The Trusts Community Foundation Opera in Concert: Beethoven's Fidelio - Listening Notes - Experienced Listener

The Trusts Community Foundation Opera in Concert
FIDELIO
BEETHOVEN’S
LISTENING NOTES
FOR NEW LISTENERS
• Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Fidelio – The Music
• Synopsis
• Demented Definitions

LUDWIG
VAN BEETHOVEN
(1770 – 1827)
Libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner (1766-1835)
/ Freidrich Trieitschke (1776-1842)
after Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (1763-1842)
COMPOSER PROFILE
• Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany.
• As a young boy he would travel and perform on
the piano. He was eventually successful enough to
support his family.
• Moved to Vienna in his early twenties, which was his
home for the rest of his life.
• One of the first composers to make a living without
being employed by the church or a member of the
nobility.
• When he was around 30 years old, he started to lose
his hearing. Despite his inability to continue playing
the piano, Beethoven composed some of his best and
most successful music after he was deaf.
• He was completely deaf by his mid-40s.
• Best known for his nine symphonies, but he also wrote
many other kinds of music – chamber, choral, piano,
string quartets, and an opera.
We know that Beethoven was born in December 1770,
but no one is sure of the exact date. For years, he thought
he was born in 1772. This may have been a deliberate
deception from his father to make the musical prodigy
seem younger and therefore, more advanced for his
age than he was.
DID YOU KNOW?
A lock full of lead
A young musician named Ferdinand Hiller snipped
off a lock of hair from the great composer’s head as a
keepsake. This was a common custom in their time. It
was passed down through generations and eventually
purchased by a collector. They put the brown, grey and
white strands through many imaging, DNA, chemical,
forensic and toxicology tests.
The tests found that there was an abnormally elevated
lead level, potentially indicating chronic lead poisoning.
This could have caused Beethoven’s deafness.
Further studies suggest he probably drank from a
goblet containing lead. It should also be noted that
wine of that era often contained lead as a sweetener.
Other opera-tunities
Fidelio is the only opera Beethoven completed, but
throughout his life, he experimented repeatedly with
the form. Among the operatic subjects he considered
were Macbeth, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun,
Romulus and Remus (the mythological founders of
Rome), and a libretto (story) titled Vesta’s Fire by
Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist for Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).
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FIDELIO
THE MUSIC
• Fidelio (pronounced fuh-DAY-lee-oh) is Ludwig van
Beethoven’s only opera. It is a German opera with
spoken dialogue (singspiel) in two acts.
• Set in a state prison, Fidelio tells the story of how
Leonore, disguised as a prison guard named ‘Fidelio’,
rescues her husband Florestan from death in a political
prison.
• The original libretto (story), inspired by Jean Nicholas
Bouilly’s French drama Léonore, was written by
Joseph Von Sonnleithner. The scenario of Fidelio
fit Beethoven’s political outlook at the time as the
story deals with themes of freedom, equality, and the
brotherhood of man.
• Beethoven began composing Fidelio in the year 1804,
shortly after the French Revolution and around the
beginning of the Napoleonic Wars.
• Beethoven wrote three versions of the opera, including
four overtures, over the course of ten years. The
premiere performance took place at Theatre an der
Wien, in Vienna, Austria on 20 November, 1805. The
second version premiered in 1806 and the final version
at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on 23 May, 1814.
• Fidelio is often regarded as the second great German
opera after Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
SYNOPSIS
Tabatha McFadyen
BEFORE THE ACTION
In the midst of political upheaval in Seville, Florestan has
endeavoured to expose the corruption of his political
rival, Don Pizarro. In retaliation, Pizarro illegally imprisons
Florestan, and spreads rumours of his death. Florestan’s
wife, Leonore, however, believes that her husband still
lives. She hatches a plan to find him. She disguises
herself as a boy – the eponymous Fidelio – and gains
employment as a prison guard.
ACT ONE
We open with Marzelline being romantically pursued by
Jaquino. He wants her to commit to marrying him, but
she refuses, for she is now in love with “Fidelio”. Fidelio
has recently arrived in the employment of her father –
Rocco the gaoler – and everyone is unaware that Fidelio
is actually Leonore, Florestan’s wife (here referred to as
Fidelio for consistency). Fidelio – not wanting to break the
illusion – doesn’t outwardly protest when Rocco approves
the marriage. Instead, she listens patiently while Rocco
insists that having enough money is the key to a happy life.
Fidelio counters: money is one thing, but she would prefer
to know that she has Rocco’s trust – something that she
suggests Rocco could prove by allowing her to help in
the lower dungeons, where Fidelio thinks Florestan may
be imprisoned. Rocco refuses: he is under the strictest of
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orders from Pizarro – the governor of the gaol – to allow
nobody else down there, but Fidelio insists that she has
enough courage and strength. Rocco relents and says he
will ask Pizarro’s permission for Fidelio to assist him.
Pizarro arrives. He receives a letter informing him that the
Prime Minister Fernando has a plan to inspect the prison,
based upon rumours that political prisoners are being
illegally held there. Pizarro knows that it will ruin him if
Fernando discovers Florestan in particular, given that he
had informed him of Florestan’s death two years ago. He
resolves to seize the moment and have his final revenge.
Pizarro attempts to bribe Rocco into killing Florestan, who
refuses. They instead come to a compromise: Rocco will
dig the prisoner’s grave, so that it will be ready for Pizarro
to kill Florestan himself. Fidelio overhears the plot, and,
although initially terrified, resolves that she will not give up
her goal to find Florestan.
In an effort to look for Florestan among their ranks,
Fidelio – aided by Marzelline – convinces Rocco to let the
prisoners come outside, to their overwhelming relief and
joy. Rocco returns to tell Fidelio that Pizarro has given his
permission for Fidelio to join him in the dungeon. As they
leave, Jaquino and Marzelline tell them that Pizarro knows
that they let the prisoners out of the dungeons. When
Pizarro enters in a fury, Rocco explains that they were
letting them out to have some sunlight in honour of the
King’s Name Day, and that Pizarro’s anger is best saved
for the man he is about to kill. Pizarro orders the prisoners
to be locked up again, and for Rocco and Fidelio to get to
work digging Florestan’s grave.
ACT TWO
We now meet Florestan, alone and ailing in his cell.
He sings of his belief that, no matter how bitter the
punishment, he has done the right thing in speaking the
truth, and then has a vision of his wife Leonore coming to
save him. He falls asleep. Rocco and Fidelio arrive to dig
the grave.
Florestan awakes, and upon hearing his voice, Fidelio
recognises the prisoner to be her husband. Once the
grave has been dug, Rocco sounds the alarm to alert
Pizarro that all is ready. He tells Fidelio to leave, but she
hides instead. Pizarro reveals his identity to Florestan,
and just as he is about to kill him, Fidelio/Leonore throws
herself between Pizarro’s dagger and her husband,
threatening Pizarro with a pistol and revealing her true
identity. Pizarro resolves to kill them both but is interrupted
by a trumpet announcing the arrival of Fernando. Pizarro is
led upstairs to him while Florestan and Leonore rejoice in
their reunion.
Fernando frees those who have been wrongly imprisoned,
much to the elation of the gathered crowd. Upon learning
of Pizarro’s plot to murder Florestan, he orders his arrest.
Rocco tells Fernando of how Leonore saved her husband,
and Fernando allows her to release him from his chains.
The crowd sings the praises of Leonore’s unmatched love
and courage.
OTHER OPERAS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
Bizet Carmen
Mozart The Magic Flute
Verdi La Traviata
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