WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2020Update of Beethoven opera is a
game of two halves
‘Fidelio’ drops the ball in Act Two, says Michael Church
Lise Davidsen as Fidelio and Jonas Kaufmann as Florestan (ROH/Bill Cooper)
Royal Opera House, London
★★★☆☆
On paper, director Tobias Kratzer’s rationale for his production of Beethoven’s Fidelio made persuasive
sense. He started from the premise that Beethoven set his story in Spain because the censors would have
spiked it if he’d set it where it belonged, in Revolutionary France. Kratzer’s production is accordingly
placed in the last days of the Terror of 1794. There would be updating, but not in the first act, which would