The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the brainchild of Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, consists of young musicians from Israel, Palestine and surrounding Arab countries combined with natives from Seville, the location of its annual workshops. In ten years of promoting peace through musical collaboration, it has played from Carnegie Hall to Ramallah.

Knowing the importance of opera to keep a good symphony orchestra on its toes, Barenboim led the orchestra in two concert performances of Fidelio at the Salzburger Festspiele (heard Aug. 15).

Fidelio has always been, to some degree, a "problem opera" due to its unwieldy spoken text, almost never heard uncut in our time. On this occasion, a monologue for Leonore, created by Said for concert performances in 1998 when Barenboim helmed the Chicago Symphony, replaced all dialogue. Leonore looks back at the story from a time not long after Beethoven's opera concludes, psychologically dissecting the events, ultimately questioning how long this "namenlöse Freude" (nameless joy) and freedom which she and Florestan experience upon their reunion will last.

At fifty-three, Waltraud Meier is no longer vocally equipped for the role of Leonore after decades in heavy Wagnerian repertoire. Meier resorted to lunging, forte attacks on important high notes, frequently missing the pitch and resulting in some exceedingly unpleasant sounds at crucial moments (for instance Leonore's threat and revelation, "Töt erst sein Weib!"). Clad in a boyishly bobbed wig, black pants, and what looked like an haute couture straitjacket, Meier was riveting as she spoke Leonore's innermost thoughts and feelings in her monologue, delivered from a podium away from the other singers. Unfortunately, her energy dimmed audibly in Act II.

In the long, perfectly sustained crescendo from pianpianissimo to forte on his first word, Simon O'Neill promised and delivered a sensational Florestan. His taught, steely tenor filled the Grosses Festspielhaus with huge, heroic high notes, and superhuman breath control, even when Barenboim interpolated a sudden accelerando near the end of his aria.

Terje Stensvold, a Swedish baritone who flew in that day to replace his ailing countryman Peter Mattei as Pizarro, showed solid technique in impossible music, and spontaneously inspired his colleagues to deliver more of a semi-staged performance than a strict concert.

John Tomlinson's ragged Rocco approximated the music with growls and bellows where there should have been singing. One the verge of a major international career, Adriana Kucerová was a sensuous-voiced, delightful Marzelline. Her Jaquino, Stephan Rügamer, sang the role more like an aging character tenor. Viktor Rud impressed with beauty of tone in Don Ferrando's brief assignment, but lacked nobility.

Barenboim's tendency to exaggerate fluctuations in tempi and dynamics were on display, but under his baton the orchestra played admirably, even if I did have to check the score to see if the trombones really had that much to do.

The highpoint was an unforgettable, goosebump-inducing Prisoner's Chorus, delivered by the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor under Thomas Lang.

LARRY L. LASH

Send feedback to OPERA NEWS.

Copyright © OPERA NEWS 2009