There is something of the advent calender about Simon Daw’s set for Scottish Opera’s revival of Fidelio. Each scene is revealed through a different rectangular opening in the black curtain which covers the front of the stage. It is a trick which allows for a real sense of the claustrophobia of the setting, focusing on each successive scene, making each distinct from the next, but also giving the idea of a constricting warren of a prison from which escape only comes in the final triumphant exodus.
If the set is compact and minimal - with a similar lighting design which only enhances the changing moods of the opera - there is nothing of that about the singing itself. Director Tim Albery has identified the physical minutiae which is universal and timeless about any totalitarian regime, and allowed Beethoven’s music to breathe and soar the full range of its emotion within these confines. It is at once particular and at the same time universal.
At the core of the evening, Ian Storey gives a magnificent rendition of the prisoner, Florestan, with a voice which is as big and noble as it should be. But the real delight comes in the way in which the whole piece is set up - the domesticity of Sarah Redgwick’s clearly and lightly sung Marzelline, with Ulrich Dunnebach’s forceful Rocco and Colin Judson’s rather wheedling Jaquino.
Elizabeth Byrne starts well as Leonore but in such a freely flowing production her voice sounds tight at the top of her range.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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