Music
Beethoven

Director
Adolf Dresen

Performers
Leonora : Gabriele Benackova
Florestan : Josef Protschka
Jacquino : Neill Archer
Marzelline : Marie McLaughlin
Rocco : Robert Lloyd
Don Pizarro : Monte Pederson
Don Fernando : Hans Tschammer
Jailers: Lynton Atkinson, Mark Beesley

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Royal Opera Chorus
Christoph von Dohnanyi (conductor)


This full-blooded performance of Beethoven's only opera comes from Covent Garden in 1991. As an opera, Fidelio had as troublesome a life as that faced by the hapless Florestan, the jailed political prisoner who is rescued by his feisty lover Leonora disguised as a man. However, like Florestan, it was liberated to lead a full life after its shaky start.

The 1805 premiere, to a half-full house in an Austria newly occupied by Napoleon's army, was a failure. In March 1806 it was tried again with a few changes. It failed again. As it did next year, with yet more cuts, and an audience of a few faithful. The composer angrily withdrew the score, tinkered with it on and off, and completely revised it in 1814 - when, at last, it gained the reaction it deserved. It has stayed in the repertoire, but only on and off, compared to the ubiquity of Beethoven's symphonies or concertos. Maybe it's the far-fetched plot (but many operas have sillier). Maybe it's the inconsistency of style, lurching from Singspiel to high drama (but then Beethoven never did follow rules too closely). But the opera contains some of Beethoven's most powerful and expressive music.

Thanks to all those versions of the opera, Beethoven ended up with four different overtures. Leonora No 3 is often played between the two scenes of Act II.