(Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera)

A man speaks out against a tyrant and gets dragged off to jail. That’s at the core of the plot of “Fidelio.” Unsurprisingly, as the Met Opera was reviving Beethoven’s lone operatic work, this very script played out in a different theatrical arena – the U.S. Congress – hours after the “leader of the free world” threatened freedom of speech on college campuses. No one was jailed in Congress (though at this rate, who would be surprised if the situation eventually led there), but it’s uncanny how opera can mirror the real world. Almost like politics can’t be divorced from art.

In any case, “Fidelio” is a work that can either take you to the greatest of emotional heights or, under the wrong circumstances, reveal its many flaws and fall into utter tedium. The Met Opera’s revival of Jürgen Flimm’s production looks great on paper with every cast member a major star in his or her own right. But being great on paper doesn’t always translate. This was one such occasion.

Blocking?

Let’s just get one thing out of the way. Flimm’s production, which opened in 2000, is showing its age. Seeing “Wahre Liebe fürchtet nicht” (“True Love Doesn’t Fear”) on the black curtain still has great impact and perfectly sets up the story. But everything thereafter has become a mixed bag.

Tall grey walls dominate in Act one with desks and tables scattered throughout. A door upstage leads into Pizarro’s office. Act two is far more dynamic with a pile of shoes on one end and a pile of suitcases on the other in a reference to concentration camps. The imposing walls create a sense of impending doom. Both spaces leave a lot of space for the performers to occupy.

But on this evening, the blocking really let everything down. People moved about, but it often felt lacking in intention or clarity. Nowhere was this most present than in the Act two scenes with Florestan. A panel on the floor is lifted where Rocco and Leonore will dig a grave for Florestan. She attempts to slide food toward him. Rocco denies the attempt but in this performance, the whole process was belabored, Rocco’s reaction very delayed and the entire tension resulting from it completely undercut. When Leonore makes her second attempt to pass the bread, the blocking seemed similarly lacking in urgency or tension.

Most egregious was the famed duet between Florestan and Leonore, “O namenlose Freude!” This music is ecstatic, the lovers getting a chance to be alone together for the first time in what seems like forever. In this performance, the two were on opposite ends of the stage. It’s fair to establish that they are in shock and initially reticent to move. But at some point, they would want nothing more than to embrace, or so describes the music. They would move toward one another. Reach for each other. Florestan is obviously low on energy but some indication of longing, some heroic attempt to be with the woman who has risked it all for him, would be something. David Butt Philip, interpreting the character, did close to nothing. He was completely passive in this scene. Lise Davidsen, interpreting Leonore, eventually moved toward Florestan and initiated the contact, but she delayed her choice so long that by the time she did make her move, it felt forced and ultimately awkward. This scene, where the music couldn’t be more clear with what is happening between the two, and its blocking encapsulated what happened the entire night.

But nothing was more egregious than the ending. It’s great to finally see a color that isn’t some shade of grey or white or black. The prisoners are free and their families are dressed in a rainbow of colors. It drives the point home especially in our modern times, when members of the LGBTQ+ community are being persecuted, a people free of tyrannical dictators are a people free to express themselves and BE themselves. It’s beautiful visually. But then they started to dance during the final chorus. It did not fit the tone of the production in the least. It was something more at home to a Strauss operetta. I hate to say it, but for once, “parking and barking” would have been far more effective and on point. More attention should have been paid to creating more dynamic and cleaner blocking for the main performers.

Muddled Ensemble

Also doing no one any favors was the orchestra, which didn’t have its best night under conductor Susanna Mälkki. The famed overture was rather casual in its execution with a general lack of dynamic contrast. In fact, most of the first half of the performance felt leisurely in its approach. The tempi lacked a sense of consistency, some tending to feel dragged out. The opening to Act two started off gently but the strings seemed a bit off in their interjections. The brass section had a rough night, with notable cracks at the start of Leonore’s big aria “Komm, Hoffnung, lass den letzten Stern,” and other similar misadventures throughout. Miscues were also rampant with a violin coming in early on a tutti chord late in the opera and the final chorus also felt misshapen with the orchestra also late on some of the syncopated accents and the chorus fall behind. Balance was an issue throughout with the singers often overpowered, especially during ensembles. It was an unfortunate evening for the ensemble and that seemed to bleed into the overall performance of everyone else on stage.

But there were some moments of bliss. Perhaps the one moment in the entire first half where I felt a jolt of energy was the very beginning of the famed chorus “O welche Lust.” The low B in the strings materialized out of the softest of sounds. And from there sprung the strings, eventually leading into the majestic and glorious chorus. It was undeniably the standout moment of the night for the orchestra. Meanwhile, the entire confrontation between Pizarro, Florestan, and Leonore was visceral and intense, even if the orchestra was overpowering the singers. Nonetheless, there was a musical ferocity and excitement was sorely missing the rest of the evening.

Strong on Paper

We all know that this evening was all about Lise Davidsen, the Met Opera’s incumbent reigning diva. The soprano recently announced that she was pregnant with twins and that this would be her final production before taking her maternity leave. So there was undeniably a lot of anticipation for her interpretation of a role where she has found major acclaim worldwide. And there’s no doubt that she is one of few sopranos that manages to showcase the vocal potency on demand. Her high notes are always on point, opulent, round, and nothing short of brilliant in the space. This was especially notable throughout “Komm, Hoffnung, lass den letzten Stern.” But things are less clear in her middle and especially lower range. The opening phrases of the aria were solid if not vibrant. The coloratura wasn’t clean, with the first rise up to the high B lacking in rhythmic clarity; that said, that note rang gloriously in the space. The Più lento in the Allegro con brio featured some beautifully gentle singing with the soprano. However, the Allegro con Brio section was a mixed bag with the lowest notes inaudible, the coloratura choppy, but the high notes as monumental as ever.

Davidsen was at her best in the confrontation with Pizarro as she stood her ground, her voice blasting over the orchestra and into the hall. She dominated this scene musically and dramatically. She was similarly strong throughout the duet, her voice also at its most potent. It was unfortunate that the blocking didn’t match the musical strength and dynamism. She capped her night with some glorious piano singing at the start of “O Gott! welch ein frein.” Another interesting aspect of her interpretation was her interaction with Ying Fang’s Marzelline. Rather than playing the “romance” off as an inconvenience, you could tell that she cared for the young girl and struggled with hiding the truth from her. It created a more potent dynamic to that part of the drama.

As Florestan, David Butt Philip had a mixed night. He commenced it strong with a tremendous crescendo on “Gott! Welch Dunkel hier!” and throughout the aria displayed impressive breath control and expansive phrasing. The sound had roundness and the high notes showcased robust squilo. But then somehow, after the aria, his voice lacked the same brightness, getting swallowed up in ensembles and having a more metallic quality to it. He was solid on “Wer ein holdes Weiß errungen” and the high notes here were present and resonated in the space.

Stronger Showings

Like Davidsen, bass Rene Pape received applause from the audience as he pranced on the stage. The bass was making his first appearance with the company since making homophobic comments, apologizing for them, and then opening up about his alcoholism. He gave a strong performance as Rocco, his voice gentle, but firm. Of all the performances, his was undeniably the most colorful. He molded the text to showcase Rocco’s warmth but also his more sardonic and even aggressive moments. You could feel his inner conflict throughout the second half as he considered helping Florestan or protecting his livelihood and following orders. It’s rare to see a Rocco stealing scenes from other characters, but Pape definitely managed that with the most complex characterization of the evening.

Vocally, no one was more consistent than Tomasz Konieczny as Pizarro. He was aggressive, and crude, and his voice always expressed a demonic confidence throughout “Ha, welch ein Augenblick.” That cruelty was also on display in all of his interactions with Rocco; you always sensed who was in control. But this being Konieczy, there was a certain magnetism, his imposing presence further accentuating the dramatic stakes. In the confrontation with Leonore and Florestan, the bass-baritone poured out his voice with abandon, matching Davidsen moment for moment, the two resounding in the space. But from there, his potency crumbled and his body language depicted none of the pride or confidence from the early scenes. He looked beaten, disheveled, cowardly.

Ying Fang allowed her smooth and silky soprano to make the most of Marzelline’s big aria “O wär ich schon mit dir vereint.” She made pointed contrasts with shorter phrasing in the “Andante con moto” and far smoother and longer lines in the “Poco più Allegro” on “die Hoffnung schon er füllt die Brust,” crescendoing up to the high G on “glück.” The “Poco più Allegro” was particularly polished, every note crystal clear and connected. Her character gets the short end by the end of the opera where her whole love plot gets dropped and doesn’t even get a real conclusion. It was most disappointing here because of how Fang characterized Marzelline as bubbly and energetic. Other interpretations overdo her obsession with Fidelio, which makes her more of a nuisance. But neither her character was overwhelming nor Davidsen’s interactions displayed any sense of annoyance, making the audience engage with her feelings of love more meaningfully.

Magnus Dietrich’s Jaquino came off as timid and unsure of himself, his voice light and gentle throughout his aria. When he tried to be an aggressor it came off as humorous. His attempts to woe Marzelline came off as similarly unsuccessful, which never really made him much of a match for Ying Fang’s characterization. When he held her at the end, it did not feel earned (it often doesn’t, but this particular staging didn’t help).

The chorus had a decent showing even if their big moment at the end of Act one felt a bit messy in sections and their other major one at the end of the opera was sabotaged by poor staging. Nonetheless, the ensemble’s titanic sound at the close of the work made me remember why I adore this opera as much as I do, even if the rest of the evening did a decent job of the opposite.

In all, this revival is an example of the different parts never amounting to a greater, more cohesive whole. The orchestra plays a major part in this, but the stage direction doesn’t cut muster. In recent reviews, I’ve often brought up General Manager Peter Gelb’s Live in HD series and how often the wrong operas have been picked to be spotlighted. Of course, things might look great on paper and international appeal is always essential, but if this particular production is going to have any success in cinemas, then the revival directing team, led by Gina Lapinski, is going to need to get to work again.