Fidelio and Cymbelline
Janet T. O'Keefe
donations to the music collection. I was curious about the name
connection to Cymbelline and the fact that in both cases Fidelio was
the disguise name for a woman in man's apparel. There wasn't any
summary in this edition and I didn't have time to read the entire
libretto.
I was hoping someone here might know if there is a real connection
between the two works or not. Perhaps there is a common antecedent
from folklore. Any information would be interesting as I am insatiably
curious.
Janet
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Janet
I doubt that there is any connection at whatever level between
Beethoven's name 'Fidelio' for his Leonore, and Shakespeare's 'Fidele'
for his Imogen. Fidelio, Fidele, equates to fidelity, faithful, and
applies in both cases, and that is their link. There is no similarity
in the stories.
Both were married, and both were quite wonderful women. In my belief
Imogen is the finest of Shakespeare's women. I have only seen it acted
once: in 1957 at 'Old Vic', London. Beethoven's opera title actually
reads 'Fidelio, or Married Love.' This I managed to see more recently
October 1998, Vienna.
Beethoven
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Caius Marcius
<j_t_o...@my-deja.com> writes:
>
>I came across the libretto for Fidelio yesterday while I was sorting
>donations to the music collection. I was curious about the name
>connection to Cymbelline and the fact that in both cases Fidelio was
>the disguise name for a woman in man's apparel. There wasn't any
>summary in this edition and I didn't have time to read the entire
>libretto.
>
>I was hoping someone here might know if there is a real connection
>between the two works or not. Perhaps there is a common antecedent
>from folklore. Any information would be interesting as I am
insatiably
>curious.
>
Beethoven was the fourth composer to adapt the French playwright Jean
Nicolas Bouilly's "Leonore, or Conjugal Love" for the operatic stage.
Beethoven was a devoted Shakespearean, who at one time attempted an
operatic version of Macbeth (the creepy theme he wrote for the witches
was later transferred to the Fourth Piano Trio in D, subtitled
"Ghost"). I doubt that Beethoven was influenced by Winter's Tale in
Fidelio (though his opera does use the old Shakespearian gag of the
woman in an inpenetrable male disguise), though I can't speak of
Bouilly's level of involvement with Shakespeare.
But, Janet, please don't stop with the libretto, which is trite beyond
measure. Listen to the music, glorious beyond description: Freedom and
Democracy's Anthem.
- CMC
Robert Stonehouse
...
>Beethoven was the fourth composer to adapt the French playwright Jean
>Nicolas Bouilly's "Leonore, or Conjugal Love" for the operatic stage.
>Beethoven was a devoted Shakespearean, who at one time attempted an
>operatic version of Macbeth (the creepy theme he wrote for the witches
>was later transferred to the Fourth Piano Trio in D, subtitled
>"Ghost"). I doubt that Beethoven was influenced by Winter's Tale in
>Fidelio (though his opera does use the old Shakespearian gag of the
>woman in an inpenetrable male disguise), though I can't speak of
>Bouilly's level of involvement with Shakespeare.
>
>But, Janet, please don't stop with the libretto, which is trite beyond
>measure. Listen to the music, glorious beyond description: Freedom and
>Democracy's Anthem.
It seems to me there is something very odd about all the 'escape'
operas of that period, Haydn's Incontro Improvviso and Mozart's
Entfuehrung as well as Fidelio. The escape is always a failure and
the prisoners are always saved, not by their own efforts, but by the
magnanimous reaction of a noble and benevolent authority.
To someone from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, this is very like a lame
and impotent conclusion. Politically, it looks more like
power-worship than Freedom and Democracy. Nothing against the music,
of course, but isn't that splendid stuff pulling the wool over our
eyes?
(Not sure, though, that this belongs on HLAS!)
ew...@bcs.org.uk
volker multhopp
> cori...@ix.netcom.com(Caius Marcius) wrote:
> >Beethoven was the fourth composer to adapt the French playwright Jean
> >Nicolas Bouilly's "Leonore, or Conjugal Love" for the operatic stage.
> >Democracy's Anthem.
> To someone from the Anglo-Saxon tradition, this is very like a lame
> and impotent conclusion. Politically, it looks more like
> power-worship than Freedom and Democracy. Nothing against the music,
> of course, but isn't that splendid stuff pulling the wool over our
> eyes?
I tend to agree-- but if we see Beethoven championing democracy, then
it is we, not the glorious music pulling the wool over our eyes.
Triumph of the human spirit?-- yes. Democracy?-- no.
--Volker
Dogbrain
volker multhopp wrote in message <37788772...@erols.com>...
Didn't Beethoven scratch Napoleon's name off the Eroica sympony when
Napoleon declared himself Emperor?
Dogbrain
volker multhopp
> >it is we, not the glorious music pulling the wool over our eyes.
> >Triumph of the human spirit?-- yes. Democracy?-- no.
> Napoleon declared himself Emperor?
chosen Austria and his native Bonn-- that makes him a democrat?
--Volker
John W. Kennedy
> Didn't Beethoven scratch Napoleon's name off the Eroica sympony when
> Napoleon declared himself Emperor?
Urban myth, I understand.
Nevertheless, it is the case that, for a certain time, Napoleon was the
White Hope of liberals throughout Europe. You need look no further than
the 2nd act of "Tosca" (the opera -- 3rd act of the play) to see that.
The English view of him, which has spread throughout the Anglophone
world even to the USA, was not typical.
--
-John W. Kennedy
-rri...@ibm.net
Compact is becoming contract
Man only earns and pays. -- Charles Williams
glind
wrote:
> Dogbrain wrote:
> > Didn't Beethoven scratch Napoleon's name off the Eroica sympony when
> > Napoleon declared himself Emperor?
>
> Urban myth, I understand.
>
my authoritive one.
Beethoven's score exists (the handwriting is beyond doubt, although I
have heard of an urban myth that ... but wont go into that right now)
in which the dedication to Napoleon is still quite legible, but which
the angry Beethoven has scratched so violently that it has ripped
bloody great holes through the page. There are some who think that the
holes were caused by a caterpillar, but that is only an urban moth.