Beethoven’s Opera in Bonn Tells the Story of Political Prisoners in Turkey
* Photos: Twitter
Click to read the article in Turkish
The Bonn Theater in Germany has opened its new season with an adaptation of "Fidelio", telling the stories of political prisoners in Turkey.
Staged on the occasion of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250 birthday, his only opera "Fidelio" has been devoted to the political prisoners in Turkey.
The premiere of the play was held on January 1, 2020. During the final chorus of the performance, the cast held up posters, requesting the release of arrested people in Turkey, including journalist Ahmet Altan, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) former Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, journalist Nedim Türfent and politician Gültan Kışanak. The postcards to be sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel were also distributed.
'Hope, freedom struggle, incarceration, torture, freedom...'
Beethoven's only opera "Fidelio" has been adapted on the occasion of his 250th birthday. Staged by Bonn Theater in his birthplace, the play starts with music and images from Turkey reflected on the big screen.
As reported by Deutsche Welle, in adapting "Fidelio", Director Volker Lösch "opted for a radical approach, dispensing with the spoken texts in the score and updating the work through texts read out by observers and sometimes direct victims of state persecution in Turkey."
"The texts complement and extend the issues in the plot: Hope, freedom struggle, incarceration, torture and freedom", he has explained further.
In the images reflected on the big screen, first, President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is depicted as a "Sultan". Then, the images continue with the Germany-made panzers entering northern Syria and street demonstrations.
As reported further by Deutsche Welle, while forty percent of the performance is dedicated to the spoken word, the contemporary witnesses are also incorporated into the performcance later on. As for the remaining sixty percent of the play, it is devoted to Beethoven's music.
Ziya Pir, a former HDP MP, has announced the performance on his social media account, attaching the note: "Last scene in Fidelio":
#Fidelio son sahne https://t.co/8Fq23Wd771 pic.twitter.com/jfkBnoMWn8
— Ziya Pir (@ziyapir) January 2, 2020
|
Theater Bonn has introduced its adaptation of "Fidelio" in following words: "The first Fidelio production of 2020 will be followed with particular attention by its appearance in the composer's birthplace. The Theater Bonn and the production team led by director Volker Lösch go beyond Beethoven with Beethoven by loading Fidelio with current stories of political prisoners in Turkey and their families! "Beethoven was the first truly political composer in the history of music, for which his Fidelio is the most striking example. Fidelio is about a man who tells the truth about the undemocratic conditions in his country and therefore disappears in prison. At the center of the opera is his wife Leonore, whose courage not only succeeds in the liberation of her beloved husband, but also the deposition of the tyrant. "In Fidelio, Beethoven is doing a musical-political experiment. His primary question is the following: What do you have to do to achieve the impossible? His answer: You have to risk your life and be prepared to endure an enormous ordeal. Leonore, alias Fidelio, succeeds in doing so, and ultimately triggers a social upheaval. Hope is the main motif in every scene and Beethoven's music is an inspiration for the realization of utopias. "The model world of Fidelio is a big prison. Turkey is the current European example of a state where opponents of the regime are arrested and disappeared in prison through arbitrary justice. With this production, a clear stand is taken for the release of Ahmet Altan, Hozan Canê, Gönül Örs, Soydan Akay and Selahattin Demirtaş. As witnesses are there Doğan Akhanlı, who has been in Turkish prisons three times and was awarded the Goethe Medal, and Süleyman Demirtaş, whose brother Selahattin is considered to be the most important political challenger to Turkey's President Erdoğan and who has been illegally in Edirne's high-security prison for over three years due to alleged terrorist support, as ruled by the European Court of Human Rights in 2018." * Source: Theater Bonn |
About FidelioFidelio, originally entitled "Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe" or "Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love", is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The libretto, with some spoken dialogue, tells how Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named "Fidelio", rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political prison. It was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with the work premiering at Vienna's Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805. * Source: Wikipedia |
(AÖ/SD)