Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra :: Beethoven - Fidelio (LSO Live)

An impressive Fidelio that's the best in a long time

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/15/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"By current standards, this is quite a successful Fidelio. British critics tend to assume that the latter-day Sir Colin Davis has steadily ascended to greatness, forgetting that he had a period of considerable dullness in Germany before returning to London. His earlier studio recording of Fidelio for RCA fell into that category, despite a magnificent Florestan from Ben Heppner. In this live performance from the Barbican with the London Sym., he's lucky to have two fine leads, beginning with Christine Brewer, a rising American dramatic soprano whose ample, gleaming voice seems more suited to Leonore than Deborah Voigt's in the earlier set (Voigt's voice lacks body in the lower range, where Leonore's music often lies). Brewer is full and expressive in her big "Absheulicher...Komm Hoffnung" aria, which is handled with solid voice and confident scale passages.



Almost as impressive is the Florestan of John Mac Master, big-voiced and dramatically fervent. He isn't the world-class singer that Heppner is, not to mention Jon Vickers, but Mac Master's tone suits the role far better than, say, Reiner Goldberg for Haitink. His tone wobbles under pressure but not seriously. When husband and wife are reunited for the duet, "O namenlose Freude," sparks fly, and one is convinced that a better coupling probably can't be found today. The minor roles are well filled, if not up to the standards of the two leads.



My reluctance to give five stars is owed to Davis, who falls into some mannered phrasing, and whose tempos can be slack here and there. He's foursquare and ordinary in the big choral passage when the prisoners are let out and later in the glorious finale, here rather underwhelming. Others may enjoy his non-heroic view of the opera more than I did. The LSO plays very well, if not with the utmost conviction, and the sonics are fine. What's most impressive is the musical accuracy of all concerned in a concert setting, and considering the rash of poor recordings we've gotten of Fidelio lately (Haitink, Rattle, Dohnanyi) this new Davis reading is welcome.



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