Financial Times, July 22, 2016

Richard Fairman

Beethoven: Fidelio

As the Salzburg Festival opens this weekend, here is a live DVD of the festival’s big opera production from 2015. A mostly strong cast — led by Jonas Kaufmann and a sometimes strained Adrianne Pieczonka as Florestan and Leonore — gets sturdy support from conductor Franz Welser-Möst. Claus Guth’s production, though, is problematical. There is much stylised posturing, as shadow theatre meets the Matrix franchise. The rickety dialogue is replaced by electronic noises, a new problem created rather than an old one solved. There are concert performances that have been more involving.