Production Details
Dates:
February 2, 5, 9, 10; March 2nd, 2013.
Venues:
Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne.
Robert Blackwood Hall, Monash University.
Running Time:
2hr 45m, with two intervals.
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor: David Kram, Greg Hocking
Director: Hugh Halliday
Starring: Steven Gallop, Jason Wasely, Roger Howell, Donna-Marie Dunlop, Caroline Vercoe.
Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, a work on which he lavished great attention and some of his most inspiring and dramatic music, launches Melbourne Opera’s 2013 season.
‘Fidelio’ tells the timeless and moving story of a woman’s devoted love of her husband through great adversity. Florestan has been unjustly imprisoned by his enemy Pizarro. His wife Leonora disguises herself as a youth, gets a job in the prison, and audaciously attempts to rescue her husband. Right triumphs and the opera ends with one of the most magnificent of Beethoven’s choral scenes, a ringing assertion of freedom and justice.
Melbourne Opera has assembled a superb cast featuring Donna Maree Dunlop, Jason Wasley, Roger Howell and Steven Gallop, with a specially augmented Melbourne Opera Chorus and Orchestra all under the musical direction of the eminent international conductor Dr David Kram. This new production is directed by Hugh Halliday and designed by Andrew Bellchambers.
Sung in English.
Press & Reviews
“Fidelio soars in Gitmo setting.”
— The Australian
Gallery
Cast & Crew
Cast:
Leonore: Donna-Maree Dunlop, Caroline Vercoe
Florestan: Jason Wasley, Daryl Barclay
Rocco: Steven Gallop
Pizarro: Roger Howell, James Payne
Jaquino: Brenton Spiteri, Shoumendu Ganguly
Marzelline: Fiona Jopson
Fernando: Manfred Pohlenz
Prisoner 1: Shoumendu Ganguly, Robert Barbaro
Prisoner 2: James Payne, Stephen Brodie
Prison Guards: David Lawson-Smith, Peter Sackett.
Chorus:
SOPRANOS:
Alexandra Oke, Alice Woodberry, Cheryl Darvidis, Debra O’Connor, Elisabeth Denk, Giuliana D’AppioJessica Bull, Maree Macmillan, Myfanwy Coghill, Shauntai Batski. Sue Robertson.
MEZZOS:
Cecily Woodberry, Kathy Hatton, Susan Halls, Zoe Taylor.
BASSES:
Ali Doostdar, Bernie Nolan, John Wayne Parsons, Michael Carr, Robert Van Keulen, Roland Seidl.
Director: Suzanne Chaundy
Conductor: Greg Hocking, David Kram
Designer – Set & Costumes: Andrew Bellchambers
Designer – Lighting: Scott Allan
Head of Music/Chorus Master/Repetiteur: Raymond Lawrence
Costumier: Debra Hallam
Stage Manager: Annie Reid
Assistant Stage Manager: Luke Preer
Assistant Director: David Lawson-Smith
Assistant Lighting Director: Travis Mcfarlane
Wigs, Hair, Makeup: Christina Pallikaris, Amanda Commings
Set Construction: Peter Turely
Company Manager: Robbie McPhee
Producer: Greg Hocking AM
TENORS:
Cameron Sibley, Christopher Russell, David Phillips, David Woodberry, Nick Renfree-Marks, Othon Charalambous, Paul Dernelley, Richard Wilson, Robert Barbaro, Scott Edwards, Shoumendu Ganguly, Tim Daly, Tony Rainer.
BARITONES
Dick Dowling, Geoff King, James Ash, James Payne, John Davies, Joshua Ellwood, Mark Henderson, Nicholas Webb, Stephen Brodie, Steve Marsh.
