Beethoven's Fidelio (Pdf)

BEET250_Fidelio_A5_ProgramCover_v3.indd 1 13/2/20 9:28 am West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Wesfarmers Arts, creating the spark that sets off a lifelong love of music.

Shigeru Komatsu – WASO Cello The West Australian Symphony Orchestra respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians and Elders of the Indigenous Nations across Western Australia and on whose Lands we work.

West Australian Beethoven's Fidelio

Symphony Orchestra Asher Fisch conductor and Wesfarmers Arts, Christiane Libor Leonore/Fidelio Tomislav Mužek Florestan creating the spark Adrian Tamburini Don Fernando that sets off a lifelong Felicitas Fuchs Marzelline love of music. Andrew Goodwin Jaquino Warwick Fyfe Don Pizarro Jonathan Lemalu Rocco Matthew Lester First Prisoner David Dockery Second Prisoner

Eryn Jean Norvill narrator Alison Croggon dramatic text Clare Watson director

West Australian Symphony Orchestra WASO Chorus West Australian Opera Chorus Allison Fyfe Surtitle Operator Surtitles courtesy of Opera Australia Translations by Brian Fitzgerald

Opera in concert sung in German with English surtitles. Narrated in English. A West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Perth Festival commission presented in association with West Australian Opera. Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts. Clare Watson appears courtesy of Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Wesfarmers Arts Pre-concert Talk Find out more about the music in the concert with this week’s speaker, Cecilia Sun (see page 14 for her biography). The Pre-concert Talk will take place at 6.10pm on Friday and at 1.10pm on Sunday in the Terrace Level Foyer.

Listen to WASO This performance is recorded for broadcast on ABC Classic. For further details visit Shigeru Komatsu – abc.net.au/classic WASO Cello

3 Welcome

Beethoven’s struggle with vocal music Set in a prison, within locked doors, we are bothered him immensely throughout his introduced to Fidelio, the new jailer. What creative life. He had challenged the reign we know (but the other characters don’t) is of Mozart and Haydn in instrumental music Fidelio is actually a woman named Leonore, with considerable success, and after the who has disguised herself as a man to get death of Haydn was widely considered the work in the prison and rescue her husband foremost composer of his time, admired in who she suspects has been imprisoned by Vienna and all over Europe. But his conquest the wicked governor. was not complete until he composed a great It’s interesting how relevant Fidelio still opera, and with Fidelio, this was the task. remains. One of the things that draws me Success with the opera proved elusive to this opera is the woman doesn’t die, however, and Beethoven had to rework the something unusual for an opera of this era. opera time and again. Instead Leonore is the hero. Underneath that plot are themes of freedom, liberation While it is true that dramaturgically Fidelio and political persecution which all remain has weaknesses, at the same time it also relevant today. contains some of the most beautiful moments Beethoven ever composed. The Writing this narration, I wanted to bring quartet of the first act, Leonore’s scene and poetic and philosophical considerations aria, the prisoner’s chorus and Florestan’s to the forefront. I thought about the scene at the top of the second act are fine underlying meanings. What is freedom? examples. What does it look and feel like? Most importantly, the opera gives us deeper I hope you come out of this production full insights into Beethoven’s personality and of hope and joy. Beethoven is supremely creative mind. It is a work about tyranny and capable of producing an extreme sense freedom, bravery and love. The way in which of joyousness, part of the reason why his Beethoven puts these words and ideas into popularity has stood the test of time, and music guides us in interpreting many of the text is meant to amplify this. his purely instrumental works, helping us decode his musical language, so to speak. Alison Croggon Asher Fisch Principal Conductor & Artistic Adviser

4 Any concert presentation of Beethoven’s only opera presents unique challenges. The music is sublime, but a creative solution for the spoken text needs to be found. This is because a back-to-back performance of the musical numbers leaves dramaturgical holes as well as abrupt musical gear changes. Hence Asher Fisch’s suggestion of sewing a narrated text around the musical numbers, built around the moments where spoken text occurs in the original. Our hope in commissioning this narrated text was not only to honour the philosophies and ideas at the heart of Perth Festival is thrilled to be partnering the original, but also to focus on more with West Australian Symphony universal themes that can speak to a Orchestra alongside West Australian contemporary political landscape through Opera and Black Swan State Theatre a female prism that reflects and amplifies Company to present this concert version the central heroic role. of Fidelio – our flagship companies collaborating to close Perth Festival 2020, Liberty, Freedom, Imprisonment, both a celebration of our place and our time. literal and metaphorical, speaking truth We do hope you enjoy. to power, love. These are the launching points for Alison Croggon’s exquisite Iain Grandage and poetic text, so ably delivered by Perth Festival Artistic Director Eryn Jean Norvill and directed by Black Swan’s Clare Watson.

Perth Festival

Founded in 1953 by The University of Western Australia, Perth Festival is Australia’s longest running international arts festival and Western Australia’s premier cultural event. The Festival has developed a worldwide reputation for international excellence, commissioning major new works, celebrating the unique qualities of Perth and engaging diverse audiences with the highest quality artistic experiences. For 67 years the Festival has welcomed to Perth some of the world’s greatest living artists and now connects with hundreds of thousands of people each year. Iain Grandage is Perth Fetsival Artistic Director 2020 – 23.

5 WASO On Stage

VIOLIN VIOLA FLUTE HORN ★★Section partnered by Laurence Jackson Daniel Schmitt Andrew Nicholson Margaret & Rod Marston Concertmaster • Anonymous Alex Brogan David Evans Semra Lee-Smith Kierstan Arkleysmith Mary-Anne Blades A/Assoc Concertmaster • Anonymous Robert Gladstones Nik Babic Principal 3rd Horn Rebecca Glorie PICCOLO A/Principal 1st Violin Benjamin Caddy Julia Brooke Alison Hall Michael Waye Francesco Lo Surdo Zak Rowntree* • Pamela & Josh Pitt Principal 2nd Violin Rachael Kirk TRUMPET Kylie Liang Allan McLean OBOE Assoc Principal 2nd Violin Elliot O’Brien Brent Grapes Rachael Clegg^ • Anonymous Kate Sullivan Helen Tuckey Guest Principal Oboe Jenna Smith Assistant Principal Leanne Glover 2nd Violin CELLO Principal Cor Anglais Peter Miller Fleur Challen • Sam & Leanne Walsh Eve Silver* TROMBONE Stephanie Dean Melinda Forsythe° CLARINET Joshua Davis • Marc & Nadia Geary Shigeru Komatsu Amy Furfaro^ Allan Meyer • Dr Ken Evans and Sacha McCulloch^ Dr Glenda Campbell-Evans Lorna Cook Beth Hebert Nicholas Metcalfe Alexandra Isted BASS TROMBONE Anna Sarcich^ BASSOON Jane Johnston^ Philip Holdsworth Tim South Jane Kircher-Lindner Sunmi Jung Adam Mikulicz TIMPANI Christina Katsimbardis DOUBLE BASS Alex Timcke Ellie Lawrence Andrew Sinclair* CONTRABASSOON Andrea Mendham^ John Keene Chloe Turner Jasmine Middleton^ Elizabeth Browning^ • Stelios Jewellers Akiko Miyazawa Christine Reitzenstein Lucas O’Brien Andrew Tait Melanie Pearn Mark Tooby Louise Sandercock Jolanta Schenk Jane Serrangeli Kathryn Shinnick Cerys Tooby Teresa Vinci^

★★Section partnered by •Chair partnered by *Instruments used by these musicians are on loan from Janet Holmes à Court AC.

Principal Associate Principal Assistant Principal Contract Musician˚ Guest Musician^

6 About The Artists

Asher Fisch Principal Conductor & Artistic Adviser

A renowned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Asher Fisch is especially celebrated for his interpretative command of core German and Italian repertoire of the Romantic and post-Romantic era. He conducts a wide variety of repertoire from Gluck to contemporary works by living composers. Since 2014, Asher Fisch has been the Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the West

Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO). His Gonz Chris Photo: former posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Seattle Opera (2007-2013), Music Director has built his versatile repertoire at the major of the New Israeli Opera (1998-2008), and Music opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, Director of the Wiener Volksoper (1995-2000). Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, In 2019, Fisch won Helpmann Awards for Best Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House at Covent Individual Classical Performance and Best Garden, and Semperoper Dresden. Fisch Symphony Orchestra Concert for WASO’s is also a regular guest conductor at leading production of Tristan und isolde.’ American symphony orchestras including those After returning to conduct the Boston of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood and the Philadelphia. In Europe he has appeared at the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, in August, highlights of Asher Fisch’s 2019-20 London Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig season include concerts with the New Zealand Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestre Symphony Orchestra and the orchestra of National de France, among others. the Teatro Comunale di Bologne. Guest opera Asher Fisch’s recent recordings include engagements include Fidelio and Adriana Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde recorded with Lecouvrer at the Teatro Comunale di Bologne, WASO, which won Limelight Magazine’s Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, and Parsifal at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera Recording of the Year in 2019, Bruckner the Bayerische Staatsoper at the Hong Kong Symphony No.8 recorded with WASO and Arts Festival, and Pagliacci and Schitz at the released in 2019, tenor Stuart Skelton’s first solo Israeli Opera. album, recorded with WASO and released on ABC Classic in 2018, and a recording of Ravel’s Highlights of Asher Fisch’s 2018-19 season L’heure espagnole with the Munich Radio included guest engagements with the Orchestra, which won Limelight Magazine’s Düsseldorf Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Opera Recording of the Year in 2017. In 2016, Teatro Massimo Orchestra in Palermo. Guest he recorded the complete Brahms symphonies opera engagements included Il Trovatore, with WASO, released on ABC Classics to great Otello, Die Fliegende Holländer, and Andrea acclaim. His recording of Wagner’s Ring Cycle Chénier at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Arabella with the Seattle Opera was released on the Avie and Hansel und Gretel at the Semperoper label in 2014. His first completeRing , with State Dresden, Tannhäuser at the Tokyo National Opera of South Australia, won ten Helpmann Theater, and Cristof Loy’s new production of Awards, including best opera and best music Capriccio at the Teatro Real in Madrid. direction. Fisch is also an accomplished pianist Born in Israel, Fisch began his conducting and has recorded a solo disc of Wagner piano career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and transcriptions for the Melba label. kappellmeister at the Berlin Staatsoper. He Asher Fisch appears courtesy of Wesfarmers Arts.

7 Christiane Libor Tomislav Mužek Leonore/Fidelio Florestan

Christiane Libor was born in Berlin and Tomislav Mužek was at first engaged at studied at the ‘Musikhochschule für the Bremen opera house in 2000. Musik Hanns Eisler.’ She complemented her conservatory education training with Since then, the tenor has been a welcome Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, Julia Varady, Hans guest at all the great opera houses and Hotter, and Brigitte Fassbaender. festivals, as Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Berlin, Hamburgische Ms. Libor has made great music together Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, with many of the world’s most respected Volksoper in Vienna, Teatro alla Scala conductors including Philippe Auguin, Philippe in Milan, Malmö Opera, Opera House Jordan, Kurt Masur, Ingo Metzmacher, Marc in Daegu (Korea), Teatro Communale Minkowski, Helmuth Rilling, Sebastian Weigle, Florence, Croatian National Theatre Simone Young, and Jaap van Zweden. Zagreb, the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse and the Opéra National Paris to sing parts Performances of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 such as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), seasons include Fidelio conducted by Marc Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Cosí Minkowski at the Grand Théâtre de Fan Tutte), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Alfredo Luxembourg, The Flying Dutchman with (La Traviata), Don Carlos (Don Carlos), Oper Leipzig in a new production, and Die Nemorino (L’elisir D’amore) Florestan Walküre with Oper Frankfurt under the (Fidelio), Lenski (Eugen Onegin) and Erik baton of Sebastian Weigle and in concert (The Flying Dutchman). with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. In June 2020 he will sing Stolzing (Die Meistersinger Von Nürnberb) at the New In the past season, Christiane Libor bowed National Theatre Tokyo – it's a role debut. in Die Walküre conducted by Jaap van Zweden in a production directed by Vera Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut Nemirova with the Salzburg Easter Festival on tour at the Beijing Poly Theatre, and she sang the three Brünnhildes in Der Ring des Nibelungen, in the span of just four days, at Oper Leipzig led by Ulf Schirmer. Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut 8 About The Artists

Adrian Tamburini Felicitas Fuchs Don Fernando Marzelline

After singing as a boy chorister for many Felicitas Fuchs studied at the Guildhall years, Adrian commenced vocal lessons School of Music & Drama with Ian with Bettine McCaughan at the age of 15. Kennedy and Rudolf Piernay and was later Between 1996 and 2011 he achieved great accepted to the Young Artist Programme success winning awards in many vocal in Switzerland with Kurt Widmer. During eisteddfods and competitions throughout her studies, she also benefitted from Victoria including two international singing masterclasses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau competitions. In 2017, Adrian was the and Graham Johnson before winning the winner of Australia’s prestigious singing 2006 “La Voce” Lied-Competition, held by award, the Australian Opera Awards (YMF, the Bavarian Broadcasting Association in MOST). His singing has featured on cinema Bad Kissingen. releases of opera, DVD, international recordings, motion picture soundtracks, A versatile concert artist and committed radio, television (Woolworths Carols in the recitalist, Felicitas has performed at such Domain) and Australian dramas including renowned venues as Philharmonie Warschau, the soundtrack to "After the Deluge". His Herkulessaal and Philharmonie in Munich, Operatic debut was in 1997 and ever since the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, UNESCO Hall in has had a varied career as an operatic Paris, the National Centre for the Arts in soloist, a concert performer, musical Beijing and the Royal Albert Hall, London, director and producer. His work, both on and has been a welcome guest at national and off the stage, has been nominated for and international festivals including Kissinger awards and his performances have received Sommer, Mozart Festival in Augsburg/ critical acclaim. In 2020, Adrian will make Wurzburg, Immling Opera Festival and Cape his debut with Pinchgut Opera, West Classics (South Africa). Australian Symphony Orchestra, Australian Orchestral performances have included Discovery Orchestra and perform in a series appearances with Münchner Symphonikern of concerts with the Inventi Ensemble. und Philharmonikern, Orchester des Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bamberger Symphoniker and Camerata Salzburg. Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut

9 Andrew Goodwin Warwick Fyfe Jaquino Don Pizarro

Andrew Goodwin’s opera engagements Warwick Fyfe is a Helpmann Award-winning have seen him appear at the Bolshoi Opera, singer and is considered one of Australia’s Gran Theatre Liceu Barcelona, Teatro Real finest baritones. Recent appearances Madrid, La Scala Milan, Opera Australia, include Wotan (Die Walküre) in Singapore, State Opera South Australia, Pinchgut Beckmesser (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Opera and Sydney Chamber Opera. Alberich (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Sancho Panza (Don Quichotte), Amonasro (Aida), He has performed with the St. Petersburg Geronio (Il turco in Italia) and Klingsor Philharmonic Orchestra, all the Australian (Parsifal) for Opera Australia, Alberich (Das and New Zealand Symphony orchestras, Rheingold) for the Japan Philharmonic and Moscow and Melbourne Chamber Tianjin Symphony Orchestras and Peter Orchestras, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, (Hansel and Gretel) in Singapore. Melbourne Bach Choir, at Huntington Estate Music Festival, recorded with 2019 appearances included Athanaël Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and (Thaïs) and Amonasro for Finnish National appeared in recitals with pianist Daniel de Opera, Barone di Trombonok (Il viaggio Borah throughout Australia, at Wigmore a Reims) for Opera Australia and Bartolo Hall and the Oxford Lieder Festival. (The Barber of Seville) for Victorian Opera; in 2020, Warwick sings Alberich and In 2020 Andrew’s engagements include Amonasro for Opera Australia, Pizarro his debut with West Australian Symphony, (Fidelio) in Melbourne and Perth and Creation (Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 for the and the Australian Romantic & Classical Melbourne Symphony. Orchestra), Queensland Symphony’s Opera Gala, Verdi Requiem (Sydney Philharmonia Warwick was the recipient of a Helpmann Choirs and Ensemble Apex), Elijah (Sydney Award for his 2013 performance as Alberich University Graduate Choir), and Messiah with in the Melbourne Ring Cycle; he became a Sydney Chamber Choir and the Queensland, Churchill Fellow in 2015. Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony © Patrick Togher Artists’ Management 2020 Orchestras. Most recent WASO performance: 29-30 November Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut 2019, VERDI Requiem

10 About The Artists Photo: Sussie Ahlburg Sussie Photo:

Jonathan Lemalu Eryn Jean Norvill Rocco Narrator

Jonathan Lemalu, a New Zealand born Eryn Jean Norvill is a graduate of VCA and Samoan, is a joint winner of the 2002 has also studied at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier Kathleen Ferrier award and the recipient in France and The Groundlings School in of the 2002 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Los Angeles. She has worked extensively in Award for Young Artist of the Year. Australian professional theatre for the last ten years. His roles include Leporello, Rocco, Colline, Basilio, Osmin, Neptune, Saul. He Selected credits include: Malthouse Theatre has worked at houses including the Royal Company; Melancholia, Sydney Theatre Opera; The Metropolitan Opera; Opera Company; Three Sisters, All My Sons , King de Lyon; Opera Australia; Cincinnati Lear, Suddenly. Last Summer, Cyrano De Opera; San Francisco Opera; Dallas Bergerac, Romeo and Juliet. For Belvoir; Opera, Seattle and The Chicago Lyric. The Government Inspector. For Melbourne Theatre Company; Hamlet and Top Girls. For Recent and future engagements his first Griffin Theatre Company;The Boys. Sarastro The Magic Flute for English National Opera, Sacristan Tosca for the She has received several theatre awards Royal Opera House, Voice of Neptune including Sydney Theatre Awards for Idomeneo at the Salzburg Festival, Publio Suddenly Last Summer (2015), The Boys Clemenza di Tito for the Theater an der (2012), Truckstop (2012). Green Room Wien, Don Fernando Fidelio with the Awards for Government Inspector (2014), Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, King Top Girls (2012) and Melbourne Fringe Sharyaati Sukanya with the London Festival People’s Choice Award: A Tiny Philharmonic Orchestra, Missa Solemnis Chorus (2009). with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bottom Midsummer Night’s Eryn Jean is also a writer, dramaturg and Dream for the Grange Festival, and theatre maker. She has co-created many returns to English National Opera and works, selected credits include: A Tiny Covent Garden. Chorus (2009), Remake to the REPETITIONS: Performance Art and Philosophy Festival in Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut Ljubljana, Slovenia (2016) and NICHE (2017). Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut

11 Photo: Sam Harris Sam Photo:

Alison Croggon Clare Watson Dramatic Text Director

Alison Croggon is an award-winning Clare is the Artistic Director of Black novelist, poet, theatre writer and critic. She Swan State Theatre Company of WA and has written extensively for theatre and has directed The Torrents (a co-production opera, with libretti including The Riders with Sydney Theatre Company), Our (score Iain Grandage), the Choral/Vocal Town, Xenides, The Events, You Know We Work of the Year in the 2015 Art Music Belong Together and Let The Right One Awards and Mayakovsky (score Michael In. Previously, Clare was Artistic Director Smetanin), shortlisted for the Victorian at St Martins where her credits include I Premier’s Literary Awards Drama prize. saw the second one hit, Gonzo (Malthouse Last year her play for The Rabble, My Theatre) and FITTER. FASTER. BETTER. Dearworthy Darling, premiered to acclaim (Dance Massive, Junction Arts Festival). at the Malthouse Theatre. She directed the critically acclaimed What Rhymes with Cars and Girls for Melbourne Her novels for young people are Theatre Company in 2015, which received published internationally. Prizes include four Helpmann nominations including the Wilderness Society’s Prize for Best Director and recently enjoyed Environmental Writing for Children and a national tour. Clare was a Female shortlistings for the NSW and WA Director-in-Residence and Education Premiers Literary Awards. Her first middle Manager at Malthouse and is a MTC grade novel, The Threads of Magic, will Women Directors Program alumna. She be released in the UK and Australia in is a graduate of Directing at the Victorian March 2020. Her poetry won the Anne College of the Arts and a trained teacher Elder and Dame Mary Gilmore Prizes, and having worked in high schools in Victoria was shortlisted for Victorian and NSW for 15 years. Premier’s Literary Awards. Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut Most recent WASO performance: WASO debut

12 WASO Chorus

The WASO Chorus was formed in 1988 and consists of around 100 volunteer choristers who represent the finest form of community music making, bringing together singers from all walks of life. They regularly feature in the WASO annual concert season, and are directed by Andrew Foote. The Chorus has built an international reputation for its high standards and diverse range of repertoire. While its main role is to perform with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra the Chorus also maintains a profile of solo concerts, tours and community engagements. The Chorus sings with the finest conductors and soloists including Asher Fisch, Simone Young, Stephen Layton and Paul Daniel. Recent highlights have included Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Second Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem. This year the Chorus performed at the Denmark Festival of Voice and in 2018 toured China with performances of Orff’sCarmina burana. In 2020 they will perform in Melbourne with Sir Andrew Davis and the MSO in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.

Andrew Foote Lea Hayward Chorus Director Accompanist

SOPRANO ALTO TENOR BASS Valerie Bannan Lisa Barz Matthew Flood Justin Audcent Alinta Carroll Janet Baxter Allan Griffiths Charlie Bond Charmaine de Witt Catherine Dunn Jay Reso Bertel Bulten Fay Edwards Kaye Fairbairn Chris Ryland Mark Gummer Kath Goodman Jenny Fay Simon Taylor Benjamin Lee Lesley Goodwin Deborah Piesse Arthur Tideswell Tony Marrion Sheila Price Jacquie Wright Stephen Turley Peter Ormond Nike Titilola Etim Matthew Purvis Jim Rhoads Chris Smith Robert Turnbull Andrew Wong

13 West Australian Opera Chorus

SOPRANO MEZZO TENOR T2/BASS Chelsea Burns Belinda Cox Jonathan Brain Laurence Westrip Leilah Fox Morgan Halket Tom Buckmaster BASS Brianna Louwen Brigitte Heuser Ry Charleson Christopher-Jack Lucy Mervik Chelsea Kluga David Jones Andrew Xiaojia Zhang Courtney Pitman Jason Kroll Kristin Bowtell Prudence Sanders Elizabeth Vale Matthew Lester Callen Dellar Stephen Matthews Matthew Dixon Timothy David Dockery Schoenmakers Oliver Freyne Samuel Theodore Thomas-Holland Murphy-Jelley Lachlann Lawton David Penco Stephen Sherwood

About The Speaker

Cecilia Sun Pre-concert Speaker

Dr. Cecilia Sun is a lecturer at the of the 18th and 19th centuries. She is University of Western Australia currently co-artistic director of UWA’s Conservatorium of Music. A pianist Irwin Street Collective, which is focused as well as a musicologist, she holds on the research and performance of doctoral degrees in both from the historically informed repertoire. Other Eastman School of Music and UCLA. As areas of scholarly interest include a performer, she specializes in historical experimental music, women in music, pianos and the performance practices and music and politics.

West Australian Symphony Orchestra

From the centre of Perth to the furthest corners of our state, every year since 1928, To learn more about WASO we set hearts racing with extraordinary musicians, visit waso.com.au or music and exhilarating performances for all connect with WASO. West Australians to share.

14 About The Music

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Beethoven’s Fidelio It wasn’t entirely Beethoven’s fault that Fidelio flopped on its first outing in 1805. There had been several delays. Beethoven had hoped to finish the piece in time for a performance in mid-1804. For various reasons, the composition was not completed until mid-1805. Then, the opera’s premiere, scheduled for October 1805, was delayed by problems with the censor, who objected to the contemporary setting of the piece. A Moreover, Bouilly’s story had inspired month later it finally hit the stage – now several operas in addition to Gaveaux’s set in the 16th century – as Napoleon’s and Beethoven’s: Ferdinando Paer armies reached Vienna. While the composed a version to an Italian libretto occupation was relatively benign, many for Dresden in 1804, and Simon Mayr of Beethoven’s potential audience had also used an Italian text, though with the either fled the city or decided to remain action set in Poland, for Padua in 1805. at home. Fidelio’s opening night crowd (It was because those works went by the was not, therefore, the aristocratic title of Léonore or Leonora that the theatre Viennese A-list, but a bunch of French management in Vienna insisted on calling officers, and on the two subsequent Beethoven’s opera – against his wishes nights the remaining Viennese – Fidelio.) While Paer and Mayr both population stayed away in droves. worked within the traditions of Italian opera, in Fidelio Beethoven (ironically Given that the first-night audience was given the first-night audience) produced largely French, it is quite likely that some a work whose musical and dramatic of those present were aware of the story. patrimony was far more French. The libretto, by Joseph Sonnleithner, was based on a libretto by Jean-Nicolas In Paris, in the immediate aftermath of the Bouilly; it dramatises an incident in French Revolution, a vogue developed for which Bouilly was involved, in the ‘Don what later came to be known as ‘rescue Fernando’ role, just over a decade earlier opera’. Broadly speaking, these pieces during the post-revolutionary Reign tended to cultivate ‘realistic’ settings, of Terror. Bouilly’s libretto, Léonore ou with a recurrent theme of the heroic L’amour conjugal had been set to music by release of an innocent hero from unjust Pierre Gaveaux and the opera produced in imprisonment – one needn’t labour the Paris in 1798. The setting was transposed point that this offered a metaphor of to Spain, but the show was billed as a ‘fait revolutionary liberation from tyranny. historique’.

15 About The Music

The most successful composer of Fidelio’s Florestan is, of course, just such a ‘rescue opera’ was the Italian-born Luigi hero, but Beethoven had already explored Cherubini, whose comédie-héroïque, this idea in the 1801 ballet The Creatures Lodoïska took Paris by storm in 1791 and of Prometheus – Prometheus being a in many respects set the template: set Titan in Greek mythology who stole fire in Poland (like Paer’s later version of from the Gods to comfort his creation, the Leonore story), we have a heroine mankind. For this he was punished by imprisoned by an evil Count and a hero being chained to a mountain where an who enters the Count’s castle disguised eagle came and tore out his liver. (Being but is himself captured. A horde of Tartars immortal, Prometheus’ liver grew back obligingly destroys the castle in revenge each day, so the agony was repeated until for the Count’s cruelty, thus allowing Hercules rescued him many years later.) the hero to rescue the heroine from the In Beethoven’s ballet version Prometheus burning tower in which she has been is put to death, but is brought back to imprisoned. life. Not surprisingly, Beethoven also Lodoïska enjoyed some 200 performances composed his oratorio Christ on the in its first season, and toured widely. In Mount of Olives early in his ‘heroic’ period. 1805, it was performed in Vienna as part This work presents Christ as facing His of what Winton Dean has described as an impending suffering and death with stoic ‘avalanche of French operas’ that buried fortitude, and it is His courage that calls Vienna in the first decade of the 19th forth the triumphant final chorus. In the century. Among these were works by Eroica Symphony, Beethoven translates Méhul and Boïeldieu and, later, Gaspare these ideas into abstract symphonic Spontini, who like Cherubini was Italian music, though his slow movement is but made his name in Paris. explicitly a hero’s death march, and the triumphant finaletakes its theme from Beethoven was drawn to both the musical the Prometheus ballet, suggesting again a style and subject matter of such works, scheme of suffering and death borne and which harmonised perfectly with his own overcome. It is hard not to see a certain musical and ethical preoccupations. The degree of self-identification here: 1802 year 1802 ushers in what is commonly was also the year in which Beethoven referred to as Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ period, accepted that his deafness was and in several pieces from this time he permanent and likely to get worse. The examines a concept of heroism outlined document known as the ‘Heiligenstadt by poet Friedrich Schiller in his 1793 Testament’, written in 1802 but only essay, On the Nature of Pathos. Schiller, in discovered after his death, describes how scholar William Kinderman’s summation, in his despair Beethoven contemplated argued that, ‘Pathos or tragedy arises suicide, but resolved to live for his art. when unblinkered awareness of suffering As he wrote to a friend in Promethean is counterbalanced by the capacity of sentiments, if not words, ‘I will take fate reason to resist these feelings. In such by the throat.’ resistance to the inevitability of pain or despair is lodged the principle of freedom.’

16 But what Beethoven also got from the It is no accident that Fidelio’s Schillerian music of Cherubini (whom he once heroes, Leonore and her husband described as the greatest living composer Florestan, are nobles (and are contrasted – after himself of course), Méhul and in the comic opera sub-plot with the others was a kind of musical expression commoners Rocco the jailer, his daughter quite removed from the elegant intricacies Marzelline and her suitor Jaquino) or of late-classicism. It is telling that in that while Leonore’s bravery staves off later life Beethoven praised Spontini for Florestan’s execution by his enemy Don knowing how to evoke the ‘noises of war’ Pizarro, it is with the arrival, announced in his music: what the ‘rescue operas’ by the famous trumpet call, of the benign showed was that it was possible to create Minister Don Fernando that Florestan and massive effects with minimal means. his fellow prisoners are released. Haydn, in late works like the ‘Nelson’ Bouilly’s story, then, offered Beethoven Mass, also shows an interest in heroic a chance to develop his new musical or martial music, but it was Beethoven rhetoric in a story that embodied his who took this to its logical conclusion. notions of heroism and the political ideal The Eroica’s first movement alone is as of the bon prince. And there was one long as many classical symphonies, and it further element irresistible to him: the displays Beethoven’s new rhetoric based notion of what librettist Sonnleithner on the repetition of simple ideas and what called ‘the heroism of womanly virtue’. can only be described as brute force, as Two things need to be noted here. First of against subtle or rigorous argument. all, that Beethoven, contrary to received Hand in hand with Beethoven’s Schillerian wisdom, was by no means uninformed view of heroism was his hatred of tyranny. about opera and indeed, Fidelio is not his This is not to say that he was a democrat in own first attempt in the medium. Parts of any modern sense of the term: he allowed that opera are actually recycled sections Viennese society to assume that the ‘van’ of an unfinished sword-and-sandal epic, in his surname meant he was of noble Vesta’s Fire, on which he began work in birth (and railed against being lumped 1803 with Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist with other commoners like ‘innkeepers, of The Magic Flute. But more to the point, cobblers and tailors’ when this was in Bonn, for four successive seasons exposed as false during a messy court before his move to Vienna, the composer case involving custody of his nephew in had played viola in the court orchestra 1818), and had what biographer Maynard and therefore knew the current Italo- Solomon describes as an ‘irreconcilable Austrian repertoire quite literally from tension…between obedience and rebellion’ the inside. That, needless to say, included in his character. In Beethoven’s ideal polity, works of Mozart, which Beethoven justice and personal freedom would be decried as frivolous and, in the case of guaranteed by the enlightened authority Figaro and Così fan tutte, immoral. This of a noble ruler. Fitting this template, more leads to the second point: Beethoven was or less, was the Emperor Joseph II, whose a prude, and this aspect of his character reign (1780-90) saw a raft of anti-feudal and only became more pronounced as he anti-clerical reforms, and Beethoven flirted grew older and, thanks to his increasing with the idea of Napoleon as such a ruler, ill-health and general eccentricity, more though in later life conceded that ‘with that isolated. bastard I made a mistake’.

17 About The Music

Where Mozart understood that the flesh Beethoven, as we have noted, uses the is weak, confirmed bachelor Beethoven rhetorical language of ‘rescue opera’ to was uncompromising when it came to expand the scale of his musical utterance, conjugal virtue. Director Peter Hall perhaps and in the Eroica that works supremely overstated it when, preparing a 1979 well; on stage, however, Beethoven – to Glyndebourne production, he wrote in his quote Peter Hall again – simply ‘goes on diary: ‘Poor Beethoven, locked in a world just a little too long for the drama’. of deafness, yearned for a wife to release That, too, was the verdict of those of him from the prison of his own skull, of his Beethoven’s friends who were at the own deafness – there you have Fidelio.’ But 1805 premiere, and who gathered at the there is no question that Beethoven held home of Prince Lichnowsky with a view most women to an impossible ideal, and to persuading Beethoven to revise – and in the person of Leonore he was able to substantially cut – the piece. Joseph embody that ideal. August Röckel, who would sing Florestan With all these elements it should, by in the 1806 version, was there, and left an rights, have been a smash hit, but, as entertaining account of a meeting that we know, the first season was a fiasco. lasted from seven in the evening until The presence of French soldiers and the one the next morning. As Röckel notes, absence of Viennese public didn’t help ‘Although Beethoven’s friends were fully of course, but the fact is that the original prepared for the coming battle they had version was far too long and essentially never before seen him in such a fury.’ undramatic. A review of the 1805 season, But six hours later, when the composer comparing Fidelio unfavourably with the finally agreed to cut three of the opera’s works of both Mozart and Cherubini, numbers and they all sat down to supper, noted that it ‘did not find favour’. It ‘no one was in a happier or merrier mood conceded that it had ‘some attractive than Beethoven’! passages’ but in general ‘the music falls As Beethoven understood, more far below the expectations to which revision was needed, and unbeknown connoisseurs and music-lovers consider to Sonnleithner, engaged Stephan von themselves entitled’. Breuning who ‘remodelled the whole As Donald Tovey once observed, book…quickening and enlivening the Beethoven ‘was too much in revolt action’. Perhaps to avoid unpleasantness against the eighteenth century… This with Sonnleithner, Beethoven claimed unfortunately meant that the one supreme to have done the remodelling himself master of opera from whom he could ‘to make the opera move more swiftly’, have learned exactly what he needed was explaining that he had ‘shortened the one whose libretti scandalised him’: everything as much as possible, the Mozart. As Tovey goes on to point out, prisoners’ chorus and chiefly numbers of ‘Cherubini lacked precisely that quality that kind’. This was not quite true, as he of dramatic movement which Mozart had and Breuning did more than cut words both by instinct and experience.’ The key and music. expression here is ‘dramatic movement’.

18 The new version, cut from three to two In this climate the revival of Fidelio was, acts, was performed in April 1806 – as Solomon goes on to say, greeted ‘as a woefully under-rehearsed owing to the celebration of victory over the Napoleonic late delivery of the revised score – and forces by the Allies, and as an allegory Beethoven’s operatic idol Cherubini hated of the liberation of Europe from the it. Röckel claimed optimistically that it aggressions of the tyrant/usurper’. was received well by ‘a select group’ in And the work had, again, been the audience, but the general feeling significantly reworked. This time with was expressed in a review whose author Sonnleithner’s permission, Beethoven failed to understand ‘how the composer approached a third librettist, Georg could be willing to bring this vapid pot- Friedrich Treitschke, who revised the boiler to life with beautiful music’. This libretto to make it as ‘succinct and clear view, of course, well predates Tosca; as possible’. The revision of the score more pertinent is the remark that ‘the was hard going for Beethoven, who inanity of the spoken parts wipes out the protested that it would have been easier beautiful effect of the sung parts’. Here to write something new from scratch, we approach the basic problem that rather than rethinking the whole piece: Beethoven would not solve until 1814. ‘This opera’ he famously said, ‘will win In 1806, however, Beethoven – possibly for me the martyr’s crown.’ Opinions to cover his embarrassment at the vary as to whether the final version is an work’s repeated failure – accused the unequivocal improvement on that of 1806. management of the theatre of cheating Winton Dean reflects a consensus when him of his royalties (he pulled the same he writes that ‘Treitschke’s treatment of stunt at the premiere of the Ninth Act I merits unstinted applause’, before Symphony some years later) and withdrew detailing numerous ways in which the the score, snarling ‘I don’t write for the 1814 Act II is weaker: Florestan’s delirium galleries!’ And there it would almost replaces a conscious, and therefore more certainly have rested had not three singers heroic, address to Leonore’s portrait, (who would play Pizarro, Rocco and ‘Rocco’s character is sentimentalised’, Fernando) asked Beethoven if they could and the final scene ‘fails to achieve one of perform the work for their benefit in 1814. the most resounding anticlimaxes in the history of opera only because Beethoven By then Beethoven was writing for the capped it with a hymn to freedom of galleries in a big way. After a period surpassing nobility’. of personal crisis and creative silence, Beethoven had begun composing again But that, paradoxically, points to the with Wellington’s Victory, a frankly strengths of the final version, which are, populist and meretricious response to the first and foremost, musical strengths. final defeat of Napoleon. Over the next Whereas in 1805 and 1806 Beethoven’s years, as the map of Europe was redrawn tendency was towards ever larger-scale by the Congress of Vienna, Beethoven utterances, which led, on stage, to churned out various noisy patriotic works, dramatic stasis, the final version ofFidelio reaching the height of his popularity but, has an inexorable trajectory (despite in Maynard Solomon’s view, ‘the nadir of Beethoven’s recycling material from his his artistic career’. early Cantata on the death of Joseph II and bits of Vesta’s Fire).

19 About The Music

Specific keys stand for certain characters: An apparently anodyne pastoral comedy, Don Pizarro sings in a demonic D minor; complete with a woman disguised as a Florestan is associated with F minor and boy, passes from light into the darkness of Leonore with E major, keys that look close reality. In Act II, this pattern is reversed, on a keyboard but in terms of sound and underlined by key-relationships, as in a classical ‘grammar’ are worlds apart. symphony, defined by the ‘gravitational The characters are archetypes: the jailer laws’ of classical music. Each key change Rocco, for instance, is not intrinsically feels inevitable, particularly when the evil, but is morally weak – the essential G major of the couple’s ecstatic reunion collaborator. Leonore, the hero, is duet, ‘O nameless joy’, leads into the accompanied by the three horns which blazing C major of the work’s finale when feature in the Eroica Symphony. Florestan and the other prisoners are released. The effect is like the release of The 1814 version resolves some of the rising C major figures in the finale of the difficulties of the work, caused first and Fifth Symphony. Beethoven may be saying foremost by the Marzelline-Jaquino that good will inevitably triumph over subplot. One of Beethoven’s problems, tyranny, or be constructing an ideal world while in the heat of the ‘heroic’ style which alleviates his loneliness, or both. As of 1805-6, was caused by his instinct Hildegard Behrens has noted, ‘Directors to begin the work with a powerful with very different political backgrounds overture that outlined the drama as a and from opposite regimes…use the whole. The Leonore overtures No.2 and, message of Fidelio to advance their own especially, No.3 (the first and second to views and ideologies.’ We can argue be written) ‘annihilate’, to use Tovey’s about the message, but the music takes word, the first Act. What he means is no prisoners. that after the Sturm und Drang of these mighty pieces, and the enactment of Gordon Kerry © 2009 the drama in abstract musical terms, First WASO performance: This is the first the sub-Mozartian buffo scene complete opera performance of Beethoven’s between Marzelline and Jaquino seems Fidelio by the West Australian Symphony inconsequential – and in the early version Orchestra. went on too long. In the 1814 version Instrumentation: solos voices and chorus; two the first scene, after a more appropriate flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, overture, functions to put us off the scent two bassoons; four horns, two trumpets, two of the ensuing tragedy. trombones; timpani; strings.

Glossary

Buffo – of or typical of Italian comic opera. Finale – the last movement of a piece. Key – the tonal centre of a piece or section of a piece. Libretto – the words of an opera or oratorio. Mozartian – in the style of classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Overture – this term has two quite distinct meanings. It refers to an instrumental composition acting as an introduction to an opera or oratorio; it also refers to a stand-alone orchestral work with a descriptive title which the music illustrates in some way. Tosca – one of the most well-known Italian operas, written by Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini and premiered in 1900.

20 Your Concert Experience

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