Beethoven
Leonore (1805 Version) (DVD)
Nathalie Paulin, Jean-Michel Richer, Stephen Hegedus, Pascale Beaudin, Matthew Scollin, Keven Geddes, Alexandre Sylvestre; Opera Lafayette Chorus & Orchestra/Ryan Brown; dir. Oriol Tomas (NYC, 2020)
Naxos DVD: 2.110674; Blu-ray: NBD0121V 148 mins
After a pioneering recording of Pierre Gaveaux’s Léonore, Opera Lafayette has decamped from France to Vienna for a more familiar version of the same libretto: Beethoven’s Leonore, composed in 1805.
Lafayette’s modest production suggests that first thoughts were good thoughts but that Leonore is a different opera from Fidelio. Not only is the complete story told musically in the Overture (‘Leonora No. 2’), but the placing of the sung numbers, particularly the duet for Marzelline and Fidelio in Act II about marital fidelity, suggests that what interests Beethoven in 1805 is conjugal bliss…
