Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Op. 72 premiered in Vienna in 1805. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner, adapted from the French by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with work by others to reduce it from three ...

Performances can transform musical anniversaries from historical facts to the vibrant experiences that reminds us why the occasion is worth celebrating. The Pittsburgh Symphony’s tributes to Ludwig ...

It's no secret that many of the standard repertoire's most famous operas had troubled premieres--often (but not always) at the hands of overzealous censors--but Beethoven's FIDELIO had more than its ...

Are there lessons to be learned today from the turbulent history of the Napoleonic Empire, when a shrewd megalomaniac driven by an obsession for power conquered much of Europe? Are there parallels to ...

“Fidelio” is Beethoven’s only opera. It took 11 years (1803-1814) and multiple revisions to cobble into its final form, which may explain why there is no other opera by Beethoven. The plot – ...

Heroic, stormily brilliant and defiantly original, Fidelio is arguably the greatest "flawed masterpiece" in the history of opera. It's exactly the one-of-a-kind marvel you'd expect from maverick ...

As long as we have prisons and government, and as long as profit and power remain factors in that equation, we do well to keep the warning of “Fidelio” in our cultural employ. The abuse of power that ...

He Sang/She Sang is a new podcast from WQXR for the opera-curious and opera superfans who want to know what all those big voices are really singing about. The podcast follows the radio broadcast ...

“First kill his wife!” exclaims Leonore at the climax of Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera, when she emerges from her cross-dressing disguise to prevent the wicked prison governor Pizarro from murdering ...