At the invitation of Emanuel Schikaneder, Ludwig van Beethoven took up residence in the Theater an der Wien where he was expected to continue the legacy of the great Mozart. Here, infused with the ideas of the Enlightenment and idealism and outraged that Napoleon had crowned himself emperor and occupied Vienna, the composer, who at that time had little experience of opera, set about turning the “rescue opera” Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal, which had become popular following the French Revolution, into a German-language singspiel. In the process, the story of a woman disguising herself as a man in order to rescue her imprisoned husband was coupled with the symphonic force that Beethoven, gradually going deaf, wanted as a response to the despotism of power. Like Leonore’s battle for love and justice, Beethoven’s only contribution to the operatic genre reveals his own struggle with musical theatre and the world at large. Before the well-known final version received its premiere at the Kärntnertortheater under the name of Fidelio, the composer had presented the Theater an der Wien with two audacious original versions. Now, this Leonore returns to the stage of the Theater an der Wien amid today’s tug-of-war between the art of freedom and the freedom of art.

With thanks to Martin Schlaff for his support

In German with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up