Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 10 & Mon 12 Aug @ 19:15
With its universal theme of liberty versus tyranny, setting Beethoven’s Fidelio in a space prison in some nominal future is equally as valid as locating it in any period of mankind’s past. And if anyone has the capacity to create an environment beyond the stars, it’s designer/video artist Gary Hill, who makes his stage directing debut with this work. A concept is only as good as its delivery however and whilst this is a visual and musical feast it’s failures point out the difficulties inherent when artists try to master new disciplines.
Continuing a theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, Opera de Lyon’s show blends traditional elements with digital media, and the effects – floating shapes and stars, symbols and striking dystopian sets, projected on layers of gauze – are breathtaking. Of course this is where Hill’s reputation lies so the quality of the designs should be no surprise. What he’s new to is handling humans. Hill never seems to know what to do with his cast, for much of the time stringing them in straight lines across the stage. An inspired idea in the early scenes, to have prison guards travel on Segways, gives him the opportunity for movement, unfortunately he doesn’t stick with this idea throughout.
The choice to add narration, in the faux profound drivel of bad sixties Sci-Fi paperbacks, might be meant to underscore the isolation and despair of the political prisoners aboard the ship, but instead points both to a lack of faith in his performers and the libretto.
Fortunately both the music and the underlying themes of Fidelio still shine through in this production. The performances particularly from Erika Sunnegardh as Leonora, Nikolai Schukoff as Florestan and Valentina Nafornita as Marzelline are excellent. As a combination of visual effects and music this is a beautiful experience, but as an opera it fails to engage. For a production that relies heavily on projections its ultimate flaw is that it never gets below the surface.
Showing as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2013