'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.
