Fidelio – Beethoven 250
Schneider, Kaufmann & van Zweden – Gstaad Festival Orchestra II
Opera in concert version
Thursday, 11 August 2022
7.30 pm, Gstaad Festival Tent
It is Beethoven's only opera ... but what kind of an opera – a true masterpiece! A concentration of his dramatic genius at the service of values emblematic of his thinking, deeply marked by the impetus of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution: freedom and fraternity. Inspired by a play by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly entitled Léonore ou l'amour conjugal [Leonora or Marital Love], his Fidelio stages a woman (Leonora) who does everything in her power to get her husband (Florestan) out of prison ... including disguising herself as a man (under the name of Fidelio) to get inside. Presented in a concert version, this masterpiece is the opportunity for a two-fold come-back: that of star tenor Jonas Kaufmann and conductor Jaap van Zweden at the head of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra.
SINÉAD CAMPBELL-WALLACE, Soprano (Leonore)
Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor (Florestan)
Matthias Winckhler, Bass-Baritone (Don Fernando)
Falk Struckmann, Baritone (Don Pizarro)
Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Bass (Rocco)
Christina Landshamer, Soprano (Marzelline)
Patrick Grahl, Tenor (Jaquino)
Peter Simonischek, Narrator (German)
Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno
Petr Fiala, Choir Director
Gstaad Festival Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, Conductor
| Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) | |
| “Fidelio”, opera in 2 acts – in a concert version | 180' (interval included) |
| German texts from “Roccos Erzählungen” [Rocco's Tales] by Walter Jens, adapted and completed by Brigitte Karner – with English and French subtitles | |
| CHF 220/160/135/95/65 |