Opera
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 is a different opera from . 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, his final version of this ‘rescue’ opera, it will be liberty, freedom and a wife ready to sacrifice her life to save her husband. Much grander themes.
