'Fidelio review': Lyric's production of Beethoven's only opera is all-around splendor

Unlike Britten, Mozart or Verdi who were creatures of the theater, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote just one opera — a great one, to be sure. But the process was a struggle with multiple revisions, including four takes on the overture alone, before the final, lasting version was unveiled in 1814.

Given the composer’s lifelong advocacy for the best that humanity has to offer, it was hardly a surprise that the resulting work, titled “Fidelio” and derived from a French libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, is about hope and freedom triumphing over pain and persecution.

It tells an uplifting if harrowing story of a freedom fighter, Florestan, who is wrongly imprisoned, and his wife, Leonore, who courageously goes undercover as a male prison guard, Fidelio, to find and save her husband.

“Fidelio” has long-discussed problems of dramatic continuity and credulity, but any such concerns were forgotten Thursday evening as Lyric Opera of Chicago opened an all-around stupendous production of Beethoven’s operatic cri de coeur — its first in nearly 20 years.

Sometimes, stage directors capriciously stretch and distort operas, moving them uncomfortably into alternative, often updated settings or imposing socio-political overlays that have little or nothing to do with the story.

But Beethoven wrote his opera in the aftermath of the French Revolution and premiered it days after Napoleon occupied Vienna in 1805, and he clearly wanted to make a political statement about the tyranny and tumult swirling around him.

So, when director Matthew Ozawa shifts the action to present day with Fidelio startlingly costumed as a contemporary prison guard complete with a bullet-proof vest, it is completely in keeping with Beethoven’s original intent. The point is clear — this timeless story is as relevant and telling now as it was more than two centuries ago.

Beyond altering the time and place, Ozawa makes sure the dramatic intensity never flags as he bores into the emotional depths of this opera and brings a flesh-and-blood realism to the main characters and dozens of other nameless prisoners.

A big part of this production’s success comes from the spectacular San Francisco Opera set by designer Alexander V. Nichols. The two-story open cube has offices on one side with the rest of the space devoted to the guts of the prison — gray steel, chain-link fencing and glaring white overhead lights. The structure rotates on Lyric’s massive stage turntable, allowing the movement and action to flow on and around it with no interruptions.

The heart and soul of this production, though, lies with Lyric’s terrific cast of not just singers, but real singing actors, who fully embody their characters, and a superlative, moving performance by Lyric’s chorus, who, 72 singers strong (along with 16 adult and nine child actors), portray the slumping, visibly broken prisoners.

One of the production’s finest moments comes in the second part of Act 1 when the prisoners, looking at once bewildered and elated, are allowed outside their cells for a rare breath of air, and they offer a stirring take on the famous chorus, “Oh what joy,” with nuanced dynamics and compelling immediacy.

Baritone Brian Mulligan chillingly conveys the malevolence and cruelty of the prison governor, Don Pizzaro, and luminous soprano Sydney Mancasola (making her Lyric debut) makes the most of her supporting role as Marzelline, a prison office worker who misguidedly pursues Fidelio.

A first-rate actor with an expressive, agile bass voice, Dmitry Ivashchenko makes sure Rocco, the empathetic chief jailer, is more than just a background character but serves as kind of the glue that ties the two acts together and brings cohesion to the plot.

Tenor Russell Thomas, a Lyric go-to who has appeared in seven previous roles since 2016-17, is at his best here, bringing impassioned, thoughtful singing and profundity and humanity to the role of the long-suffering Florestan.

But the clear star of this production is Elza van den Heever, who artfully combines body language and communicative singing to portray the hope and determination of Leonore but also her doubts and obvious discomfort with a disguised identity.

The South-African soprano is at her absolute best in Leonore’s big aria in Act 1, drawing on a range of sometimes dark-tinged vocal timbres to subtly and powerfully inhabit all the character’s contradictory emotions, generating an unusually long and well-deserved ovation.

The Lyric Opera Orchestra was again in good form, with Music Director Enrique Mazzola displaying a keen feel for Beethoven’s distinctive musical language and smartly supporting everything happening onstage.

With this first-rate production following on the heels of the gripping “Rigoletto” that opened earlier this month, Lyric is on something of a roll as its 2024-25 season gets underway.