![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/TimothyVernon-photo-credit-David-Cooper.jpg\")
<\/a>Although oppression is one of the central themes of this piece, so too are the ideas of freedom and individual responsibilities. Surrounded by soldiers and prisoners, one woman leads the charge against tyranny, disguising herself as a man so she can enter the prison where her husband is a political prisoner sentenced to death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn lesser hands, it might be just a sappy rescue drama,\u201d says Vernon, \u201cbut in Beethoven\u2019s hands, it becomes something monumental because he thought monumentally, and because his music has a reach and a vision and a strength that made it pretty much imperishable.\u201d<\/p>\n The piece is performed in German, with surtitles that Vernon assures will be \u201cjust like going to see a movie with subtitles.\u201d It\u2019s also one of few operas that has both dialogue and song, although the dialogue has been cut down to a bare minimum for the benefit of those audience members who come to hear and enjoy the sublime music of Beethoven\u2019s creative genius. Something perhaps less apparent to the audience as it is to the creative team rehearsing this piece is Beethoven\u2019s complete lack of experience in composing for the theatre. In nine symphonies, five piano concertos, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets, the famous deaf composer produced only one opera.<\/p>\n \u201cBeethoven didn\u2019t really understand the voice deeply,\u201d says Vernon. \u201cHe wrote for the voices as though they were instruments. It takes very strong voices and developed, mature technique to sing what he wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n Tall orders for the leading voices of this production. Italian-Canadian soprano Aviva Fortunata makes her debut appearance with POV in the leading role of Leonore, disguising herself as Fidelio (which means faithful<\/i>) in order to enter the secret dungeons to rescue her husband. Making his Canadian debut, American tenor Brent Reilly Turner takes on the role of the imprisoned Florestan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about who is going to sing it well,\u201d says Vernon, \u201cbut who is going to work well in an ensemble. Because it is an ensemble event and you need not just cooperation, but you need trust and reliance. Performers rely on each other on stage to a great degree and I think it\u2019s important to try to find that harmony when you\u2019re casting, when you\u2019re putting the show together. We\u2019ve had a very cooperative, positive, safe working space for people.\u201d<\/p>\n There is the promise here of an experience that transcends language and culture, lifting its audience into the ideals of the human condition that so fascinated the German enlightenment philosopher in Beethoven. The young musician and his friends grew up in Bonn, a hotbed for the enlightenment movement of 18th-century Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a universal story,\u201d says Vernon. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to show that Beethoven is thinking about freedom, about democracy, about individual strengths, and that is very contemporary, too.\u201d<\/p>\n