Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Fidelio

Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Fidelio was Beethoven’s only opera. It was composed over 10 years (1805-1814), and is known as a Rescue Opera and Romantic Opera. The opera tells a story, which is composed of two acts. The story takes place in Seville, Spain (16th Century). Florestan, in the opera, was a politician. He tries to expose the corruption that Pizarro had been involved in. However, Pizarro sends him to the dungeon for a false charge. Leonore, who is Florestan’s wife, attempts to get him out of the dungeon.

So, she becomes, “Fidelio”. She dresses as a man and becomes the jailer’s (Rocco’s) errand boy. She gains confidence from working for him for two years. However, Rocco’s daughter falls in love with Fidelio. Later in the Oprah, Pizarro wishes to kill Florestan secretly, because he finds out that the Minister of Justice (who inspects injustice) would inspect the jail. Pizarro then orders for a grave to be dug and as a result, Fidelio helps Rocco dig such grave. Fidelio, at her time at the prison, has been looking for an opportunity to actually save her husband and has also been looking for him. She finally discovers that the physically and emotionally worn out man in the dungeon was her husband.

Pizarro attempts to kill Florestan by stabbing him, however, he is disrupted by Fidelio who finally comes out to him about her true identity. Thankfully, the Minister of Justice arrives at the prison and is more than ecstatic that his dear friend, Florestan was alive and not dead. Upon hearing about what Pizarro had done to Florestan, the Minister had him arrested and freed Florestan. The couple was then blessed by the Minister.

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most widely recognized and admired composers in the history of Western music. He served as a bridge between two musical periods, the Classical and Baroque era styles. He also admired the Romantic style as his music would come to personify it. A virtuoso pianist, Beethoven impressed with his fierce individualism and determination in where patronage was still what everyone followed. Although Beethoven didn’t completely abandon patronage, he usually only wanted to like and please his own self. At a point in his life he became deaf, but still, keep performing and creating music. Instead of his deafness hurting his composition, his music style only sparked upon realizing he would become deaf. This would lead to some of his admired pieces, including his last three Piano Concertos and the immortal Fifth Symphony. This deafness made Beethoven take his Classical style and bring it to create a lot of emotional highs and lows, extending the symphony’s length, a different color palate, and new dynamic levels, he also involved trombones in his lasts works. By the end of Beethoven’s works, dying in 1827, he had become the “ultimate fusion composer,” taking the best of the classical and Baroque eras and sending it to as said before, a new dynamic, instrumental, and levels of emotional extremes that would define the Romantic era of music in the 19th Century.

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