is an affecting opera for troubled times. Themes of love, justice and freedom resonate through every bar, well past the trials of the Napoleonic Wars era in which it was created. The current presentation from the Canadian Opera Company underlines these themes, although its concept occasionally distracts from Beethoven’s stirring score.
The production, by director Matthew Ozawa, made its debut in San Francisco in 2021. A rotating, two-tier cube by Alexander Nichols, the set and projections designer, comprises the entire set; its bars, fences, metal stairs and steely rails effectively imply the claustrophobic nature of the setting while highlighting the hierarchies within the opera’s dramaturgy.
Yet the method of presentation often takes on more significance than individual scenes. The cube moves to end scenes; it moves in the middle of scenes; it makes an audible hum when in use. Attention becomes diffused, with needed tension lost in the rotation. Compounding this is the addition of children and female prisoners, augmentations which complicate the dramaturgy rather than complementing it.