Anja Silja's Ferocious Leonore Saves Florestan

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Florestan: Richard Cassilly
Don Pizarro: Theo Adam
Rocco: Ernst Wiemann
Beethoven: Fidelio: Act 2, "Er sterbe!" Dir. Leopold Ludwig, 1968

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The only example of the 'rescue opera' genre that is still regularly played, nearly two hundred years after Beethoven's death, Fidelio is unique in its near-total abnegation of empty vocal display in favor of music drama, according to Gluck's reform principles. For this reason, it has never been popular with those who prefer their performances to be 'concerts in costume' rather than living, breathing dramas expressed through music. Anja Silja is totally in accord with the music drama æsthetic, as befits an artiste who made her Bayreuth debut at the age of twenty. Her Leonore is the epitome of heroic femininity, and Silja commits to the strength and passion of the character but also to her gentle affection for her husband, which was often overshadowed in more conventionally barnstorming interpretations. The Hamburg State Opera were fortunate in procuring the services of Adam's definitive Pizarro, Cassilly's affecting Florestan and Wiemann's conflicted Rocco in support of Silja, just as they were in securing Regina Resnik's magnificent Klytämnestra for their film of Elektra. A most moving upload. Thank you, Manoli!