Word: fidelio
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...career that led him at last to Covent Garden and a stunning success as Aeneas in Berlioz' The Trojans (TIME, June 17, 1957). A firm believer in the equal importance of acting and singing. Vickers is passionate and convincing as Otello, Don Jose in Carmen, Florestan in Fidelio and Siegmund in Die Walkure. His big, shining voice, surging over the orchestra, would seem ideal for Wagner, but Vickers is in no hurry to become a Heldentenor. "I love Wagner," says he, "but I want to sing for 25 years, not ten. German exploits the voice." Many of his colleagues...
Tenor Vickers made an inauspicious Met debut earlier in the year in Pagliacci, later scored a notable triumph as Florestan in Fidelio (TIME, Feb. 8). His performance last week in the role of Siegmund prompted some of the loudest and longest cheers heard at the Met this season. A solidly constructed man (5 ft. 9 in., 215 lbs., chest 47 in.), Vickers is a passionate, convincing actor; his voice is heavy but admirably flexible, capable of varied and subtle shadings. It was at its most spectacular when it surged over the orchestra in Siegmund's furious outbursts...
...children," said the dying Beethoven, "this is the one that has cost me the worst birth pangs." The "child" was Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera and one of his least successful works in his own lifetime. A failure at its first performance in Vienna in 1805, it did not win an audience until 1814, when it was presented in completely revised form. The work is hampered by a naive plot, an inconsistency of style (the first act is virtually light opera, the second grand opera), and vocal parts of fiendish difficulty...
...Fidelio also has passages of unsurpassed musical grandeur. Last week Fidelio returned to Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera for the first time since 1951 in a new production that did more to under, score the opera's, and the Met's weaknesses than to illuminate their strengths...
...journeyman Fidelio, a welcome but not memorable addition to the Met's repertory. The surprise of the evening was that, with the forces assigned to the new production, it did not come across as a resounding success...