{"id":1051,"date":"2020-11-09T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T11:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.popularbeethoven.com\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2022-09-23T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T13:03:14","slug":"beethovens-only-opera-leonore-or-fidelio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.popularbeethoven.com\/beethovens-only-opera-leonore-or-fidelio\/","title":{"rendered":"Beethoven\u2019s only opera: Leonore or Fidelio?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Beethoven\u2019s only opera is called Leonore<\/em>. Or Fidelio<\/em>. Now, which one?<\/strong><\/p>\n Beethoven started working on a French libretto in 1803 that was around in Europe since the 1790s. This opera had been set by three different composers before Beethoven. The libretto was Leonore, ou l\u2019amour conjugal <\/em>(Leonore, or marital love), written by J.-N. Bouilly<\/a>. The German version was adopted by Joseph Sonnleithner<\/a>.<\/p>\n In this story a woman named Leonore dresses up as a young man called Fidelio in order to get a job at the prison of the governor, Pizzaro. She does that to save her husband Florestan, who is a political prisoner and being starved to death in the dungeons.<\/p>\n By the time Beethoven started his work on this opera, two other composers had produced versions of it in Italy, most notably Ferdinando Paer<\/a> (whom Beethoven regarded highly). Paer\u2019s version was called Leonore<\/em>.<\/p>\n In order to avoid confusion with the version of Ferdinando Paer, Beethoven insisted to have a new title for his work: Fidelio<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
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