<<  -- 9 --  Ted and Emi Norrish    DEVOTION AND HEROISM

Florestan, for his aria at the beginning of Act II ('Gott! Dunkel hier!' -- 'God! What darkness!') was standing at his ease in a spacious area in front of the same two columns. Gould delivered it for all the world as if giving a rather static aria recital. He was dressed (by costume designer Andrea Schmidt-Futterer) in a loose-fitting suit, and for some of the time he had his hands in the front pockets of what seemed to be a woollen waistcoat or cardigan. So far from being racked and worn down by prison, he looked the image of my old housemaster standing in front of the fire in his study after a good dinner and a couple of brandies.

After a change of scene, the act did continue (as normally) in a dungeon : yet still Stephen Gould as Florestan failed to portray a starved and desperate man with any conviction. How could he, after such a start? The melodrama that followed fell a little flat.

After such short-coming, it is fair to say that all Beethoven's ensembles, from the beautifully sung canon quartet in Act I (the wide staircase was effectively used here) to the glorious final scene of triumph, were a joy to hear. But the arias, well sung though they were, lacked dramatic conviction because the characters themselves lacked conviction.

In this situation our sympathy was diverted from Leonora and Florestan to Diana Damrau's tender Marzelline. How sad to lose her love and her hopes, and at the same time to make such a fool of herself in falling in love with Leonora! Poor girl : it's back to ugly Jaquino -- or nothing.

The story of the opera is a straightforward tale of a wife's devotion and heroism, based on a true episode from the French Revolution, and moved to eighteenth century Seville. This simple, direct tale, which unclothed could seem even 'corny' -- compare the like tale of devotion in Rossini's The Thieving Magpie (see Roderic Dunnett's recent Garsington review) -- is made glorious in the telling by Beethoven's insight and genius. Through his music he expresses the invincibility and the triumph of the human spirit. Beethoven's faith in humanity was as unshakable as Bruckner's faith in God.

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