Few opera choruses are as moving as the one a group of prisoners sings in Act I of Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” Released temporarily from their cells, the inmates almost whisper a hymnlike paean to liberty: “Oh, what a joy to breathe freely again in the open air.”

The transformation from oppression to freedom is at the core of “Fidelio,” which the small, adventurous company Heartbeat Opera is presenting through May 13 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan. There, the recently recorded voices of choirs from Midwestern correctional facilities will join together in Beethoven’s soaring Prisoners’ Chorus. Full story.

Ryan Ebright (The New York Times) / May 4, 2018

Weblink : https://www.nytimes.com
Photo credit : https://www.nytimes.com