Do you hear a trumpet?
We pick up deep into Act II of Fidelio, in the secret deep-underground dungeon where the prison governor Don Pizarro has been keeping his old enemy Don Florestan. Pizarro is about to take his final revenge on the dastardly truth-teller (it's hard to believe, but there were olden times when certain depraved villains regarded truth-telling as subversive to the proper order of things). At the last moment the young assistant jailer Fidelio, present in the dungeon with his boss, the head jailer Rocco, steps in front of the prisoner to shield him, and makes a startling revelation.
LEONORE [shielding her husband]: First kill his wife!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
LEONORE [to FLORESTAN]: Yes, here see Leonore!
FLORESTAN: Leonore!
LEONORE [to the others]: I am his wife,
I have sworn comfort for him,
destruction for you!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
DON PIZARRO: What incredible courage!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: My blood stands still with joy!
ROCCO [overlapping]: My blood stands still with fear!
LEONORE [overlapping, aside]: I defy his rage!
Destruction for him,
I defy his rage!
DON PIZARRO: Ha, Shall I tremble before a woman?
Then I sacrifice them both to my fury!
You have shared life with him,
now share death with him!
LEONORE [overlapping]: Death I have sworn you,
first you must stab this heart. [Suddenly brandishes a pistol.]
One more sound -- and you are dead!
The trumpet sounds from the tower.
LEONORE: Ah, you are saved! Almighty God!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: Ah, I am saved! Almighty God!
DON PIZARRO [overlapping]: Ha! The Minister! Death and damnation!
ROCCO [overlapping]: O! what is that? Righteous God!
[PIZARRO and ROCCO stand dumbfounded. LEONORE and FLORESTAN embrace.]
The trumpet sounds again, but louder.
[JAQUINO, two oficers, and soldiers bearing torches appear at the uppermost opening on the staircase.]
JAQUINO: Father Rocco! Father Rocco! The Lord Minister has arrived!
ROCCO [joyful and surprised, aside]: Praised be God!
[1st trumpet call at 0:53, no following spoken dialogue] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Paul Schoeffler (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Hans Hopf (t), Florestan; Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erich Kleiber, cond. Broadcast performance, June 1956
[1st trumpet call at 0:46] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Hermann Uhde (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Oskar Czerwenka (bs), Rocco; Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Charles Anthony (spkr), Jaquino; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Feb. 13, 1960
[1st trumpet call at 0:57] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Tom Krause (b), Don Pizarro; Kurt Böhme (bs), Rocco; James McCracken (t), Florestan; Donald Grobe (spkr), Jaquino; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964
[1st trumpet call at 0:59, no following spoken dialogue] Birgit Nilsson (s), Leonore; Theo Adam (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Franz Crass (bs), Rocco; Ludovic Spiess (t), Florestan; RAI Rome Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. Broadcast performance, Mar. 17, 1970
by Ken
The next post here was supposed to be "Fidelio by the numbers: How do Three Great Moments in Act II go into four overtures?" -- as forecast in last week's tease-post. However, even though most of the elements for that post have been pretty much ready to roll all week, as soon as I figure out how to do it, my revised thinking is that maybe we better stick closer to the overtures, the four of them, that Beethoven wrote for his only opera. We're going to start by re-presenting the overtures in the same form we heard them last Sunday, despite what I believe I described as two quite different kinds of "temporal anomalies" in this seemingly straightforward-as-can-be presentation of them.
Quick nomenclatural note: It's well known that Beethoven preferred Leonore as the opera's title, which is how the first three overtures her wrote have come down to us as Leonore whatever. I happen to think Fidelio is a better title, referencing not Leonore personally but the character she has invented and impersonated for the long, arduous, and seemingly hopeless search for her husband, missing and presumed dead by everyone except her. But my preference aside, the finally revised version was presented as Fidelio, and since 1814 Fidelio it has been.
THE FOUR OVERTURES FOR FIDELIO
Leonore Overture No. 1, Op. 138
Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a
Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b
Fidelio Overture, Op. 72c
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond.
WHY SPEND SO MUCH TIME ON A PAIR OF "GREAT MOMENTS
FROM ACT II" IF WE'RE INTERESTED IN THE OVERTURES?
If you've heard the overtures, you know why. Some but not all of the overtures reference these two "Great Moments" -- GM No. 3, the offstage trumpet call as we just heard it, and GM No. 1, which we've heard before but are now going to hear again
GREAT MOMENT NO. 1 IN ACT II OF FIDELIO: In chains in his subetrranean dungeon, Florestan remembers happier times, and not-so-happy ones
We heard the whole of Florestan's monolog in the July 26 post, "Meet the Florestans, Beethoven's supercouple [aka Part 1a of 'The Minister is coming! The Minister is coming! Don Fernando and the lesson of Fidelio' ]"). Here are the performances we heard of our "Part 2," followed by some new ones.
"In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" ("In the spring days of life")
Here are the three "breakdown" performances we heard before:Julius Patzak (t), Florestan; Vienna Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, Aug. 3, 1948
Plácido Domingo (t), Florestan; Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded 1999
Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Karl Böhm, cond. Live performance, Feb. 13, 1960
And here are a couple of additional performances of "Part 2":
James King (t), Florestan; Staatskapelle Dresden, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded c1968
James McCracken (t), Florestan; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964
To be clear, we did hear (as I recall) James King sing the whole monologue; he just wasn't heard in any any segment of our three-part breakdown of it. And I don't think we've heard the underappreciated James McCracken as Florestan at all. As long as we're at it, why don't we hear him do the whole thing?
Fidelio: Act II, Introduction and Aria [that's what it says in the score -- Ed.], Florestan, "Gott! Welch' Dunkel hier!"
James McCracken (t), Florestan; Vienna Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel, cond. Decca, recorded March 1964
GREAT MOMENT NO. 2 IN ACT II OF FIDELIO: Leonore gets a glimpse of the prisoner but can't really make him out
The idea here was that we were going to hear the scene immediately following Florestan's monologue, the melodrama and duet in which we see Rocco bring his assistant "Fidelio" down to the secret dungeon to help dig the prisoner's grave and because of the darkness and the prisoner's extreme condition, she is unable to make him out. Something really important to our understanding of her happens at this point, and we're still going to hear it, but not today. My idea was to be cute and sandwich this between Great Moments Nos. 1 and 3, even though it has nothing to do with any of the overtures. The audio is ready, and even the English texts are, for both the full episode and the section that contains the critical moment, but again, not for today.
GREAT MOMENT NO. 3 IN ACT II OF FIDELIO: Just as Pizarro is about to do away with Florestan . . .
This of course is the chunk we heard at the top of the post, framing the sounding twice over of the famous trumpet call signaling the providential arrival of the minister. Why don't we hear it again with some Leonores other than Birgit Nilsson? We've got some good ones!
As "Fidelio" steps in front of Florestan to shield him from Pizarro, "he" makes a startling revelation.
LEONORE [shielding her husband]: First kill his wife!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
LEONORE [to FLORESTAN]: Yes, here see Leonore!
FLORESTAN: Leonore!
LEONORE [to the others]: I am his wife,
I have sworn comfort for him,
destruction for you!
DON PIZARRO: His wife?
ROCCO: His wife?
FLORESTAN: My wife?
DON PIZARRO: What incredible courage!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: My blood stands still with joy!
ROCCO [overlapping]: My blood stands still with fear!
LEONORE [overlapping, aside]: I defy his rage!
Destruction for him,
I defy his rage!
DON PIZARRO: Ha, Shall I tremble before a woman?
Then I sacrifice them both to my fury!
You have shared life with him,
now share death with him!
LEONORE [overlapping]: Death I have sworn you,
> first you must stab this heart. [Suddenly brandishes a pistol.]
One more sound -- and you are dead!
The trumpet sounds from the tower.
LEONORE: Ah, you are saved! Almighty God!
FLORESTAN [overlapping]: Ah, I am saved! Almighty God!
DON PIZARRO [overlapping]: Ha! The Minister! Death and damnation!
ROCCO [overlapping]: O! what is that? Righteous God!
[PIZARRO and ROCCO stand dumbfounded. LEONORE and FLORESTAN embrace.]
The trumpet sounds again, but louder.
[JAQUINO, two oficers, and soldiers bearing torches appear at the uppermost opening on the staircase.] JAQUINO: Father Rocco! Father Rocco! The Lord Minister has arrived!
ROCCO [joyful and surprised, aside]: Praised be God!
[1st trumpet call at 0:51] Kirsten Flagstad (s), Leonore; Julius Huehn (b), Don Pizarro; Alexander Kipnis (bs), Rocco; René Maison (t), Florestan; Karl Laufkoetter (spkr), Jaquino; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Live performance, Feb. 22, 1941
[1st trumpet call at 0:55] Sena Jurinac (s), Leonore; Hans Hotter (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Gottlob Frick (bs), Rocco; Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Covent Garden Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. Testament, Live performance, Feb. 24, 1961
[1st trumpet call at 0:46] Gwyneth Jones (s), Leonore; Theo Adam (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Franz Crass (bs), Rocco; James King (t), Florestan; Peter Schreier (spkr), Jaquino; Staatskapelle Dresden, Karl Böhm, cond. DG, recorded c1968
[1st trumpet call at 0:54] Helga Dernesch (s), Leonore; Zoltán Kélémen (bs-b), Don Pizarro; Karl Ridderbusch (bs), Rocco; Jon Vickers (t), Florestan; Horst R. Lauabenthal (spkr), Jaquino; Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. EMI, recorded 1970
[1st trumpet call at 0:59, no following spoken dialogue] Waltraud Meier (ms), Leonore; Falk Struckmann (bs-b), Don Pizarro; René Pape (bs), Rocco; Plácido Domingo (t), Florestan; Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim, cond. Teldec, recorded May-June 1999
AS TO THE "TEMPORAL ANOMALIES" IN OUR PRESENTATION
OF THE COLIN DAVIS-BRSO RECORDINGS OF THE OVERTURES
First, my seemingly simple presentation -- Leonore 1-2-3-Fidelio -- is pretty likely wrong. The manuscript of what we know as Leonore No. 1 wasn't even known in Beethoven's lifetime. It turned up among the papers of his sold at auction after his death, and even then, lacking any identification that would connect it to Fidelio, the connection was slow to be made, which is how, when the connection was made and the piece was published, it came to be assigned the fanciful opus number of 138. ("Real" Beethoven opus numbers stop at 135, the last of the string quartets. The extremely minor works published as Opp 136 and 137 are also much earlier.)
The story accepted through most of Leonore No. 1's known existence -- that it was written before Leonore No. 2 and replaced by the composer before the first performance, was not, as one might suppose, based on any evidence that Beethoven had actually done this -- i.e., compose and discard this completed overture; it was a story invented to explain the existence of this "extra" overture, which certainly seemed pretty crude alongside the presumed "later" overtures we know as Leonore Nos. 2 and 3.
The generally accepted theory now (first suggested as early as 1870, as reported in musicologist Alan Tyson's "The Problem of Beethoven's "First" Leonore Overture," published in the Summer 1975 issue of the Journal of the American Musicological Society, accessible via JSTOR if you're credentialed or persistent), based on a host of associations and sketches and suppositions, is that the "extra" overture was written after the failure of the 1805 and 1806 versions of the opera, in 1806 or 1807, for use in a contemplated production of the opera in Prague in 1807 or 1808, which never happened.
So let's rearrange the overtures, and troll for connections to our Great Moments in Act II of Fidelio.
Leonore Overture No. 2, Op. 72a (1805)
[performed in 1805 as the overture to the original version of the opera]
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. RCA, recorded May 15-25, 1995
Leonore Overture No. 3, Op. 72b (1806)
[performed as the overture to the heavily revised, including heavily cut, 1806 version]
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded c1985
Leonore Overture No. 1, Op. 138 (c1807)
[long supposed to have been the original overture, jettisoned by Beethoven in favor of Leonore No. 2, but now presumed to have been written c1807 for a projected 1807 or '08 production in Prague which never happened]
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded c1985
Fidelio Overture, Op. 72c (1814)
[a completely new creation that, although not finished in time for the premiere of the 1814 overhaul of the opera, has since the second performance been the overture to Fidelio]
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. CBS-Sony, recorded c1985
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. RCA, recorded May 15-25, 1995
You'll have noticed that something else happened in our rearrangement of the overtures. Setting aside for a moment that our four performances have grown to five, it may have been assumed, since all four performances we heard the first time are by Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Symphony, that they are a recorded "set," and were in fact recorded in the same location (the BRSO's normal performance and recording site, the Herkulessaal of the Residenz in Munich), we can now see that they aren't a set.
As I mentioned before, Davis was chief conductor of the BRSO from 1983 to 1992. Earlyish in that time, what I'm calling "c1985," they recorded seven Beethoven overtures for CBS-Sony, released as a CD in 1986 with Leonore No. 1 as track 3 and Leonore No. 3 and Fidelio as tracks 6 and 7 -- no Leonore No. 2 at all. Then in May 1995, several years after Sir Colin had stepped down as chief conductor, he returned to the Herkulessaal to record a complete Fidelio for RCA-BMG, and someone got the idea to fill the extra space available on CD 2 with a performance of, voilà, Leonore No. 2. I'm conjecturing that somebody, possibly Sir Colin himself, remembered that they hadn't included it on the overture disc; in any event, the gap was plugged.
(Just to be clear, what we heard originally was the c1985 recordings of Leonore Nos. 1 and 3 and the 1995 ones of Fidelio and Leonore No. 2. I couldn't resist throwing in the 1995 Fidelio.)
THAT'S ABOUT IT FOR TODAY
I meant to provide inserts of the ways in which we hear our two Great Moments in the overture in which they appear, and I meant to offer some additional performances of the overtures, but we can do that next time when we further consider why Beethoven, whom we think of as a master overture-maker, had such trouble with coming up with one for his opera, in which context we can also consider how the now-presumed order of composition of the four overtures affects, well, anything. I also meant to make at least comments on the performances we've heard, which I hope will speak for themselves. (Feel free to comment yourself.)
I have a feeling that this is going to lead us more in the direction of "Beethoven: Maker of Overtures" than that of our ongoing inquiry into the lesson of Fidelio, though remember, we do still have the Rocco-Leonore dungeon scene to contemplate, and this may have to wait for yet another installment.
I have a feeling that this is going to lead us more in the direction of "Beethoven: Maker of Overtures" than that of our ongoing inquiry into the lesson of Fidelio, though remember, we do still have the Rocco-Leonore dungeon scene to contemplate, and this may have to wait for yet another installment.
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