The story begins with a woman, Leonore, disguising herself as a male guard named Fidelio to enter the prison where she suspects her husband is being held as a political prisoner. Here she discovers a world of abuse and oppression, as well as a sinister plot to kill her husband before the perpetrators can be held accountable. Undeterred, her actions offer hope and strength to those she encounters, building fresh impetus for political resistance.

A revolutionary opera

As a young man, Beethoven had been appalled by the political violence and gross abuses of power that raged through Paris following the French Revolution. Fidelio was his response to what he witnessed and a celebration of justice, freedom, and the power of the human spirit to triumph over tyranny. One of several rescue-themed works that were popular at the time, the opera celebrates the heroism of its main character, Leonore, as well as the great humanitarian ideals of the age.

Fidelio or Leonore?

Fidelio was originally titled Leonore! The first two incarnations of the opera, which premiered in Vienna in 1805 and was restaged the following year in a shortened version, were billed as Fidelio to prevent confusion with other contemporary operas that also included the name Leonore in their titles, such as Pierre Gaveaux’s Léonore, ou l’amour conjugal. Convention is now to refer to the first two versions as Leonore, and to the final iteration, which appeared in 1814, as Fidelio.

Schubert was there

The 17-year-old Franz Schubert attended the 1814 premiere, having sold his school books to afford a ticket. Beethoven conducted the performance himself, despite the fact that his hearing loss was already quite advanced by this point. The role of the prison governor, Don Pizarro, was sung by Johann Vogl, who would later become one of Schubert’s most important musical collaborators.

Beethoven struggled with the composition of the overture, working through four different versions before settling on what is now known as the Fidelio overture, in E major, for the 1814 revival. Although this is the version that is generally played in modern productions, his second attempt (in C major) is considered by many to be the greater piece musically (and is sometimes performed as a concert piece); as a full-scale symphonic movement, however, it was thought to overwhelm the opening scenes of the opera.

A hymn to freedom

Fidelio was the first opera to be performed in Berlin after the end of World War II, by the Deutsche Oper at the Theater des Westens, in September 1945. Somewhat surprisingly, the anti-tyrant opera hadn’t been banned by the Nazis, causing the novelist Thomas Mann to observe “What amount of apathy was needed [for audiences] to listen to Fidelio in Himmler’s Germany without covering their faces and rushing out of the hall!”

Historic resonances

Fidelio opened at the Semperoper in Dresden in October 1989 to mark the 40th anniversary of the East German DDR, producing such applause following the Prisoners’ Chorus that the performance was temporarily delayed. One month later, the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the reunification of East and West Germany.

A personal connection

The story of Fidelio is deeply personal to Japanese-American director Matthew Ozawa, whose father was born during World War II in a Montana internment camp for Japanese-Americans. In this production, Ozawa sets the action in a modern-day prison facility, reminding audiences that Beethoven’s warnings about power and corruption remain as relevant today as when Fidelio was composed over 200 years ago.