Today's "post-taste": Yes, we're finally gonna have a guide box to the "Lesson of Fidelio" posts (oh, and we've got some music too)

Before Beethoven set out in 1805 to write an overture for the opera we know as Fidelio, the only overture he'd written -- at least that I've ever encountered -- was the bracing one for his 1801 ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. (Above we see Prometheus, god of fire, at Rockefeller Center, as rendered in gilded cast bronze by Paul Winship in 1934.)

BEETHOVEN: The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43: Overture


Berlin Philharmonic, André Cluytens, cond. EMI, recorded c1957

Utah Symphony Orchestra, Maurice Abravanel, cond. Vanguard, recorded c1964

Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Nov. 25, 1957

New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded October 1969

by Ken

Ever since the second or third post in this series of posts on "The Lesson of Fidelio I've known we were going to need a listing guide. I've also known, as the series lumbered along, that to be at all useful this guide box was going to have to include some description of the post contents, and I knew that it was going to be a long and tedious job, resulting in a long and probably impenetrable "guide box." (Even I'm kind of shaky on what exactly has been included in the published posts and what hasn't, which has made it increasingly difficult to try to sort through the assortment of post-drafts clogging the Sunday Classics blog dashboard, a problem I've mostly solved by kind of not looking back or peeking at the unpublished post-drafts.)


AS YOU'LL SEE IF YOU CLICK THROUGH, THE
FAMOUS GUIDE BOX IS NOW ACTUALLY BEGUN

Getting it done is today's principal order of business. I figure there's bound to be some music too.

UPDATE: If you'd like, you can now click through to the main post.

"THE LESSON OF FIDELIO": GUIDE TO THE SERIES
[the most recent installments, anyways -- we have to start somewhere!]

• "Ohmygosh, it's turned into Garrulous Old Moneygrubbers' Week here at Sunday Classics -- or has it?" [9/28/2020]. Rocco in Fidelio and Daland in Wagner's Flying Dutchman: cartoon characters or single fathers with real human urgencies? Perfs of Rocco's Gold Aria by Böhme, Alsen, Ridderbusch, Crass, Moll, Frick, Pape, Weber, Kipnis; perfs of Daland's "Mögst du, mein Kind by Greindl (2), Ridderbusch (2), Moll, Frick (2), Tozzi, Weber.

• "Today's post-taste: Yes, we're finally gonna have a guide box to the "'Lesson of Fidelio' posts (oh, and probably some music too)" [9/27/2020]. Latest-installments listings plus 4 perfs of Beethoven's Prometheus Overture (Cluytens, Abravanel, Klemperer '57 and '69).

• "We hear Beethoven reference Florestan and Leonore in his first overture for Fidelio, and we hear Leonore make a crucial decision" [9/21/2020]. Dungeon scene (4 perfs by Nilsson + Flagstad, Ludwig, Jones, Jurinac, Dernesch, Meier); trumpet call recalled (4 perfs by Nilsson et al.); refs in Leonore No. 2; perfs of Leonore No. 2 (Klemperer '63, Szell) and No. 3 (Tennstedt, Böhm).

• "A taste of today's post -- coming soon, I swear! (Yes! See the link below!)" [9/20/2020]. Quick refresher of Florestan's "In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" (Vickers '60, McCracken, King, Domingo, Patzak) plus refs in Leonore No. 2 and plan for post.

• "What's that, a trumpet? We hear two Great Moments in Act II to prepare to root around further in Beethoven's overtures for Fidelio" [9/13/2020]. The scene with the trumpet call (4 perfs with Nilsson); the 4 overtures for Fidelio (C.Davis-BRSO); 3 Great Moments in Act II, with 5 perfs of GM No. 1, Florestan's "In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" (Patzak, Domingo, Vickers '60, King, McCracken) plus complete Florestan monologue by McCracken; 5 perfs of GM No. 3, the trumpet-call scene (cond. Walter '41, Klemperer [live], Böhm-DG, Karajan-EMI, Barenboim); a promissory note for GM No. 2; 5 (yes, 5!) C.Davis-BRSO perfs of 4 overtures, in correct order and with (surprising) recording info.

• "A tease for this week's post: 'Fidelio by the numbers: How do Three Great Moments in Act II go into four overtures?'" [9/6/2020]. Background explanations including the correct order of the 4 overtures for Fidelio; plus Colin Davis in Munich, including perfs of the 4 overtures. [NOTE: For the record, that "Fidelio by the numbers" post, um, didn't exactly happen, at least not on that day in that form.]

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