FIDELIO Beethoven – Vienna State Opera

Description:
Suspecting her missing husband is being held as a political prisoner, a noblewoman disguises herself as a male prison guard. She discovers him weakened in the darkest dungeon, but will she be able to rescue him before it is too late?

The themes of oppression and isolation, but also of hope and the power of love, make Fidelio the perfect opera for our times and all times. In the new production from Vienna State Opera, director Nikolaus Habjan has staged Beethoven's only opera as a timeless piece standing above a specific era. In this production, Leonore and Florestan are each doubled by a puppet, split, as it were, into an inner life, an expression of the soul and an outer figure. Leonore's agonizing state of tension between intense emotionality and the pressure to conceal her true identity is thus made clear. ‘If you think about what Beethoven wanted with his works’, says Habjan ‘you always come across a great idealisation. And such an idealisation stands above a specific epoch. That's why I want to create something that is ultimately independent of time. The less I try to set the plot in a narrow, temporally or politically precise situation, the more timeless the work becomes. It's about the big themes that Beethoven deals with, and you can understand them quite clearly without using a historical frame of reference.’

Full performance streamed on OperaVision from 3 April 2026 at 19:00 CET to 3 October 2026 at 12:00 CET: https://operavision.eu/performance/fidelio-2

CAST

Leonore
Malin Byström

Florestan
David Butt Philip

Don Fernando
Simonas Strazdas

Don Pizarro
Christopher Maltman

Rocco
Tareq Nazmi

Marzelline
Kathrin Zukowski

Jacquino
Daniel Jenz

First prisoner
Daniel Lökös

Second prisoner
Panajotis Pratsos

Puppeteers
Manuela Linshalm
Max Konrad
Angelo Konzett
Alexandra Pecher

Orchestra
Vienna State Opera Orchestra

Chorus
Vienna State Opera Chorus

Music
Ludwig van Beethoven

Text
Joseph Sonnleithner
Paulus Hochgatterer

Director
Nikolaus Habjan

Conductor
Franz Welser-Möst

Sets
Julius Theodor Semmelmann

Costume designer
Denise Heschl

Lights
Franz Tscheck

Video
Judith Selenko

Puppet Design
Bruno Belil Espinos

Chorus master
Thomas Lang

Watch live streams as the performances themselves unfold in the opera house. Enjoy a variety of shows - including opera, operetta, musical theatre, dance, ballet and concerts. Opera connaisseur or curious newcomer, there is something for everyone on OperaVision.

Managed by Opera Europa, OperaVision is a freeview streaming platform supported by the European Union’s Creative Europe funding programme. Between 2025 and 2028, Creative Europe’s support will help Opera Europa to promote and train emerging artists working in opera and dance. Known as Opera Europa Next Generation, this initiative will give visibility and development opportunities to over 560 emerging artists – in person and online, including via OperaVision – and all thanks to the efforts of a consortium of 44 opera houses and talent development organisations from 17 European countries.

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