Media Releases

For Immediate Release March 27^th, 2012
Media Contact Jelena Bojic, Director of Marketing & Communications
jelena.bojic@edmontonopera.com
780.392.7837

Fidelio

Beethoven brings it all – love, heroism, passion and marvelous music. Performed for the very first time in Alberta, this opera is a new production, including sets and costumes.

Writing an opera did not come easy for this great composer. Beethoven wrote Fidelio twice and went through extensive editing before achieving his powerful operatic piece. Ultimately, Fidelio is about the wrongfully imprisoned, as a topical a subject today as in 1805, when it was first performed. Aside from a beautiful love story, the empowering music was often referred to as a religion of humanity and an appeal to our conscience.

Fidelio is the final offering of Edmonton Opera’s 48^th season. A company premiere, this remarkable work features, in the title role, the Canadian debut of German Soprano Maida Hundeling, John Mac Master as Florestan, Nathalie Paulin as Marzelline, Thomas Goerz as Rocco, Alain Coulombe as Fernando, Dean Elzinga as Pizzaro, and Edmontonian Robert Clark as Jacquino. The production will be conducted by Robert Tweeten.

Maida Hundeling recently performed the role of Leonore in Houston Grand Opera, and Opera News praised her voice’s tone as “plush, slightly metallic and solidly produced from lower depths to sustained, perfectly housed high notes”.

Directed by Edmonton Opera’s former Artistic Director Brian Deedrick, lighting and scenic design by award-winning Edmonton designer Bretta Gerecke, with costumes designed by Edmonton Opera’s Head of Wardrobe Deanna Finnman, this production will emphasize Beethoven’s themes of movement and growth from darkness into light, from oppression into freedom, and repression into expression. The production will highlight the evolution of the characters as they emerge from a post-apocalyptic world; the starkness of the set and costumes function as a foil for the richly detailed music of Beethoven.

Liberate your mind and celebrate the victory of light over darkness with Fidelio.

Media Dress Rehearsal: April 19^th, 2012 at 7:00 pm Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Performances: April 21, 24 & 26, 2012 at 7:30 pm Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium