Opera on 3

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Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Beethoven's Fidelio from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Beethoven's Fidelio from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Beethoven's Fidelio from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Antonio Pappano conducts a dream cast including Lise Davidsen and Jonas Kaufmann.

Antonio Pappano conducts a dream team of Jonas Kaufmann and Lise Davidsen, the husband-and-wife embodiment of courage, freedom and love in Beethoven's thrilling opera, Fidelio.

The triumph of love, courage and freedom over oppression, tyranny and evil are the eternal themes of Beethoven's only opera, a project close to his heart but which cost him dear in over a decade of revisions and rewrites.

Recorded at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden earlier this month, and the hot ticket of the season, Antonio Pappano conducts a dream team of a cast led by two of the most celebrated singers on today's operatic stage. In a new production by Tobias Kratzer, soprano Lise Davidsen plays Leonore, the devoted wife of Florestan (tenor Jonas Kaufmann), whose love for her wrongly imprisoned husband means she will stop at nothing to ensure his freedom. It causes all sorts of problems, from disguising herself as a man, Fidelio, and having to reject the unwelcome advances of Marzelline, the love-struck jailer's daughter, to courageously risking her life in a touch-and-go mission to free Florestan. 

Beethoven's thrilling darkness-to-light journey is presented by Tom Service in conversation with the Rev. Lucy Winkett, including contributions from conductor, cast and director.

Beethoven: Fidelio

Act 1

7.55pm
Interval
Tom Service and Lucy Winkett explore some the themes of Beethoven's Fidelio and the way they've been interpreted in this production, with comments from Lise Davidsen, Antonio Pappano and Tobias Kratzer.

8.15pm
Act 2

Leonore.....Lise Davidsen (soprano)
Florestan.....Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
Rocco.....Georg Zeppenfeld (bass)
Don Pizarro.....Michael Kupfer-Radecky (baritone)
Marzelline.....Amanda Forsythe (soprano)
Jaquino.....Robin Tritschler (tenor)
Don Fernando.....Egils Silinš (bass-baritone)
First Prisoner.....Filipe Manu (tenor)
Second Prisoner.....Timothy Dawkins (bass)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano (conductor)

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Beethoven's Fidelio from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

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