Fidelio: Scenes From Beethoven's Opera


VR Review  ★★★☆☆‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎
Quest  Free  Music  Comfortable  Stationary 

a promotional graphic for a virtual reality experience titled “FIDELIO.” It features an interior scene with various objects such as chairs, a table, books, and papers scattered around, suggesting an environment of disarray or creative chaos. The setting appears to be a room with sunlight coming through the windows. In the foreground, large bold letters spell out “FIDELIO,” with additional text below reading “VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE.” The Kennedy Center’s logo is in the bottom left corner, indicating their involvement.

Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, tells the story of a woman who seeks to rescue her husband from death in a political prison. Performed by the Washington National Opera, this virtual reality experience includes two costumed and set-dressed scenes recorded in 360° video featuring the talents of singers Tamara Wilson and Russell Thomas.

One scene from each of the two acts is included in the production, with each piece running around eight minutes in length. Rather than being filmed on stage, the two performances are set in small rooms and captured by a fixed single 360° monoscopic camera. We're more accustomed to opera performances in vast concert halls, so it seems unusual to have such large voices in such small sets, and this is compounded by a mismatch of the accompanying soundtrack that was clearly recorded in a much bigger space. Further affecting the experience is the lack of dynamism to the pictures, which appear to be due to a lack of color grading and leveling of the recorded image.

The image depicts an indoor scene with a person standing behind a desk, holding what appears to be a firearm pointed upwards. The desk is cluttered with various items including papers, books, a typewriter, and a cup of coffee or tea. There is also an open book with visible text and images resembling stamps or currency. The background has shelves filled with books and binders, suggesting an office or study room.
Tamara Wilson performing "Komm, Hoffnung" (Come, Hope)

Fidelio's user interface is well-implemented, and the menu includes some helpful introduction to the work of the artist and performers. Blocking of the performers is well positioned, too - the viewer's gaze can comfortably follow the singers' actions without the need to rotate from a seated position.

Overall we found Fidelio to be lackluster in terms of presentation and performance, and few of the benefits offered by virtual reality are utilized employed here. The mono video doesn't provide depth to images and the app's vaunted 360° audio wasn't noticeable to our ears. We would likely have enjoyed the viewing more as a traditional flatscreen viewing with better cameras and better post-production techniques.

The image depicts an indoor scene with a person standing behind a desk, holding what appears to be a firearm pointed upwards. The desk is cluttered with various items including papers, books, a typewriter, and a cup of coffee or tea. There is also an open book with visible text and images resembling stamps or currency. The background has shelves filled with books and binders, suggesting an office or study room.
Russell Thomas acts and sings a piece from Act 2.

Summary:
Pleasant to see opera represented in VR
Drab sets, unpolished video
Benefits of VR not showcased by this production

Supported Languages:
English 

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© 2024 Copyright Stuart Green all rights reserved. Content provided without warranty of accuracy. Reproduction requires explicit consent. Some copyrighted images used under fair use doctrine for review purposes.  XX