# Turning on Fidelio Right Now



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Exited, this will be my third opera, and my first non-Mozart opera!


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

It is exciting to branch out and explore various operas. Hope you enjoy Fidelio. I love it...Beethoven's passion for social justice is inspiring! Please come back and post an update when you're done watching.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Bettina said:


> It is exciting to branch out and explore various operas. Hope you enjoy Fidelio. I love it...Beethoven's passion for social justice is inspiring! Please come back and post an update when you're done watching.


Will do. Not a problem!


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

Of all the operas endings I'm familiar with the conclusion of Fidelio is truly one of the greatest.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

I loved it! It was fully engaging from the start, very touching and moving. I like the message of questioning the sentence of a prisoner, and a strong heroine indeed to save the day! It was a great moment when she revealed herself as Lennore, a very triumphant moment.

I watched this version:


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

arnerich said:


> Of all the operas endings I'm familiar with the conclusion of Fidelio is truly one of the greatest.


Yes. The finale of Fidelio is sublime.

I close my eyes and I can hear the glorious sounds of Christa Ludwig & Jon Vickers, backed up by the Philharmonia Orchestra directed by Otto Klemperer.


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

I think that Fidelio took so much out of Beethoven that he decided that one opera was enough. Well, one 'final' opera since it was first published as Leonore and then reworked over a number of years to the final Fidelio. And then, there were no less than 4 different overtures written for it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I loved it! It was fully engaging from the start, very touching and moving. I like the message of questioning the sentence of a prisoner, and a strong heroine indeed to save the day! It was a great moment when she revealed herself as Lennore, a very triumphant moment.
> 
> I watched this version:


That is my favorite Fidelio video of about 13+ that I have watched.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Exited, this will be my third opera, and my first non-Mozart opera!


Then you should appreciate how the opening numbers of Fidelio are very Mozartian, and then when Pizarro arrives the light hearted stuff comes to a screeching halt with the last bit of humor in the comical march for Pizarro's entry, whereupon the whole character of the opera changes to a desperate, dark struggle for life and justice. In so doing, I think Beethoven set up the viewer to be in a light and happy mode so that when the grim struggle hits, it hits with the full impact such as of someone being jerked out of a comfortable life by a debilitating disease that only after immense struggle and medical procedures they finally get well, or of someone happily driving along in their car and suddenly being in the hospital after a car came seemingly out of nowhere and took them out.

BTW, Fidelio was my first, followed by La Cenerentola, then La Sonnambula.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Captainnumber36 said:


> I loved it! It was fully engaging from the start, very touching and moving. I like the message of questioning the sentence of a prisoner, and a strong heroine indeed to save the day! It was a great moment when she revealed herself as Lennore, a very triumphant moment.
> 
> I watched this version:


Lucia Popp is such a great singer, who passed way to soon.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Captainnumber36 said:


> Exited, this will be my third opera, and my first non-Mozart opera!


You will enjoy it!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Then you should appreciate how the opening numbers of Fidelio are very Mozartian, and then when Pizarro arrives the light hearted stuff comes to a screeching halt with the last bit of humor in the comical march for Pizarro's entry, whereupon the whole character of the opera changes to a desperate, dark struggle for life and justice. In so doing, I think Beethoven set up the viewer to be in a light and happy mode so that when the grim struggle hits, it hits with the full impact such as of someone being jerked out of a comfortable life by a debilitating disease that only after immense struggle and medical procedures they finally get well, or of someone happily driving along in their car and suddenly being in the hospital after a car came seemingly out of nowhere and took them out.
> 
> BTW, Fidelio was my first, followed by La Cenerentola, then La Sonnambula.


That's where it all started.......


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

Florestan said:


> Then you should appreciate how the opening numbers of Fidelio are very Mozartian, and then when Pizarro arrives the light hearted stuff comes to a screeching halt with the last bit of humor in the comical march for Pizarro's entry, whereupon the whole character of the opera changes to a desperate, dark struggle for life and justice. In so doing, I think Beethoven set up the viewer to be in a light and happy mode so that when the grim struggle hits, it hits with the full impact such as of someone being jerked out of a comfortable life by a debilitating disease that only after immense struggle and medical procedures they finally get well, or of someone happily driving along in their car and suddenly being in the hospital after a car came seemingly out of nowhere and took them out.
> 
> BTW, Fidelio was my first, followed by La Cenerentola, then La Sonnambula.


Spot on! "Ha, Welch ein Augenblick" is awesome. Totally kick-***.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Beethoven: Fidelio Rezitativ & Aria - Elisabeth Soderstrom .
Such a wonderful aria.


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

Florestan said:


> Then you should appreciate how the opening numbers of Fidelio are very Mozartian, and then when Pizarro arrives the light hearted stuff comes to a screeching halt with the last bit of humor in the comical march for Pizarro's entry, whereupon the whole character of the opera changes to a desperate, dark struggle for life and justice.


It's Mozartian after that too, Beethoven just hides it by being super serious. The horn ensemble in "Komm Hoffnung" is a one-upping of "Per pietà" from "Cosi fan tutte" and the end of Florestan's aria is a rewrite of "Ah! lo veggio" from the same opera.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

I first got introduced to Fidelio through Mahler's fourth symphony. At the beginning of the third movement you'll notice he quotes the beginning of the Act 1 Quartet in the same exact key and almost the same orchestration (I only realized this after I read about it). I ended up listening to all of Fidelio and I loved it! I wish Beethoven wrote more operas...


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

This is interesting:

http://www.ranker.com/list/best-operas/bustermcdermott


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

DaveM said:


> This is interesting:
> 
> http://www.ranker.com/list/best-operas/bustermcdermott


Best of lists in this manner where the crowd is voting is more meaningful to me. However, I prefer to get some descriptions on the views in making choices on what to view next.

I'm very interested in Debussy's opera, I love his style musically. I really think that is what I'll watch next. Still haven't made it to Don Giovanni however!


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I noticed the opening note of Wagner's Gotterdammerung, reminds me of the opening note of Fidelio Act II.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Did Beethoven quote Haydn in his first Symphony? The opening notes to Beethoven's first are very similar to a section I heard in one of Haydn's symphonies.


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