful and at times so overbearing that grandeur starts dripping from sweating violins. In this particular production, it was amazing how fast Bernstein made the orchestra playing; it was awesome but perhaps too Toscanini-like and the finale tempo was really extravagant; the chorus lost it once, but the Maestro was non-relenting, rushing it so as he was suddenly tired and bored of this whole affair and wanted to finish it ASAP; the ending felt as an operetta or a Rossini. Perhaps as Beethoven wanted to outdo Mozart, Bernstein wanted to outshine Furtwangler. I think Beethoven succeeded better.
Singing-wise it was a very good production; I compare it with the old Furtwangler's recording with Kirsten Flagstad as Leonore, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Marzelline and Julius Patzak as Florestan. While the voices in Bernstein version are also excellent, how much more thoughtful Furtwangler's Fidelio is. There the music is given its due, with the conductor exploring its depths and beauty, bringing out its magic, and serving to music itself, not to himself, while somehow this Bernstein performance seems to be one-man show; he was so preoccupied with making it unique that at times it sounded as a vaudeville, completely lacking of lyricism. Yet, despite this obvious desire for Bernstein to be original in his interpretation of Fidelio, this Vienna performance is still a great production. It is strange to think that the greatest Boris Godunov existing on DVD was also staged in 1978 (in Bolshoi).
Concluding, looking back from our time, after many sounds that are called music today to a feverish accolades of the crowd, it is astonishing that this opera could have been so harshly criticized - to a modern listener it is a true masterpiece. Just to imagine what Beethoven could have created as his 5th or 9th opera! - Mozart's Don Giovanni was not his first opera either. It is a pity Ludwig gave up on the genre - since 1805, Fidelio's Premiere, he had many years to give us more! Yet we are lucky to have one but one of the best operas ever.
Summary of Beethoven - Fidelio
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