Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Staatskapelle Dresden, Bernard Haitink :: Beethoven: Fidelio / Norman, Goldeberg, Moll, Coburn, Blochwitz, Wlaschiha, Schmidt; Haitink

Jessye Norman as the heroic Fidelio

09/17/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This set, while not as hyped-up as many others, offers a listener's delight of a first rate. First and foremost, Haitink's choice for Leonore is the incredible and versatile Jessye Norman who can sound masculine being blessed with powerful and smooth lower register. That's why, really, her masking as a man works. Yet her "Wo eilst du hin?" and duet with Florestan is full of very feminine love and even a touch of vulnerability. With her superb musical intelligence, nothing is over-acted, but sang beautifully in fresh pure voice. Her Florestan, Reiner Goldberg, manages convincingly the portrayal of a man exhausted by prison and injustice. Quite a few tenors are known to practically scream this part, so one makes an assumption that the prison food could not be really that bad. Goldberg's portrayal is the most accurate. Kurt Moll seems to be over-cast as Rocco, but it's a pleasant treat to hear such a majestic bass in this role. Past examples show how important it is to actually over-cast a bass here, remember Gotlob Frick? Ekkehard Wlaschina comes through as subtle, even if not as much as Leiferkus or Fischer-Diescau, but darker, heavier, very evil Pizarro. Another surprise is the great choice for second tenor -- Andreas Schmidt as Don Fernando. Maestro Haitink stashes the Leonore III overture at the very end, and it provides a good conclusion to 2+ hours of Beethoven pleasure. Philips' crystal-clear digital recording and ideal balancing make it a preferred choice over old recordings, great as they might be. This recording, as many of the company's morsels, is rapidly disappearing from the US market, so get it while it lasts."

Glorious Singing from Miss Norman Once Again

C. Roe | bloomington, in United States | 05/22/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After watching a Met production of Fidelio (with Mattila and Pape), I decided to give the opera another try. I hadn't liked it when I listened to the Ludwig-Vickers version a few years ago. What was wrong with me? Fidelio is a remarkable work of art, and the quartet "Mir Ist so Wunderbar" in Act I is among the most sublime music ever written. In this recording, Norman is clearly the star, yet the other soloists are quite fine too. Along with this recording, I'd also bought a version with Birgit Nilsson and must say Norman is far, far better in the role of Leonore; she reminds me more of Flagstad because the voice is more traditionally beautiful than Nilsson's. (Yet I have to say I have Nilsson's recordings of Un Ballo, Macbeth, and Aida, and she sounds as magnificent as those other two divine singers, so perhaps, I should just say that Nilsson isn't in best voice on the Fidelio recording.) Leonore and Rosina (in Nozze) are two of Norman's finest vocal achievements on record. It seems this cd set has gone out of print, so snatch it up when you have a chance; otherwise, it will be a sinful omission from your music library."

Fidelio Is Not A One-Woman Show

American Evita | U.S. | 08/08/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"ABOUT THE ALBUM: FIDELIO (BEETHOVEN), CAST: Jessye Norman (Fidelio), Reiner Goldberg(Florestan) Kurt Moll (Pizarro) Andreas Schmidt (Don Fernando) Patricia Coburn(Marsellina) Conductor Bernard Haitink, Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra, Recorded 1992 for Phillips



In the early 1990's, black diva Jessye Norman was flexing her opera muscles as never before, eventhough her career was entering its final phase. With the Dresden State Opera she recorded Salome opposite James Morris under Seiji Ozawa's baton and from this same period came Fidelio, Beethoven's only operatic venture and it is an opera still performed today for it's musical and artistic values and for its Beethoven namesake. Jessye Norman is doing what she did with Salome: she puts on a one-woman show. While I enjoyed her very nuanced Salome, her Fidelio is nothing but showy soprano fireworks and sounds more like she's in a large choral with a soprano lead. True, the voice is in good shape and she sounds controlled in every intimate scene and aria, save for parts that seem to require for her to be at the top of the ensembles. Kurt Moll is also doing a marvelous job as the villainous Pizarro, although Moll's noble, spiritual voice is more suited to Sarastro from Mozart's The Magic Flute than a wicked baritone character like the one he portrays in Fidelio. Still, it's very polished, regal and dark, and well done, a perfect alignment with Jessye Norman's equally dark voice. The rest of the cast flounder. Reiner Goldberg's Florestan can sound like a weakened and hopeless prisoner but this is very disappointing when audiences have heard more stout and more heroic sounding "romanticism" Fidelios like that of Jon Vickers. Fidelio ought to appear noble and Jesus like but still quite powerful, at least to match the power of the soprano singing the heavy role of Leonore. Everyone else is serviceable, bland and even Mozartian like in their singing, especially when we consider the spoken parts are alsos central to the story and sound like German spingsiel, which is perhaps what this work seems to be drawn from. The spoken parts are well acted but the singers who are not the leads are too boring and fail to impress operatically speaking. This is the real downside along with the flavorless conducting. The cast should sound epic, and even the choruses here are very dull. It's sad that Jessye Norman was at this time teamed up with really weak people.



The reason this album was at one time very popular and commercially appealing was Jessye Norman herself. She could carry an entire opera alone, and her status as diva was by this time established and she could do whatever she wanted to do. Opting not to sing the heavy Wagner roles like Brunnhilde or Isolde, which really would have been magnificent, she chose instead to champion the works that sopranos in her day did not undertake. Oddly enough, while appearing to be singing anti-diva roles and various operas no one else wanted to touch at the time, she was also making herself more of a diva then ever. Her Leonore is noble and grand, and her usual regal flair (like Leontyne Price but with heavier voice) is all over this. She sounds like a Queen coming to bail her King from wrongful imprisonment. But because she's so talented vocally and can shade her voice, she manages to sound vulnerable, powerless and touching, a feminine contrast to the parts requiring her to sing like the man- Fidelio - she is pretending to be. This odd gender change has always captivated operaphiles and it speaks of Beethoven's feminine and masculine side as well and universally speaking, all humanity's. The theme of redemption, rescue and triumph over adversity and ignorance through compassion and enlightenment was very significant to Beethoven, who continually expressed his humanistic philosophies through music.



Fidelio can be a musical masterpiece in the hands of the right conductor or orchestra. Karajan, Bohm and Klemperer achieved the perfect sound of Fidelio - epic, grandly noble, warm, touching, a religous experience almost. But these conductors have all been Germans who managed to understand the essentially Germanic music (Beethoven too was Germanic). Bernard Haitink does a very irksome job of conducting. It's over much too soon, it's experimental and it shows. He did not put any real effort to bring out the spiritual drama lurking behind the classical and pre-Romanticism phrasing of Beethoven's signature music. It's just a straight symphony-meets-opera or chorale-meets-opera deal and that is a crying shame when it can be more of an experience.



Do yourself a favor. Don't buy this. Get Karajan, Klemperer or Bohm and preferably Klemperer which can never be beaten as a recording. This one is just too rushed and boring. I have never ever given any recording I've heard this kind of criticism and bashing (only one star) but this one is so awful that if it was a movie, I'd walk out of the theater."