Opera Lafayette Celebrates Beethoven’s 250th Birthday With Modern Debut Of Their Restoration Of His Only Opera, “Leonore”

In the first floor parlor of a late 19th Upper West Side, restored-to-period brownstone, a small group of art aficionados listened as Opera Lafayette’s Artistic Director Ryan Brown presented highlights from Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera. Brown fleshed out the scenes of a wife in men’s garb sneaking into a prison to find her wrongly incarcerated spouse. Then, he conducted pianist Michael Fennelly to take on the roles of the four Chamber music instruments. Tenor John-Michel Richer sang the husband’s aria and musicologist/musician Will Crutchfield explained how he had recreated its lost components.