Opera Scotland

Fidelio 1996Edinburgh International Festival

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This concert performance of Fidelio was made worthwhile by two features - the wonderfully communicative interpretation of the title role by Anne Evans, and the blazing sound produced by the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, especially in the final scene.

For the rest it was a bit luke-warm. Sir Charles Mackerras was suffering from a shoulder injury that had forced his withdrawal from the performance (and associated recording) of Mendelssohn's Elijah, and the spontaneity expected of this occasion seems to have been somewhat diluted. The Florestan and Leonore were relatively late replacements. The rest of the international cast was not particularly special, with a shortage of spontaneity. Perhaps a lack of rehearsal time was the problem.

Mackerras and the SCO had a second, much more successful, attempt in the Usher Hall a decade later, in 2005, with another highly committed Leonore in Christine Brewer, and an altogether more successful cast.