For a work that few would rank among Beethoven's best, Fidelio, Op. 72, continues to exert fascination even among audiences that would not seem to have a natural affinity for the opera. Consider David Lang's Prisoner of the State, where it is not the music but the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke that is remade for the contemporary world. The libretto here is by Lang, and it's quite strong in terms of bringing out the main threads of the action and making room for the composer's considerable ability to weave a good ...
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For a work that few would rank among Beethoven's best, Fidelio, Op. 72, continues to exert fascination even among audiences that would not seem to have a natural affinity for the opera. Consider David Lang's Prisoner of the State, where it is not the music but the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke that is remade for the contemporary world. The libretto here is by Lang, and it's quite strong in terms of bringing out the main threads of the action and making room for the composer's considerable ability to weave a good tune. Lang discards the opera's subplots, which has the dual effect of trimming the length to just over an hour and eliminating the happy ending, leaving the conclusion passionate but inconclusive. Both are arguably advantageous choices, and Lang provides some set pieces, such as "better to be feared" (the lack of capitalization is the composer's choice, contributing little), that justify the name of opera. Otherwise, the tale is recognizably intact. The work gets a crisp performance...
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