Fidelio at Peterborough Players

• Soprano Lise Davidsen returns to headline Beethoven’s only opera as Leonore, who risks everything to save her husband from the clutches of tyranny. Tenor David Butt Philip is the political prisoner Florestan, sharing the stage with bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny as the villainous Don Pizarro, veteran bass René Pape as the jailer Rocco, and soprano Ying Fang and tenor Magnus Dietrich, in his company debut, as the young Marzelline and Jaquino. Bass Stephen Milling sings the principled Don Fernando.

• Susanna Mälkki conducts the Met’s striking production, which finds modern-day parallels in Beethoven’s stirring paean to freedom.

• Fidelio’s score employs a powerful and innovative use of the
orchestra, as well as evocative choral parts only fitting for the
composer of such notable works as the Missa Solemnis and the uplifting “Ode to Joy.”