Opera "Fidelio": content, video, interesting facts, history

L. Beethoven opera "Fidelio"

4 overtures and 18 variations of the aria of the main character, 11 years of work on the opera and 3 editions ... Behind these figures is the genius of one of the best composers in the history of mankind, Ludwig van beethovenwhose high price won the success of his only opera. But that is why "Fidelio" became his most favorite work.

Summary of the opera Beethoven "Fidelio"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Fidelio"

Zhakino is already adopted in the house of her beloved, Marceline, as a son-in-law. However, the girl recently lost interest in him. This is due to the emergence of Rocco's new assistant, Fidelio, with whom Marceline fell in love without memory. She can’t even imagine that Fidelio is a Leonona-dressed man who came to prison to find and release her husband, Florestana, who was imprisoned due to political differences with Pizarro.

Rocco takes the prisoners out for a walk, Leonora hopes to see her husband among them, but Florestan is a secret prisoner. Pizarro learns that Don Fernando must arrive with the inspection of his prison and orders Rocco to kill Florestan that night. The jailer instructs Fidelio to help him dig a grave right outside the cell.

While Rocco fiddles with the grave, Leonora recognizes her husband as a prisoner. Pizarro descends into the chamber in order to kill his opponent, but as soon as he bares the dagger, Leonora rushes to intercept and he points a gun at him. Zhakino resorts with the news of the minister's arrival. The jailers are removed, the spouses rejoice in salvation.

Don Fernando reads a decree pardoning political prisoners, and Pizarro, on the contrary, is taken to the cell. All admired by the act of Leonora and glorify love.

Interesting Facts

• "Fidelio" - a unique work, written outside of any one opera style. It is a symbiosis of the French “rescue opera” with the traditional German singspiel, containing not only musical scenes, but also conversational ones.
• Fidelio is called the "Symphonic Opera or the Opera Symphony" - for the first time, the orchestra became not only an accompaniment of soloists, but an expression of feelings. Many of the dramatic moments of the opera are more pronounced music than words.
• Preparation for the premiere of 1805 was very difficult, Beethoven worked with a weak cast of soloists. One of them, the performer of the party Pizarro, was married to his sister-in-law. Mozartthat he believed allowed him to openly criticize Beethoven’s work. Anna Milder, singing Leonora, was a gifted but very young singer who couldn’t raise such an emotional part. The musicians of the orchestra grumbled against a complex score, and each of the soloists found totally unacceptable features in their part: too much or too little singing, inappropriate tessitura, a non-winning role. And, of course, no one liked the explosive and authoritarian nature of the composer, who did not want to concede in anything.
• Florestan's part is one of the most ungrateful in the tenor repertoire. Beethoven very freely treated the main male role of his opera, offering the soloist a unique aria, and even with a complex high note after a long symphonic entry.

• On December 7, 2014, with the premiere of Fidelio, a new season opened in La Scala, Milan.
• By the time Fidelio appeared, there were already several operas written on the basis of this libretto. In 1798, the premiere of "Leonora" by French composer Pierre Gaveau was held, and in 1804 Italian F. Paer presented his "Leonora". Beethoven's opera was also originally called "Leonora", but he was forced to change the name before the premiere so that there would be no confusion with her two "big sisters".
• Leonora is the name of the main characters of three famous operas: "Fidelio" L. Beethoven, "Troubadour"and "The forces of fate" D. Verdi.
• Despite the complexity of the production, "Fidelio" is still a very popular opera. During the season more than 500 performances are given worldwide. It sounds more often than "Manon Lesko"Puccini,"Queen of spades"Tchaikovsky or"Lohengrin"Wagner.

Popular aria numbers from the opera "Fidelio"

Recitative and aria of Leonora

Florestan's aria "In des Lebens Frtihlingstagen"

Quartet "Mir Ist So Wunderbar"

"Choir of prisoners" ("About welche Lust, in freier Luft")

History of the creation and productions of "Fidelio"

The opera is based on the libretto of Frenchman J.-N. Buyi, based, as claimed by its author, on real events. The writer of the Viennese theater An der Win, J. von Zonleitner, translated the play Leonore, or Marital Love, into German, and in 1803 Beethoven began to write opera music. The composer was very fond of the theater and had long wanted to try his hand at this genre. In 1802, he attended the premiere of L.Verubini’s opera “Water Carrier”, which impressed him with the music and plot, the author of which was the same Buyi. It was an absolute hit in the Beethoven idea of ​​the ideal theme for the opera - acute socio-political events, the fight against injustice and violence, against the background of which the story of a self-sacrificing woman, who had given all her strength to save her husband, was developing. In the French operatic tradition, such a genre was called “the opera of salvation”.

Have worked Beethoven very intense and self-critical to the limit. He wrote and rewrote arias, duets and scenes many times, bringing them to perfection. Two years later, on November 20, 1805, the premiere took place - but this was far from the end of the story of the creation of "Fidelio", and almost its beginning ...

In 1805, Beethoven was already a famous composer. How could it happen that the premiere of the first opera (that it was the only one, then, of course, no one knew yet) under his own management turned out to be a complete failure, and after three performances, Fidelio was completely removed from the repertoire? The fact is that Europe of those years experienced real events incomparable with any theatrical production. Just a few days before the premiere, Napoleon's troops settled in Vienna, many citizens left their homes, and the rest was not at all up to the opera. As a result, French officers were sitting in the hall, some critics, but empty chairs still prevailed. In fact, the premiere was supposed to take place two months earlier, but censorship forbade it. The theater and the composer managed to defend their offspring - but the favorable time was lost.

Despite the general disapproval of Beethoven’s new work, his friends still persuaded the quick-tempered maestro to modify it. Started with the libretto, S. Braining significantly reduced it, leaving two of the three acts. Beethoven wrote a new overture, alterations touched almost all the scenes. On March 29, 1806, this version saw the “An der Wien” stage, but this time only two performances were given. “Fidelio” again did not stay in the repertoire, but not because no one liked it, on the contrary, the public accepted it with interest, but because of low fees. The owner of the theater said that Beethoven’s music is difficult to understand, so selling tickets for Fidelio is inferior to any opera. Mozart. The temperamental maestro did not like this statement, and he withdrew his score from the theater.

Nobody remembered Beethoven’s creation for several years until, in 1814, the basses of the Vienna Opera decided to arrange their benefit performance, which Fidelio ideally suited with its three central bass parts. Theater director Georg Friedrich Treychke once again remakes the libretto, and the composer once again globally and in detail rewrites the opera numbers - some simply by modifying, and some, the overture, for example, creating anew. May 20, 1814 "Fidelio" gained a well-deserved success, which was surpassed by the performance of 1822, the last during the life of Beethoven.

The Russian public met with the opera in 1819 in St. Petersburg, where it was performed by German soloists. On April 5, 1879, the opera sounded in Moscow in Russian, and the imperial theaters took it into repertoire only in 1905 - the premiere at the Mariinsky Theater was held on September 29.

The real boom of Fidelio's performances survived after World War II, when most European opera houses opened this first season in peacetime with this musical symbol of struggle against tyranny.

Films and the music of "Fidelio" in the movies

Among the incredible number of films where Beethoven’s music is used (there are more than 1000 of them) there are also those in which the “Fidelio” melodies are played:

• "Promise", 2013
• Onegin, 1999
• "Where is Marlowe?", 1998
• "Impatience of feelings", 1980
• The Straw Woman, 1964

Famous screen versions of the opera:

• The performance "Metropolitan Opera", 2002, director B. Large, in the main parts - K. Mattila, B. Heppner, F. Struckmann, R. Pape.
• Performance "Covent-Garden", 1990, director D. Bailey, in the main parts - G. Benyachkov, J. Protzka, M. Pederson, R. Lloyd.
• Performance of the Vienna Opera, 1978, director O. Schenk, in the main parts - G. Janowitz, R. Kollo, H. Sotin, M. Yungvirt.

Undoubtedly, the main love in life Beethoven there was instrumental music. It was a passionate desire to compose symphonies, sonatas and concerts, and not at all the absence of a worthy libretto, was the real reason why the opera "Fidelio"and remained the only one in the creative biography of the German genius.