- This overture was composed in 1814.1It is the last of the four overtures Beethoven composed for Fidelio.2
- Fidelio, oder die eheliche Liebe (Fidelio, or Married Love), premiered in Vienna in 1805. Initially it was not well received; it fared better in later versions after Beethoven made some cuts to the opera, and after Beethoven’s popularity had grown.3
- When Beethoven was composing the first iteration of Fidelio, he was also engrossed in the ultimately fruitless courtship of wealthy young widow Josephine von Brunsvick, who ended up marrying a man of higher social standing.4
- Story: Fidelio is about a young woman named Leonore, who disguises herself as a boy called Fidelio in order to rescue her husband Florestan, a political prisoner.5
Sources
- Robert Simpson, “Beethoven and the Overture,” liner notes to Ludwig van Beethoven: Die Ouvertüren, Wiener Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon 429 762-2, CD, 1989.
- Douglas Johnson et al, “Beethoven, Ludwig van,” Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001), accessed July 22, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040026.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- “Synopsis: Fidelio,” The Metropolitan Opera, accessed July 22, 2019, https://www.metopera.org/user-information/synopses-archive/fidelio.
Cut IDs
20011, 20953, 20958, 40170, 40264