The Italian Girl in Algiers: week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1
Fidelio: week 4 - week 3 - week 2 - week 1

Fidelio - Week Two

Director Robert Driver leads a staging rehearsal of this new production. It was Driver’s vision to bring together Beethoven’s only opera with the striking drama of Jun Kaneko’s work.

Director Robert Driver with Assistant Director Doris Buske, who hails from the Theater Regensburg in Germany. Buske is also the Diction Coach for Fidelio making sure that the entire cast sings and speaks in perfect German.

Tenor Brian Anderson makes his Opera Company debut as Jaquino. He asks Marzelline (soprano Ailyn Pérez) when she will agree to marry him but she tells him that she has fallen in love with Fidelio instead.

Bass Julian Rodescu gave Philadelphia audiences chills as the evil assassin Sparafucile in last season’s Rigoletto. In Fidelio, he sings the role of the jailer Rocco, who tells his daughter Marzelline and his new assistant Fidelio about the importance of financial stability. Marzelline, sung by soprano Ailyn Pérez (right), has become infatuated with Fidelio, unaware that he is really Leonore, soprano Christine Goerke (center), in disguise.

Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley, who returns to the Academy of Music stage as the evil Don Pizarro, goes over some of his music with Assistant Conductor Laurie Rogers and Maestro Corrado Rovaris.

A schematic of a staircase that is a part of the set design. This was brought into the rehearsal hall to help the singers visualize the set until they were able to see the real thing onstage.