Fidelio
Ozarks Lyric Opera
Fidelio Summary
In Beethoven’s only opera, Leonore sneaks into a prison where her husband, Florestan, is wrongfully imprisoned for fighting against political speech suppression. However, much to the humor of the audience, the jailer - Rocco’s daughter Marcelline falls in love with Leonore’s male persona of “Fidelio” and wishes to marry him. Love triumphs over political corrupt as Leonore is allowed to accompany Rocco to see a beaten and torn Florestan. She continues on to rescue him from the corrupt official, Pizarro who had imprisoned her husband two years prior.
Written by: Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Composed by: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Director: Jay Jackson
Production Manager: Sean Spyres
Stage Manager: Kinzey Sapp
Scenic Designer: John Johnson
Light Designer: Garrett Smithey
Photo Credit: Michael Spyres
Sarah Benzinger [Leonore](Top); Jan Veljak [Rocco](Left); Ric Furman [Florestan](Right)
Inside Fidelio
Fidelio was a wonderful experience working with international and local actors. It was my first introduction to Opera as a stage manager. As we didn’t have a theatre space of our own to rehearse in, we had found spaces throughout Springfield to rehearse in. I was able to add in locations to my call sheet and needed to ensure that addresses and everything the cast could possibly need was detailed thoroughly in the daily call.
The director and production manager of Fidelio also included pieces of artwork from incarcerated individuals in order to give them a voice beyond bars. Family members of those incarcerated were able to attend.
The moment in the picture (seen right) was when I was discussing platform safety measures with the scenic designer (front), production manager (on stairs), and director (behind platform) as we had 15-16 people on the platforms at a time.