Search - Thomson Smillie :: An Introducton to Beethoven's Fidelio

A Wonderful Introduction to Beethoven's 'Fidelio'

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 06/29/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many people who have not been exposed to opera are intimidated by the very thought of it. Modern opera-house performances with supertitles have been very helpful in dispelling that condition. Here is another method of helping people get comfortable with the great operas. Naxos has already put out educational CDs - all written by Thomson Smillie - for such masterpieces as Mozart's Magic Flute, and Così fan tutte, Verdi's La Traviata and Aïda, Puccini's La Bohème and Tosca, Bizet's Carmen, and others. Here we have Beethoven's 'Fidelio,' his only opera. The approach is this: First, there is a short introduction to the social, artistic, and political background of the composition of the opera and its story. Then - using Naxos recordings of the opera, in this case their wonderful recording of Fidelio [really one of the best available, in my opinion; only the 1960s recording conducted by Otto Klemperer is clearly better] - they turn to a leisurely recounting of the story of the opera with frequent recorded selections from the corresponding music. Smillie's text also points out many of the musical felicities along the way, e.g. 'listen to how the voices combine, each character singing his or her private thoughts, during this sublime quartet.'The narration is neither too esoteric nor too 'dumbed down'; an intelligent older child would be able to understand it. I can easily imagine that this series is already being used in music appreciation classes, and if not, they should be. All this is helped by the clear narration by British actor David Timson, who also occasionally acts out some of the important moments in the plot.All in all, it's hard to imagine a better introduction to the operas in this series.Scott Morrison"