{"id":1407,"date":"2019-07-19T14:35:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T18:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1407"},"modified":"2019-07-19T14:35:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T18:35:36","slug":"a-fidelio-for-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2019\/07\/a-fidelio-for-yesterday.html","title":{"rendered":"A Fidelio for Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with a twelve-hour drive, with wife and dog, from Manhattan to the idyllic Brevard (North Carolina) Music Festival, I threw some CDs in the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I chose Fidelio<\/em>\nbecause I had been eager to re-experience Beethoven\u2019s opera since encountering\nDavid Lang\u2019s Fidelio<\/em>-for-today, A Prisoner of State<\/em>, premiered by the\nNew York Philharmonic as a season finale concert opera. This minimalist\ndistillation ignited a standing ovation. But I wanted to go back to the real\nthing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fidelio<\/em>\nI own is the famous 1962 EMI\nrecording, conducted by Otto Klemperer, with Jon Vickers as Florestan and\nChrista Ludwig as Leonore. I hadn\u2019t heard it in decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I skipped act one because act two is better. Agnes\nsilenced her cell phone. Teddy was asleep in the back seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florestan was one of Vickers\u2019 signature roles. His specialty was the outsider. I knew that re-visiting his aching rendition<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>of Florestan\u2019s dungeon aria, beginning act two, would grip the car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I was unprepared for the rest. Beethoven tinkered for years with Fidelio<\/em>, struggling to get it right. But, as I now discovered, act two proceeds with an inexorable logic, rising from blackness to refulgent light. Wondrously, Beethoven ascends by degrees. Then, when the arc is at its peak, he peaks some more: \u201cO Gott! o welch ein Augenblick!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sudden linchpin in this progression is when\nLeonora exclaims \u201cT\u00f6dte erst sein Weib!\u201d (\u201cFirst\nkill his wife!\u201d). The moment \u2013 the lad Fidelio is revealed to be the heroine\nLeonora — is transformational. Agnes began passing me paper towels to dab my\ncheeks as we rode into West Virginia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, I mistrust studio recordings of\nopera. But this Fidelio<\/em> is alive at\nevery moment. And it isn\u2019t just Vickers and Ludwig, as the unconquerable\nhusband and wife. Gottlob Frick, as Rocco, bears unforgettably humane witness,\ndeploying his sepulchral bass (an increasingly rare species) at half voice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it ended, I struggled to speak. All I managed\nto say was: \u201cIt\u2019s over.\u201d Agnes understood that I was referring not to the disk\nin the CD player. I meant Klemperer, Vickers, Ludwig, Frick, Beethoven \u2013 an\naesthetic experience overpowered by empathy. There will never again be a Fidelio<\/em> like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1927, Klemperer was asked how best to\ncelebrate the Beethoven Centenary. \u201cDon\u2019t play any Beethoven for a year,\u201d he\nanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have another Beethoven anniversary coming up \u2013 2020 marks 250 years since his year of birth. I think I know how PostClassical Ensemble<\/strong><\/a> will celebrate. We\u2019ll invite our patrons to communally experience that 1962 Klemperer recording. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That I cannot imagine a more compelling\nBeethoven experience in the year 2020 says it all.     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faced with a twelve-hour drive, with wife and dog, from Manhattan to the idyllic Brevard (North Carolina) Music Festival, I threw some CDs in the car. I chose Fidelio because I had been eager to re-experience Beethoven\u2019s opera since encountering David Lang\u2019s Fidelio-for-today, A Prisoner of State, premiered by the New York Philharmonic as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-mH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}