Lost in space

The opening performance of the Royal Opera’s first revival of Fidelio, in the production by Jürgen Flimm which was unwisely imported in 2007, was so dreary that it would be better not to comment on it, except that it seems worth separating the inherently feeble elements from the ones that happened to be present, and which may well have disappeared in later performances.

The opening performance of the Royal Opera’s first revival of Fidelio, in the production by Jürgen Flimm which was unwisely imported in 2007, was so dreary that it would be better not to comment on it, except that it seems worth separating the inherently feeble elements from the ones that happened to be present, and which may well have disappeared in later performances.

Kirill Petrenko was scheduled to conduct, and on the evidence of his past visits to the Royal Opera the result would have been impressive. A recurring back problem forced him to withdraw very late in rehearsals, and Mark Elder stepped into the breach. From Glyndebourne we know that he can conduct this difficult opera magnificently, but I suspect that he is someone who needs long and careful rehearsals. Whatever, the first night was musically mainly miserable.

There’s always a question about how to take the Overture, that is the one actually called Fidelio, as opposed to the three Leonores. It isn’t very dramatic, but it doesn’t serve as any kind of scene-setter either. Elder delivered it brusquely, with brass well to the fore, as if he wanted it to convey something of the heroic spirit the opera celebrates. That didn’t work.

The curtain rose on the nondescript set, an open space — the whole of the stage — with Marzelline ironing outdoors, where there was office furniture, too, so a reliable climate, presumably tropical.