(Photo: © Eric Bouloumier)

From May 16 to 23, the Opéra de Bordeaux presents Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio,” directed by Valentina Carrasco. There are a lot of naïveté in this production. The director sets the drama in the final days of the Occupation in France. The back of the stage is used as a screen to show images of the Occupation in the first half, and of the Liberation in the second. The stage itself is topped in the first part by an installation showing the police headquarters where Rocco works on the first floor, and the gaol in which the prisoners are held captive on the ground floor. All around, Wehrmacht soldiers torture at worst, or mock at best, the black French soldiers. The second part takes place in front of a wall, at the foot of which Florestan, performed by American tenor Jamez McCorkle, is chained to his pallet. There was also a great deal of naivety in the transformation of the Nazi-complicit Gendarme Rocco in the first part into a “twenty-fifth-hour” resistance fighter in the second. But the naivety here is heavy-handed, insistent to the point of ridiculousness. In the second half, for example, the wall comes down to let in General De Gaule, General Leclerc and the prisoners of the day. Leonore even prevents the army from shooting Don Pizzaro; and above all, the performers and audience are forced to listen to a movement from a Beethoven symphony while the Declaration of Human Rights scrolls across the backdrop.

This naivety would have been less onerous, had the musical quality been better too, alas. Firstly, the orchestra played very loudly, too heavily in force for Beethoven’s subtleties, and thus pushed the performers to reveal their flaws further instead of helping them to cover them up. But the performers were not ideal either. Putting aside, their French accents spoiling the understanding of their dialogues and arias, their voices were difficult, to say the least.

Tenor Kevin Amiel‘s Jacquino was hard to hear, even inaudible in the first half, as was baritone Szymon Mechliński‘s Don Pizzaro, because of the loud and heavy orchestra in front of them. Soprano Polina Shabunina as Marceline had to strain her vocal cords, therefore insisting on her lack of flexibility, to give her voice a sharpness and edges, which were not always relevant, especially in the solos. Her first solo in the beginning of the second act “O wär ich schon mit dir vereint“ seemed very hard for a young woman, almost without the tenderness. Soprano Polina Shabunina as Marceline had to strain her vocal cords, insisting on her lack of flexibility, to give her voice a sharpness and edges, which were not always relevant, especially in the solos.

Rocco’s voice did not really come into its own until the second half, in the duets with Leonore. Even though his robust continuo appeared at its best in the first part of the opera in the aria “Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben,” and even his low bass, like a basso continuo, fed the opera with its legato, his it was lost every time in the many scenes where he had to sing with more than one character. The first quartet of the fourth part “Mir ist so wunderbar,” in wich he has to sing “Sie liebt ihn, es ist klar,” he is almost unheard, for instance. His singing presence in the trios, quartets or even duos lack to shine each time.

Szymon Mechliński’s baritone as Don Pizzaro was almost unheard in the first part of the production. His aria “Ha, welch ein Augenblick!” was completely swallowed by the orchestra; More power in his persona, more steal in his vocal cords, would have given him enough maintenance to sustain the orchestra. He started to shine only in the second part of the concert, but, like in the quartet “Er sterbe! Doch er soll erst wissen,” rather dull and without any real relief.

Fortunately, Jamez McCorkle’s tenor as Florestan also appeared, more velvet, but understanding his text remained difficult. His aria “In des Lebens Frühlingstagen“ was hardly understandable, even though the texture of his tessitura sounded soft and tender.

In the end, soprano Jacquelyn Wagner‘s Léonore was the only one to stand out from the crowd, firstly because she had no accent problems, articulated her text well enough to make herself understood and kept a recognizable singing line throughout the production, but she seemed to lose strength and poise in the second half. If she sang her first aria “Komm, Hoffnung, lass den letzten Stern” very well, with a legato and a sort of moon light shyness in her voice in the first part, in the last part of the opera her voice lacked strength and lost maintenance in her duo with Florestan, when she sang “Der Himmel schicke Rettung dir.”

The biggest problem with this production remained the very unfortunate combination of voices. The opera’s numerous duets, trios and even quartets sounded confused, with inaudible texts and tessituras more piled on top of each other than truly layered. The first duet between Marceline and Jacquino, for example, showed little of the tenor’s voice, and the trio of Marceline, Rocco and Jaquino even less.

The Chorus, however, was pleasant in its unison, especially during its little moment of freedom granted by Fidelio, but it seemed constantly lacking in involvement.

This production should probably be seen as an incentive to listen to Beethoven rather than anything else.