The Background of Fidelio The following is an excerpt from Klemperer on Music: Shavings from a Musician's Workbench, edited by Martin Anderson (Toccata Press 1986, pp. 104-107). This is copyrighted material.

Fidelio is Beethoven's only opera - it is unique, alike in number and quality. Fidelio is a companion to Mozart's Entführung and Zauberflöte (the only previous German operas with spoken dialogue instead of secco recitativ). Beethoven was particularly fond of Zauberflöte, as we can see from the fact that he chose a theme from it for a set of variations for cello and piano on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen'.

Fidelio, or Conjugal Love, an opera in three acts freely adapted from the French by Joseph Sonnleithner, was first performed on 20 November 1805, in the Theater an der Wien. Since the French army under Napoleon had occupied Vienna a short while before, the first performance was given before an audience of French officers and had little success. After the misfortunes of the premier, which deeply disappointed Beethoven, he accepted the advice of his friends to make some radical alterations, particularly with the object of considerably shortening the opera. To discuss this, a meeting was held at the palace of the Prince Karl Lichnowsky. Beethoven defended every note of his original score like a lioness protecting her cubs, but he was defeated. Radical alterations were made, the most important being the reshaping of the opera in two acts instead of three. In this form the opera was given on 29 March and 10 April 1806, and was more successful than it had been in the previous year. However, there was a dispute between Beethoven and the manager of the theatre and the composer withdrew his score.

Fidelio was laid aside for many years until it was revived at the Kärtnertor Theater on 23 May 1814. The conductor was Beethoven himself, assisted by the Kapellmeister, Umlauf. The opera was received enthusiastically and there was an ovation for the composer.*

Fidelio was for Beethoven a child of sorrow. In a letter to his librettist, Treitschke, he writes as follows: 'I assure you, dear Treitschke, that this opera will win me a martyr's crown. You have by your co-operation saved what is best from the shipwreck. For all this I shall be eternally grateful to you.'

*Web Site editor's note - As Charles Osburn states in Schubert and His Vienna (NY: Kopf, 1985), p.17: "Beethoven's hymn to loyalty and freedom had touched the Viennese, who themselves had now, after years of oppression and deprivation, won through to what seemed like a lasting peace." (And, yes, the then 17-year-old Franz Schubert was in the audience, having sold his schoolbooks for the privilege. Although it was several years before he could rid himself of the view that Beethoven was possessed of "that eccentricity which confuses and confounds" - among other things - "heroic strains and mere howling," he appears to have found Fidelio howl-free and enjoyed it immensely.)

The Beethoven portrait (1919-20) by Carl Stieler is from Beethoven by Maynard Solomon (NY: Schirmer Books, 1977, p.265).