“Fidelio” and “Leonore” in the 2020 Beethoven anniversary year

With perfect timing Oper Bonn begins the Beethoven anniversary year on 1 January with a new production of “Fidelio” conducted by its Music Director Dirk Kaftan. The creative team includes the unconventional theatre director Volker Lösch. As in his previous productions, by including local choirs he aims to integrate the present-day into the ostensibly historical operatic events. The musical material is the new critical edition by Helga Lühning, which is also being used for other prominent new productions of “Fidelio” in the anniversary year: Kirill Petrenko’s “Fidelio” debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker on 4, 7 and 13 April 2020 in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, in a production by the highly-acclaimed Slovenian theatre director Mateja Koležnik; concert performances conducted by Marek Janowski with the Dresden Philharmonic on 24 and 26 April 2020 in the Kulturpalast of the Saxon state capital; and Frederic Wake-Walker’s new production for Glyndebourne Festival Opera which opens on 25 July 2020. Here the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs with conductor Robin Ticciati, who has been Music Director of the famous British festival for several years. On 16 March 2020 the Austrian actor and Oscar prizewinner Christoph Waltz’s production of “Leonore 1806” opens at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Staged in the theatre where the 1805/1806 versions of “Leonore” were premiered, Manfred Honeck conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.