In addition to COVID-19’s wrenching human toll and economic devastation are disheartening cultural casualties; one is a Viennese production of Fidelio, Ludwig van Beethoven’s sole opera (first staged in 1805 but revised in 1806), marked by a new, impressively sculptural stage set designed by the Berlin-based architectural firm Barkow Leibinger. The architectonic assembly is based on a double helix that generates a spiraling construction of timber stairs. As with Beethoven’s original two versions, the current production was slated to occupy the ornate interior of the Empire-style Theater an der Wien, built in 1801.
The 2020 staging, directed by the actor Christoph Waltz and performed by a primarily European cast, would have been a fitting way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Although the theater was shut down before the opera’s opening night on March 16 because of the pandemic, the Austrian government allowed a performance to be captured on film for television.
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