Jaap’s breaking out Fidelio
mainThe New York and Hong Kong Philharmonic music director is spending his 60th birthday in the Netherlands, presenting Beethoven.
Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, originally planned, was a size too big for the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw under the current corona measures. Instead, Jaap van Zweden will conduct Ludwig van Beethoven’s opera Fidelio at the end of the Beethoven year 2020. With largely the same star cast, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra – where Van Sweden was chief conductor from 2005 to 2011 – and the Groot Omroepkoor.
Anja Kampe soprano, Leonore
Daniel Frank tenor, Florestan
Georg Zeppenfeld bass baritone, Rocco
Simon Nea l baritone, Don Pizarro
Oliver Zwarg bass-baritone, bass-baritone, Don Fernando
Mercedes Arcuri soprano, Marzelline
Thomas Atkins tenor, Jaquino
Robert Holl narrator
In these times a classical opera with liberation from involuntary quarantaine at the end seems indeed a better choice than Goetterdaemmerung.
Van Zweden’s concertante operas are entirely remarkable. Especially the 2011 Parsifal was spectacular:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Iq4J2J5bY