A civil rights campaigner, who knows about an official’s corruption, disappears in jail. And only by bluffing her way into the system using a false identity, does the incarcerated man’s wife manage to save her husband from a murder plot in the nick of time. It is no wonder that Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera – “Fidelio” – was banned before its scheduled premiere at Theater an der Wien in 1805. To this day, the tremendous energy of the opera moves people to protest against injustices. After all, Beethoven turned the human desire for freedom into a hymn…

Beethoven’s “Fidelio” is an homage to personal courage, moral integrity and a love that overcomes any obstacle. It lets its heroes Leonore/Fidelio and Florestan unite in the celebration of the duet “O namenlose Freude”. A good 200 years after the premiere, all of this is still highly topical. This is why we confront the content of the opera with present-day reality. To do this, Thomas Höft complements the story set in the time of the French Revolution with stories of people of our time who have had to flee persecution and atrocities in their home countries and make their way to Austria – stories about real life Leonores and Florestans of today, so to speak.

Johanna Winkel, soprano as Leonore
Johannes Chum, tenor as Florestan, prisoner
Adrian Eröd, bariton as Don Fernando, minister
Jochen Kupfer, bariton as Don Pizarro, gouverneur
Jan Petryka , tenor as Jaquino, assistant to Rocco
Thomas Stimmel, bass as Rocco, gaoler (guard)
Tetiana Miyus, soprano as Marzelline, his daughter
Fidelio-Choir
(rehearsal director: Franz M. Herzog)
styriarte Festspiel-Orchester
Conductor: Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Setting: Lilli Hartmann