Beethoven wrote four overtures to his only complete opera, Fidelio, or Leonore as it was titled for the first performance on November 20, 1805. The overture used was the so-called second Leonore. After three performances, this first version of the opera was withdrawn.

The next year Beethoven was persuaded by friends to revise the score for a revival on March 29. For this second version of the opera, he wrote the third Leonore Overture. The so-called first Leonore Overture was written either as a working draft for the second or as the introduction to a planned performance in Prague that never happened. Alan Tyson, for one, believes it was composed after the second and third Leonore Overtures. For the 1814 revival of the work, Beethoven created a fourth overture, what we now call the Fidelio Overture.

“In the Fidelio Overture,” writes Edward Downes, “Beethoven avoided any anticipation or artistic summary of the overwhelming drama to come. Instead he composed a joyous, festive score, one of his sunniest works, in the warm key of E major, with a richly colored orchestra giving especial prominence to the glowing tone of the French horn. In terms of the musical theater, this proved by far the most effective preparation for his opera.”

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2023.