Beethoven’s opera is full of beautiful
music and beautiful ideas. So why did I decide to make my own version?
I was in my early 20s when I first saw Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, on stage. I didn’t know that much about it. I knew the rough plot – a woman, Leonore, disguises herself as a man, Fidelio, to get a job as a jailer’s assistant in the hope of finding her political prisoner husband, and she manages to get him freed. I knew it was Beethoven’s response to new thoughts percolating through Europe after the French revolution. And I had heard exactly two of the musical highlights before I went. One is the sublime, slow-burning quartet near the beginning, in which four characters reveal their most heartfelt dreams directly to us, unheard by the other characters. (This may be the most beautiful thing Beethoven ever wrote.) The other is the super-famous Prisoners’ Chorus, in which the men sing powerfully and movingly about our need and right to be free. So I went into the opera that night more than 40 years ago expecting to enjoy myself.
Imagine my surprise to realise this opera has problems!