Although Beethoven used the title Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe ("Leonore, or The Triumph of Married Love"), the 1805 performances were billed as Fidelio at the theatre's insistence, to avoid confusion with the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and the 1804 opera Leonora by Ferdinando Paer (a score of which was owned by Beethoven).
Beethoven continued to live at the Theater an der Wien for some time after he had abandoned Vestas Feuer for Fidelio, and was eventually freed from his obligations to Schikaneder after the latter was fired from his post as theater director in 1804. Fidelio itself, which Beethoven began in 1804 immediately after giving up on Vestas Feuer, was first performed in 1805 and was extensively revised by the composer for subsequent performances in 1806 and 1814.
Although Beethoven used the title Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe ("Leonore, or The Triumph of Married Love"), the 1805 performances were billed as Fidelio at the theatre's insistence, to avoid confusion with the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and the 1804 opera Leonora by Ferdinando Paer (a score of which was owned by Beethoven).
The German libretto 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.
Beethoven continued to live at the Theater an der Wien for some time after he had abandoned Vestas Feuer for Fidelio, and was eventually freed from his obligations to Schikaneder after the latter was fired from his post as theater director in 1804. Fidelio itself, which Beethoven began in 1804 immediately after giving up on Vestas Feuer, was first performed in 1805 and was extensively revised by the composer for subsequent performances in 1806 and 1814.
Although Beethoven used the title Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe ("Leonore, or The Triumph of Married Love"), the 1805 performances were billed as Fidelio at the theatre's insistence, to avoid confusion with the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L'amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and the 1804 opera Leonora by Ferdinando Paer (a score of which was owned by Beethoven).
Beethoven published the 1806 libretto and, in 1810, a vocal score under the title Leonore, and the current convention is to use the name Leonore for both the 1805 (three-act) and 1806 (two-act) versions and Fidelio only for the final 1814 revision. The first version with a three-act German libretto adapted by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805, with additional performances the following two nights.
His first attempt, for the 1805 premiere, is believed to have been the overture now known as "Leonore No. 2".
Beethoven continued to live at the Theater an der Wien for some time after he had abandoned Vestas Feuer for Fidelio, and was eventually freed from his obligations to Schikaneder after the latter was fired from his post as theater director in 1804. Fidelio itself, which Beethoven began in 1804 immediately after giving up on Vestas Feuer, was first performed in 1805 and was extensively revised by the composer for subsequent performances in 1806 and 1814.
Beethoven published the 1806 libretto and, in 1810, a vocal score under the title Leonore, and the current convention is to use the name Leonore for both the 1805 (three-act) and 1806 (two-act) versions and Fidelio only for the final 1814 revision. The first version with a three-act German libretto adapted by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805, with additional performances the following two nights.
In this form, the opera was first performed on 29 March and 10 April 1806, with greater success.
Beethoven then focused this version for the performances of 1806, creating "Leonore No. 3".
Beethoven accordingly experimented with cutting it back somewhat, for a planned 1808 performance in Prague; this is believed to be the version now called "Leonore No. 1".
Beethoven published the 1806 libretto and, in 1810, a vocal score under the title Leonore, and the current convention is to use the name Leonore for both the 1805 (three-act) and 1806 (two-act) versions and Fidelio only for the final 1814 revision. The first version with a three-act German libretto adapted by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805, with additional performances the following two nights.
After further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814.
Beethoven continued to live at the Theater an der Wien for some time after he had abandoned Vestas Feuer for Fidelio, and was eventually freed from his obligations to Schikaneder after the latter was fired from his post as theater director in 1804. Fidelio itself, which Beethoven began in 1804 immediately after giving up on Vestas Feuer, was first performed in 1805 and was extensively revised by the composer for subsequent performances in 1806 and 1814.
Beethoven published the 1806 libretto and, in 1810, a vocal score under the title Leonore, and the current convention is to use the name Leonore for both the 1805 (three-act) and 1806 (two-act) versions and Fidelio only for the final 1814 revision. The first version with a three-act German libretto adapted by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 20 November 1805, with additional performances the following two nights.
Further performances were prevented by a disagreement between Beethoven and the theatre management. In 1814, Beethoven revised his opera yet again, with additional work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke.
This version was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater on 23 May 1814, again under the title Fidelio.
For all this I shall be eternally grateful to you." The full score was not published until 1826, and all three versions are known as Beethoven's Opus 72. The first performance outside Vienna took place in Prague on 21 November 1814, with a revival in Vienna on 3 November 1822.
Finally, for the 1814 revival Beethoven began anew, and with fresh musical material wrote what we now know as the Fidelio overture.
For all this I shall be eternally grateful to you." The full score was not published until 1826, and all three versions are known as Beethoven's Opus 72. The first performance outside Vienna took place in Prague on 21 November 1814, with a revival in Vienna on 3 November 1822.
For all this I shall be eternally grateful to you." The full score was not published until 1826, and all three versions are known as Beethoven's Opus 72. The first performance outside Vienna took place in Prague on 21 November 1814, with a revival in Vienna on 3 November 1822.
Divided into two consecutive broadcasts, the 1944 performances were later issued by RCA Victor on LP and CD. Fidelio was the first opera performed in Berlin after the end of World War II, with the Deutsche Oper staging it under the baton of Robert Heger at the only undamaged theatre, the Theater des Westens, in September 1945.
Divided into two consecutive broadcasts, the 1944 performances were later issued by RCA Victor on LP and CD. Fidelio was the first opera performed in Berlin after the end of World War II, with the Deutsche Oper staging it under the baton of Robert Heger at the only undamaged theatre, the Theater des Westens, in September 1945.
At the time, Thomas Mann remarked: "What amount of apathy was needed [by musicians and audiences] to listen to Fidelio in Himmler's Germany without covering their faces and rushing out of the hall!" Not long after the end of World War II and the fall of Nazism, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler remarked in Salzburg in 1948: [T]he conjugal love of Leonore appears, to the modern individual armed with realism and psychology, irremediably abstract and theoretical....
the flaming message of Fidelio touches deeply. We realize that for us Europeans, as for all men, this music will always represent an appeal to our conscience. On 5 November 1955, the Vienna State Opera was re-opened with Fidelio, conducted by Karl Böhm.
This performance was the first live television broadcast by ORF at a time when there were about 800 television sets in Austria. The first night of Fidelio at the Semperoper in Dresden on 7 October 1989 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the DDR (East Germany) coincided with violent demonstrations at the city's main train station.
Four weeks later, on 9 November 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of East Germany's regime. ==Overtures== Beethoven struggled to produce an appropriate overture for Fidelio, and ultimately went through four versions.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05