If you believe musical performance fundamentally is an expression of freedom, then “Fidelio,” Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, is your über text, writes theater critic Chris Jones.
The famed work is now at Lyric Opera of Chicago with the superb South African soprano Elza van den Heever in the starring role, with Lyric favorites Brian Mulligan and Russell Thomas beside her as Don Pizarro and Florestan, respectively. It is set in a state prison. Its most stirring moment comes when a massive chorus of prisoners, their crimes unspecified but their personas subjugated at the pleasure of some governor, somewhere, sing “O welche Lust, in freier Luft” an ode to the joy of finally being able to breathe fresh air.
The famed work is now at Lyric Opera of Chicago with the superb South African soprano Elza van den Heever in the starring role, with Lyric favorites Brian Mulligan and Russell Thomas beside her as Don Pizarro and Florestan, respectively. It is set in a state prison. Its most stirring moment comes when a massive chorus of prisoners, their crimes unspecified but their personas subjugated at the pleasure of some governor, somewhere, sing “O welche Lust, in freier Luft” an ode to the joy of finally being able to breathe fresh air.
