Fidelio - Garsington Opera 2014 Production | Photo: Mike Hoban
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Garsington Opera Learning and Participation Fidelio - Garsington Opera 2014 production | Photo: Mike Hoban Fidelio Ludwig van Beethoven OperaFirst Teachers and Artists’ Pack (2020) Written by Karen Gillingham Music arranged by Hannah Conway CONTENTS Page Introduction 2 What is OperaFirst? 2 Musical extracts 2 Digital content 3 Attending a performance at Garsington Opera 3 Biographies 4 Fidelio 5 Characters in the opera 5 Voice types 6 Synopsis 6 Synopsis exercise 8 Character exercise 8 Exploring the themes of the opera 9 Musical extracts I feel so wonderful Marzelline, Leonore, Jaquino, Rocco, Chorus 10 Ha! What a moment! Pizarro, Chorus 28 Now we must hurry! Chorus (as Rocco), Pizarro 42 Oh what joy! Chorus, Rocco 50 Florestan’s final release Leonore, Florestan, Rocco, Chorus 57 Leonore is revealed! Leonore, Florestan, Pizzaro, Rocco, Chorus 63 Further reading and listening 71 Pack compiled by Paul Grist Garsington Opera Chorus, 2014 | Photo: Mike Hoban Peter Wedd - Florestan, Rebecca von Lipinski - Leonore, Stephen Richardson – Rocco, 2014 | Photo: Mike Hoban 1 INTRODUCTION This pack has been created by Karen Gillingham and Hannah Conway as a resource for teachers and artists taking part in or delivering workshops for Garsington Opera’s 2020 OperaFirst Fidelio programme. It can also be used as a resource for anyone exploring the piece with young people aged six to sixteen. Garsington Opera's Learning & Participation Programme aims to enrich people's lives through opera; sharing our passion and love of opera with a wider audience, and helping to demystify the wonderful and varied genre of opera for those who would not normally have access to it. We aim to provide a bold and ambitious participatory programme that engages with our diverse local community, providing access to Garsington's high quality opera and challenging perceived barriers to cultural engagement. We aim to use opera as a medium to improve emotional wellbeing and to champion the vital benefit of engagement in creative arts. Our Youth and Adult Companies are at the heart of our Learning and Participation programme and are the perfect next step for any students or teachers who have particularly enjoyed their OperaFirst experience and would like to get more involved in singing and performing. For more details visit our Learning pages at www.garsingtonopera.org by selecting Get Involved. WHAT IS OPERAFIRST? The OperaFirst programme provides high quality performance and participation for children aged six to sixteen. It promotes the creative arts as a tool for improving self-confidence, learning and communication. The project immerses three hundred children from primary and secondary schools in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Through workshops, children explore and respond to the themes of the opera as well as singing extracts from Beethoven’s opera and composing their own chorus. The project culminates in a performance on the main stage at Garsington Opera to an audience of younger students from the same schools, who participate from their seats. MUSICAL EXTRACTS The musical extracts in this pack have been specially selected and arranged for young voices and are, for the most part, intended to be able to be taught and learnt quickly. In most cases there are also parts for professional soloists who may be working with you/in your schools. The assumption is that most projects will have either a soprano (playing Leonore/Marzelline), a tenor (playing Florestan/Jaquino) or a baritone (playing Pizarro/Rocco) and some of their music is included in this pack in versions that participants can join in with. If you do not have a professional singer in the room, the line can be omitted. In addition, the professional soprano soloists may choose to include one of the following arias in their workshops: Title Character Page (full score) Ah, were I now but wed Marzelline 22 Come hope (from adagio, with cuts) Leonore 81 2 DIGITAL CONTENT Learning tracks of all of the musical extracts included in this pack can be found on our website, along with links to AppRa – our digital platform with interactive exercises in composition and storytelling. For more information visit the Learning pages at www.garsingtonopera.org and select Get Involved. ATTENDING A PERFORMANCE AT GARSINGTON OPERA All of the three hundred young people who have participated in the OperaFirst project come to Garsington to watch a special performance of Fidelio. The opera is performed in German with an English translation projected onto a surtitles screen above the stage. As all of the young people have participated in workshops on the opera in their schools, they are fully engaged in the themes and a pre-performance workshop introduces them to other aspects of the production such as design, costume, lighting and roles backstage. OperaFirst performance 2019 | Photo: John Snelling “The children really enjoyed it, this is a brand new experience for them, it’s not something they come to everyday, it’s great that we had the workshop in school where the children could experience opera first hand and then get to see it on stage” David Liddle, Longwick CE Primary School “I used to think opera was like Raaaaaaaaa (very high!) but now I know it’s singing and acting and great” Millbrook Primary School pupil, age 8 3 BIOGRAPHIES Karen Gillingham https://karengillingham.com Karen is a freelance director, facilitator and is creative director of Garsington Opera Learning and Participation. She believes that at an early age every young person should be given the chance to explore their creativity, regardless of where they live or what school they go to, and works to widen access and provision to the arts through opera. Directing credits include: PROM 66 at the Royal Albert Hall, The Happy Princess at Garsington Opera, Dare to Dream at the Royal Albert Hall, A Tale of Two Dragons BBC Singers at the Barbican, Water in the Desert at NYU Arts Centre Abu Dhabi, Bat out of Hackney at Hackney Empire, A Trip to the Moon at LSO Barbican with Sir Simon Rattle, Silver Birch at Garsington Opera, Watchers in the Wings a film for the Royal Opera House, Beautiful World at the National Theatre, Abu Dhabi, Hospital Passion Play at London’s V&A, The Magic Flute for Garsington Opera at West Green House, Twenty Women Singing a tour of prisons with Welsh National Opera, Magna Carta – The Freedom Game at the Royal Albert Hall, Out of the Ruins at Royal Opera House – A Gala Celebration, The Crackle (as Associate Director) -Royal Opera House Linbury, Worldskills Opening Ceremony at O2 London, South of the River with English National Opera and Beached with Opera North in Bridlington. Hannah Conway http://hannahconway.co.uk Internationally recognised for her work with some of the world’s leading opera houses and orchestras, Hannah has led projects in eighteen different countries, carving a path as a composer, presenter and music director. At the heart of her work always is intense collaboration and musical input from young people. In 2019 she was appointed Artistic Director of Streetwise Opera. She has composed operas in 12 different languages, presented for BBC Radio 3, devised Proms for the BBC and received commissions from the London Symphony Orchestra, Glyndebourne, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra and The Royal Opera House. The Freedom Game opera (2015) received its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall for 1200 performers and Beautiful World (2016) won the Education Middle East Performing Arts Award at the National Theatre, Abu Dhabi. Recent highlights include opera Dare to Dream (Royal Albert Hall 2019) for 1800 singers – devised in collaboration with young people from Uganda, Syria, Bangladesh and the UK; new music commissioned by the BBC Singers; Towards Another World, a promenade opera for the English National Opera and V&A museum; and A Young Known Voice, a work newly commissioned by the Acadamy of Ancient Music. Hannah has also been adjudicator for BBC Young Musician and was engaged by the EU commission as their key moderator for the EU Cultural Forum 2017, Milan. OperaFirst performance 2019 | Photo: John Snelling 4 Fidelio Fidelio is an opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is the only opera that Beethoven wrote. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner. The opera tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named Fidelio, rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. Beethoven had strong feelings about the struggle for political liberty that was taking place in Europe in his day. The story has as much resonance today as it ever did. It represents an individual’s struggle for, truth, love and freedom from political oppression and highlights humanity’s ability to survive and triumph in a state under cruel and oppressive government. CHARACTERS IN THE OPERA Leonore Florestan’s wife who disguises herself as a man named Fidelio Soprano in order to save her husband. Florestan A wrongly imprisoned political prisoner. Tenor Rocco Jailer, in charge of Florestan. Bass Don Pizarro Governor of the state prison of Seville, where Florestan is Baritone imprisoned. Marzelline Daughter of Rocco, girlfriend of Jaquino, in love with Fidelio. Soprano Jaquino Assistant to Rocco. Tenor Don Fernando King’s minister and friend of Florestan. Baritone Chorus of soldiers, prisoners and townspeople Fidelio - Garsington Opera 2014 Production | Photo: Mike Hoban 5 VOICE TYPES Soprano The soprano is the highest female voice type with the lightest vocal weight of them all. Mezzo-soprano Mezzo-sopranos tend to make the highest notes sound incredibly exciting due to the weight they have in their voice. The mezzo falls in the middle of the female voice types. Contralto The contralto is the lowest female singing voice, usually with a rich, warm quality and like the basses and countertenors, they’re quite rare.