Beethoven: Overtures, Vol. 1

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Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) Overtures Egmont, Opus 84 Coriolanus, Opus 62 Leonora No.3, Opus 72a Fidelio, Opus 72 Creatures of Prometheus, Opus 43 Ruins of Athens, Opus 113 Consecration of the House, Opus 124It was the theatre, as much as anythingelse, that held the cultural interests of the Viennese in the eighteenth andearly nineteenth centuries. There was a demand for opera of all kinds, in whichthe principal composers were involved. Mozart's dissatisfaction with his nativeSalzburg resulted in part from a lack of opera there and a consequent lack ofopportunity, a matter remedied when he moved to. Vienna in 1781 to joincomposers of the stature of Salieri.Beethoven settled in Vienna in 1792,making a name for himself as a pianist and as a composer of marked originality.He lacked the education of Mozart and of Gluck and was without their literacy,but read widely, if without discrimination, and shared something of the generalinterest in drama increasingly dominated by France.As it turned out, Beethoven wrote onlyone opera, Fidelio, its final title the name assumed by the heroine Leonora,who disguises herself as a boy in order to rescue her husband Florestan fromthe dungeon into which his political enemies have cast him. The libretto wasdrawn from a French original, an example of the rescue opera that had becometopical and popular in Paris in the aftermath of the Revolution, and inchoosing such a subject Beethoven seems to attempt to emulate Cherubini, acomposer who dominated Paris and had won great popularity in Vienna.Fidelio,a Singspiel, a German opera, with some spoken dialogue, is not necessarilyconvincing on the stage, in spite of the greatness of conception of the music.It was first performed at the Theater-an-der-Wien in November, 1805, precededby an alternative overture, Leonora No.2, which replaced Beethoven'sfirst thoughts, embodied in Leonora No.1 and rejected after a privaterun-through.The occasion of the first performance wasunfortunate. The armies of Napoleon had occupied Vienna, and there were manyFrench officers in the audience, while the second and third performancesattracted very little attention. The piece was withdrawn and underwentconsiderable revision, to be staged again the following year, with the overturenow known as Leonora No.3, which itself pre-empts the climax of theopera and is, in any case, rather too long for its purpose. Neither Cherubininor Salieri, arbiters of operatic taste, approved of the work.There was to be yet further revision fora revival in 1814, with an intended new overture. In the event this was notfinished in time, thanks to the procrastination of the composer, who workedthrough the night before the opening to finish it, but failed to have it readyin time for rehearsal and performance. On the first night of the revivalanother overture was played, either Prometheus or The Ruins of Athens,to Beethoven's embarrassment. The new overture, however, was eventuallyfinished for the numerous later perform