Overture to Fidelio, Op. 72c
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

[1814]

Beethoven, a man of big ideas and unbridled ambition, was naturally drawn to the grandest platform available to composers of his era: the operatic stage. Despite his best efforts, he never gained traction as an opera composer, with his one major effort, Leonore, landing as a flop that closed after three performances in 1805. Beethoven revised and shortened the opera for a revival the next year, at which point he swapped in a new overture. Further revisions in 1814 brought yet another new overture and the new title of Fidelio, the name Leonore assumes when she dresses as a man to free her husband from jail.

Like the rest of the revised opera—and so much else from Beethoven’s “middle period”—the final overture to Fidelio is compressed and distilled down to its essential gestures. No themes from the opera populate its scant six minutes, but its heroic posture sets up the drama’s emotional thrust, conveying ideals of personal honor and freedom from tyranny.

Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, trombone, bass trombone, timpani, strings