From around the world: Seattle. (North America).(Seattle Opera's production of Fidelio)(Opera Review)

Fidelio is driven by Beethoven's passionate single-mindedness, with the music and drama hurtling forward at such a speed that one has no time to question the work's many flaws; the total experience can be a knockout. Gerard Schwarz, responsible for the thrilling musical impact of Seattle Opera's production (seen May 17), elicited some spectacular wind- and string-playing from members of his own Seattle Symphony; Richard Margison certainly intensified the evening's overall impact. In resplendent voice, the Canadian tenor sang his first onstage Florestan, producing a vast range of vari-colored tones with what seemed to be the greatest ease. It was ironic to hear him sing of his dungeon's "grauenvolle Stille" (gruesome silence) while he filled the auditorium with such sweet notes. The great arc of sound he described on the word Leiden (suffering) was almost painfully beautiful.

He seemed to bring out the best in Jane Eaglen, singing her first Leonore. She was miscast in the role, ill at ease in her extravagantly unbecoming disguise as the youth Fidelio, woefully inadequate in spoken dialogue and unpersuasive as an actor. She compensated for her deficiencies by singing much of her Act I music too loudly or softly. Even in "Abscheulicher!," her delivery lacked color and contrast-control; the audience's reception was ...