'Fidelio' Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera takes as its subject a theme close to the composer's heart: the defeat of tyranny through man's innate desire for liberty. The libretto was fashioned by Joseph Sonnleithner after Jean Bouilly's Leonore (1798) and revised by Leipzig-born playwright and poet Georg Friedrich Treitschke with Beethoven in 1814. It concerns Leonore's attempts to free her political-prisoner husband Florestan from the prison of the evil Pizarro by disguising herself as a man Fidelio and working in the prison. The music in 'Fidelio' is unassailably great and blazes with Beethoven's steadfast commitment to liberty and humanity.This is the Schirmeredition of the Vocal Score and contains an English translation by Theodore Baker and an essay by H.E. Krehbiel.

Facsimile of the autograph score from the National Archive of the Richard Wagner Foundation Bayreuth. Par WAGNER RICHARD. Knowledge, pity, redemption: Richard Wagner took up these major themes in “Parsifal”, the music drama that he completed 13 months before his death and referred to as his “most conciliatory work”. Already celebrated for its compositional technique and mystical sonorities at the premiere, its world of ideas has stimulated new debates and interpretations over and over again to the present day. Wagner wrote the autograph score almost entirely in violet ink, a colour he preferred to use in the final years of his life. He meticulously planned the layout of the pages and finally gave the autograph to his wife Cosima - it always remained in the family's possession as a guarded treasure. The facsimile edition in high-quality four-colour printing reproduces the extensive score in its original size. Act and bar numbers on every page facilitate its use without diminishing the overall bibliophile appearance. In an accompanying essay (Ger/Eng), Ulrich Konrad elucidates the special features of the work and the manuscript./ Répertoire / Opéra