By Peter McCallum
Simone Young Conducts Beethoven’s Fidelio
Opera House Concert Hall
November 24
Also, November 26
★★★★
To lose the title role to tonsillitis less than 36 hours before the first performance is the stuff of nightmares and great dinner party stories. But thanks to two courageous, quick-learning sopranos, Australian Eleanor Lyons and New Zealander Madeleine Pierard, the show went on in the absence of Elza van den Heever, abridged but unbowed.
Simone Young’s concert presentation of Beethoven’s “rescue” opera, Fidelio was to have placed this great paean to liberty and justice from the Napoleonic age within the context of injustice to Aboriginal people.
Elza van den Heever was forced to withdraw from the concert.Credit: Jiyang Chen
Replacing the spoken text of the stage version with texts by Indigenous writer Tyson Yunkaporta, narrated with engaging spirit by Virginia Gay, the conception created a juxtaposition of perspectives in which each, paraphrasing the title of Yunkaporta’s podcast, was the “other’s other”. It was an uncomfortable counterpoint, and deliberately so, as though each story was resisting and needed time to adjust.
The third drama of the night, how two sopranos between them would negotiate Leonore’s arias and ensembles, both comic and triumphant, interfered more than somewhat with Young’s plan but the audience gave it a standing ovation nonetheless.
Eleanor Lyons sang Leonore’s (aka Fidelio’s) expressively complex demanding Act 1 aria, Komm, Hoffnung, with finely focused line and agile sweep. Madeleine Pierard took some of Leonore’s ensemble scenes with vivid colour and incisive strength from cross-dressing comedy and confusion of Act 1 to the wonderfully exultant duet with Simon O’Neill as Florestan.
Simone Young worked with writer Tyson Yunkaporta, who created new texts for Fidelio.Credit: Sandra Steh
She carried all of these with engaged vitality and one cannot but salute the high professionalism of both in salvaging the evening. O’Neill himself contributed the evening’s most gripping note, the clamorous top G that commences his Act 2 dungeon aria Gott! Welch’ Dunkel hier! (“God what darkness here”).
As the low point in Beethoven’s journey from despair, O’Neill provided the evening’s highpoint in expressive intensity with a sound of pained heroism and strength, reflecting Beethoven’s deep belief in the purifying salvation of suffering.
Jonathan Lemalu’s rich rounded mahogany sound touchingly embodied the flawed humanity of the gaoler Rocco. Samantha Clarke, as the sexually ambiguous Marzelline, strongly attracted to Fidelio, conjured fresh brightness in her voice and showed hugely promising talent once the pitch is polished a little.
James Roser brought a sharp though not overpowering edge to the tyrant Don Pizarro. Pelham Andrews (Don Fernando), Nicholas Jones (Jaquino), Louis Hurley (First Prisoner) and Christopher Hillier (Second Prisoner) brought vocal distinction and distinctiveness to support roles.
To fill in gaps left by cuts to the dungeon, Young and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra gave a wonderfully affirming reading of the Leonore Overture No. 3 before the final ensemble and chorus. Young’s tempi were measured and precise, neither ponderous nor unduly rushed. How rewarding it was to hear the beams of soft light balanced so transparently from the male singers of Sydney Philharmonia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Prisoners’ Chorus of Act 1 within the superb new Opera House acoustics, and the thrilling glory of the full Philharmonia Choir in the closing chorus.
Beethoven knew of Botany Bay but only as a place where criminals could be sent. This presentation confronted that narrative with the challenges, large and small, of our own time.
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