You are here Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) spent more time
writing the overture to Fidelio than Rossini and Donizetti spent
on an entire opera, overture included. But then Beethoven did
write a total of four overtures to his only opera, which itself
underwent numerous revisions. To make a potentially interminable
story short: Beethoven was dissatisfied with the first two
versions of the overture, today referred to as "Leonore" - after
the opera's protagonist, a woman who, disguised as a man,
Fidelio, rescues her husband from political imprisonment.
"Leonore" No. 1 was rejected by the composer as being too
slight, No. 2 as possessing the right ideas but too roughly
worked out. No. 3, the grandest of them all, was rejected for
that very reason, it was too large, of almost symphonic
proportions and therefore ill-suited to serving as the preface
to anything. So Beethoven started from scratch and produced this
compact, energetic curtain-raiser which, unlike its three
predecessors, avoids any allusion to themes