Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio

Jeremy Tambling (University of Hong Kong)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1805 - 1814

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Music (any)
- Classical Music
  - Opera

Resources

Ludgwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), born in Bonn and living in Vienna from 1792 onwards, wrote only one opera, Fidelio, though he had begun drafting Vestas Feuer for Shikaneder, librettist for Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and had taken lessons in setting Italian texts from the Gluck-inspired opera-composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825). Fidelio exists in three versions, of 2 November 1805, 29 March 1806 and 23 May 1814. Other occasions where Beethoven moved towards writing opera were his Coriolan overture for Heinrich von Collin's play (1808), sketches for a Macbeth with Collin in a translation by Schiller, before Collin died in 1811, incidental music in 1810 for Goethe's Egmont and …

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2022 words

Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Fidelio". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 July 2002 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5150, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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