Beethoven - Fidelio / Levine, Mattila, Heppner, Pape, Lloyd, Polenzani, Metropolitan Opera

Starring:Heppner, Mattila, Pape, Polenzani, Struckman, Robert Lloyd
Director: James Levine
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

A Fidelio to cherish
Great....and there is another also
What's your perspective on Fidelio?
Charged with excitement and emotion
For the three principal singers...

Beethoven - Fidelio / Levine, Mattila, Heppner, Pape, Lloyd, Polenzani, Metropolitan Opera
Starring: Heppner , Mattila , Pape , Polenzani , and Struckman
Director: James Levine
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Puccini - Turandot / Franco Zeffirelli - Marton, Domingo, Mitchell, Plishka, Cuenod - James Levine, MET (1988)
Donizetti - L'Elisir d'Amore / Pavarotti, Battle, Pons, Dara, Upshaw, Levine, Metropolitan Opera
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ASIN: B000094HMT
Release Date: 2003-11-25

Customer Reviews:

A Fidelio to cherish.......2006-10-11

I was fortunate enough to have been an audience member and witness the remarkable talents of Levine, Mattila and Heppner in person at the MET. That is why I was so thrilled to see this powerful production not only on PBS but to own it. Not many works come across with such human pathos written in the vocal line nor are there such singing actresses as of Mattila's stature. She carries the show, she comes across so believable that you wonder how she does it and is able to maintain a difficult trouser role and remain credible. The DVD comes across brilliantly and you experience her every nuance not seen from the audience standpoint. The towering finale will cause you to leap to your feet as the audience did on the night I was there and the cast received a standing ovation - not common at the MET I assure you.

Great....and there is another also.......2006-02-18

This seems to be broadly reviewed here and elsewhere as a superlative video rendering of Beethoven's sole venture into opera. However, I've never been able to understand why DGG has never brought us the Bernstein version from the Vienna State Opera -- shown on PBS 20 years ago. It is the audio version of this production that they chose to represent Fidelio in their Complete Beethoven Edition which came out in 1997. The cast includes Gundula Janowitz and Rene Kollo. Bernstein's command of the theater was second to none, so this is a vote for DGG to bring out the other great performance of this work.

Until then, you won't go wrong with Levine and the Met.

What's your perspective on Fidelio?.......2005-12-04

When considering if you want James Levine's 2000 recording of Beethoven's only completed opera, "Fidelio" the question to ask is: "What's your perspective on Fidelio?" Should it be staged to reflect the time in which it was composed? (Ca. 1805) or should it have a more modern set and staging? (as is the case here). James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera orchestra play wonderfully and are - as almost always - very reliable and sensible in tempos, balance, and phrasing. The singers: Mattila, Heppner, Pape, Lloyd, Polenzani, etc. are all excellent. But the staging - which may seem controversial - is modern, with such items as 20th century handguns, American style Khaki military uniforms, and in the last act, the announcement of the President coming (not the governer as would be the case in Austria, 1805). Some who insist on a more authentic, Austrian, period staging of Beethoven's opera may not care for this.

There are elements of humor brought out on the stage in some places, and I found the Prisoners' Chorus very moving. I can't comment blow by blow on the singers, as I'm not a singer myself, but it all sounds excellent to me: well balanced with the orchestra and chorus, and in the bigger choral numbers, everyone is right in the action and on cue/target musically as well.

I love Beethoven's music, and always feel great comfort and a sense of victory and rightness about the world when listening to/watching FIDELIO, or hearing the incidental music to EGMONT. Beethoven had a firm belief in democracy, the triumph of right over wrong: justice for the accused who are innocent, and that one man/woman or class should not rule over another - he hoped for an egalitarian society somewhat as the French Revolution, Socialism, or later in Russia, Bolshevism promised, but did not deliver. I think Beethoven would have liked living in a democracy as the United States, or Austria today, more of a parliamentary democracy for sure than it was 200 years ago during his lifetime.

If you don't want Levine's Met. production of FIDELIO, consider the following CD releases: Klemperer/Philharmonia (EMI) or Bohm/Dresden State Orchestra (DG, 1969, recently re-released).

Charged with excitement and emotion.......2005-02-24

but....hear me now and believe me later: KARITA MATTILA IS NO DRAMATIC SOPRANO!!!!!! Just like Hildegard Behrens, who was somehow convinced (wrongly) that she had a dramatic voice, Mattila is shifting her career towards the more dramatic repertoire, with mixed success. Her natural talent for acting and for conveying emotion with her vocal instrument works well for her in the lyric roles and gains her some sympathy in the dramatic roles. However, whenever presented with the true tests in the dramatic roles, she always falls short. Cases in point in this Fidelio: a) In her centerpiece of the first act, "Abscheulicher," Mattila's singing is so lovely and moving despite the stupid things she has to do with her hands. Even in the closing section "Ich folg dem innern Triebe," she moves along wonderfully. But then comes the clincher: In "Gattinliebe," the last word of the aria, she shrieks out the high B like a banshee, ruining the entire effect. Granted, hardly anyone can negotiate this note with power AND grace (Gwyneth Jones in the Karl Boehm film is the only singer I've ever heard do it perfectly) but Mattila's overextension is so obvious you want to convince her to go back to Rusalka; b) She sounds coarse in the demanding ensemble number that brings the first act to a close; c) In the second act, in the recognition scene, "Toet erst sein Weib" we have the same banshee howl (this time under pitch) on "Weib" that seems to define or be a calling card for her vocal limitations.

So, if Leonore had been written as a lyric role, Mattila would be astounding. She looks good in her chimney sweeper outfit, and fakes gay marriage really well. But, although she is slightly better than Soederstroem in the role, she falls woefully short in light of her great predecessors (Nilsson, Flagstad, Ludwig, and especially G. Jones). As is usually the case these days, we just have to settle.

Heppner is above average in what is basically a one-aria role. The sweetness of his voice and his ability to sustain the lyric phrases of the "In des Lebens Fruehlingstagen" are admirable. He gets somewhat carried away by emotion and falls out of step with Levine toward the climax of this second-act opener, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's a live thing.

Of the remaining cast, Rene Pape is the most satisfying, playing a curiously dissheveled and disoriented Rocco. He is vocally perfect for the role. Matthew Polenzani is the main casualty of the director's character re-thinking....he's bitter, petty, and aggressive, making you wonder why Marzelline would ever want him in the first place. Nice singing, though. Jennifer Welch-Babidge sounds a little fluttery, but her penetrating voice cuts through the ensembles even more than Mattila's (especially in the finale) and adds some much-needed treble. Falk Struckmann's is just a character voice, which falls short in delivering the required level of malice. Anyone from the chorus could have done as well. Robert Lloyd sounds like Kurt Moll with the flu.

It's obvious this staging has a German production team, for nearly all German Fidelios are unrelentingly gray and drab. The costumes in the finale are so haphazard and ugly that if the sound was off I wouldn't know if I was watching 'NYPD Blue' or 'Treemonisha.' (There are some REALLY lame attempts at jubilant dancing as well.) Luckily Levine and the Met orchestra and chorus provide such fine aural support throughout that the distastefulness of the sets and direction can be cheerily characterized as just another one of those ubiquitous eurotrash concept stagings we're all required as modern operagoers to endure.

For the three principal singers..........2004-06-25

When Act 2 of Fidelio is being poured out in the most glorious tones imaginable from Mattila, Heppner and Pape - who can possibly complain? Who would honestly want to replace any of them? Who can fail to be overwhelmed with gratitude to own this disc?

If I continue to count our blessings, I might mention the splendid Robert Lloyd drawing us to a thrilling finale as Don Fernando; and Falk Struckmann a convincingly evil Pizarro.

So it is certainly not complaining, but fulfilling a reviewer's obligation to tell all, when I admit that Jennifer Welch-Babidge is little more than adequate as Marzelline. One might wish for a purer vocal line in this role - like a Bonney or an Isokoski.

The production has a few eccentricities that don't quite work. I could pick holes, but to be fair the production as a whole functions well enough, and with singing - and, in most cases, acting - like this, who cares?

Brian Large's cameras are always where you want them. Sound is DTS 5.1; Dolby 5.1 or Stereo. Menu is in English only. Subtitles in German; English; French; Spanish and Chinese.

Don't worry, you won't regret it.

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