Rare Beethoven works revisited - Duet from leonore
Duet from Leonore (1806 version) Hess 110 - 'Um in der Ehe froh zu leben'.
That Beethoven's only opera was not an immediate success is well known - the first performance on Nov 20 1805 at the Theater an der Wien (with the opera titled 'Fidelio' instead of 'Leonore' - against Beethoven's wishes) was a failure and many things contributed to this ; the French occupation of Vienna with the consequent desertion of the city by the Emperor, the nobility and most of the patrons of art. There were complaints from the singers who basically couldn't cope with it, but more importantly Beethoven was persuaded by his friends that there were faults in the music itself, chiefly that it was too long and cuts would have to be made to increase the dramatic effect. Beethoven's friend Stephan Von Breuning set about the task of reducing the libretto from 3 acts to 2 . At first Beethoven vehemently opposed every change that was suggested but eventually he was persuaded and the main numbers cut were an aria for Pizarro with chorus, a duet between Leonora and Marzelline, and a trio for Marzelline, Jaquino and Roco. The work was performed in this form with a new overture (Leonore no.3) on March 29th 1806 (again against Beethoven's wishes as Fidelio, not Leonore) and met with a better reception than before, though it was soon withdrawn owing to a quarrel with Baron Von Braun - an attempt to produce it at Berlin came to nothing. A further attempt to revive the work in 1809 also came to nothing, again owing to the French bombardment of Vienna. Beethoven must have been in despair over all this, but he never gave up and a final revision by Beethoven and his new librettist G.F.Treitschke was produced in 1814 - this version was a triumph and established Fidelio firmly in the operatic repertoire where it remains today.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nGr45yY2c[/YOUTUBE]
That Beethoven's only opera was not an immediate success is well known - the first performance on Nov 20 1805 at the Theater an der Wien (with the opera titled 'Fidelio' instead of 'Leonore' - against Beethoven's wishes) was a failure and many things contributed to this ; the French occupation of Vienna with the consequent desertion of the city by the Emperor, the nobility and most of the patrons of art. There were complaints from the singers who basically couldn't cope with it, but more importantly Beethoven was persuaded by his friends that there were faults in the music itself, chiefly that it was too long and cuts would have to be made to increase the dramatic effect. Beethoven's friend Stephan Von Breuning set about the task of reducing the libretto from 3 acts to 2 . At first Beethoven vehemently opposed every change that was suggested but eventually he was persuaded and the main numbers cut were an aria for Pizarro with chorus, a duet between Leonora and Marzelline, and a trio for Marzelline, Jaquino and Roco. The work was performed in this form with a new overture (Leonore no.3) on March 29th 1806 (again against Beethoven's wishes as Fidelio, not Leonore) and met with a better reception than before, though it was soon withdrawn owing to a quarrel with Baron Von Braun - an attempt to produce it at Berlin came to nothing. A further attempt to revive the work in 1809 also came to nothing, again owing to the French bombardment of Vienna. Beethoven must have been in despair over all this, but he never gave up and a final revision by Beethoven and his new librettist G.F.Treitschke was produced in 1814 - this version was a triumph and established Fidelio firmly in the operatic repertoire where it remains today.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nGr45yY2c[/YOUTUBE]
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