Fidelio

Florestan is missing. His wife Leonore guesses that he is languishing as a political prisoner in exactly that state prison which is guarded by Florestan’s adversary Don Pizarro. Disguised as a man and under the name Fidelio, Leonore takes a job as assistant to the jailer Rocco in order to find out the truth – and to save Florestan. The minister announces an inspection, as arbitrary violence is suspected in the prison. Pizzaro feels threatened and plans to secretly murder Florestan. Rocco and Fidelio are to dig his grave in the dungeon. When Pizarro appears there with a dagger in his hand, Leonore reveals herself as a woman and, in dire straits, draws a pistol...
Beethoven’s opera Fidelio looks beyond the personal fate of the characters: A plea for freedom, justice and overcoming tyranny.
In its uncompromising nature, Fidelio appears as a shining counterpoint to Cherubini's tragic Medea (1797), which the Mainfranken Theatre revived last season. Both operas were written eight years apart, both reflecting in their own way on triumph and tragedy, ideals and devastations of the French Revolution. Beethoven truly admired Cherubini who honoured his younger colleague by attending the premiere of Fidelio in Vienna on the 20 November 1805. However, Beethoven's only opera did not begin its triumphant march across the opera stages of the world until the revised version of 23 May 1814.