Mahler Chamber Orchestra
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LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
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Arnold Schoenberg Choir
(chorus master Erwin Ortner)
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Claudio Abbado
conductor
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Peter Mattei
Don Fernando
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Falk Struckmann
Don Pizzaro
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Jonas Kaufmann
Florestan
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Nina Stemme
Leonore
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Christof Fischesser
Rocco
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Rachel Harnisch
Marzelline
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Christoph Strehl
Jaquino
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
"Fidelio", Op. 72. Opera in two acts
Concert performance
“Fidelio’ is often called the triumph-song of conjugal love,” according to composer Hanns Eisler, “yet that characterization applies to just one aspect of the opera. Another involves the struggle against tyranny and the brute force of despotism: in fact, therein lies the opera’s true significance.” Beethoven staked out a moral claim for his art to serve “poor, suffering humanity.” In the original libretto “Léonore,” which French writer Jean Nicolas Bouilly based on a real-life event from the era of the Jacobin Terror, Beethoven discovered a combination of his highest ideals: aid for the unfortunate, destruction of those who wish to do evil, and enlightenment of the misguided. These ideas he put to music of electrifying vividness—with a frightful energy borrowed from the style of French Revolutionary composers and intended to shape the moral consciousness of the audience. In his letters “On the Aesthetic Education of Man,” Friedrich Schiller issues exactly the same challenge: “Impart to the world you wish to influence a tendency toward the good.”
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