Customer Reviews

Fidelio in Full Score

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the real thing. Full orchestral score and complete. No translation from the German, unfortunately, but a translation of the libretto is not hard to find.

The history of Fidelio's composition is one of the great comic Operas in the annals of music theatre. Beethoven wrote the opera's first version, Leonore. He liked it, but didn't like the overture. He wrote a second overture, didn't like it, then wrote a third. He liked the new overture, but decided he didn't like the opera. So he re-wrote the Opera and re-titled it Fidelio. After finishing the new score, he decided that, you guessed it, he hated the overture. After composing two full length operas and four 15-minute overtures, he finally had the piece he wanted to compose. With sweat pouring off his brow, he triumphantly exclaimed, "man, I ain't doing that again!" Dover reprinted an early Breitkopf & Hartel edition of Fidelio, using as it's resource B & H's gesamtlichtwerke (I believe that's "complete works"). Dover chose Fidelio, not Leonore, for the simple reason that Fidelio is the version most often performed today. Maybe the idea that Dover could've publish two versions simply underlines the assertion that Dover should begin publishing Complete Works of some of Western Classical music's great masters, such as Beethoven (sold separately, or in a set, of course). The scholarship in this B & H Fidelio is, of course, highly reliable, and the book itself is easy to read and nearly indestructable. The print is large enough that this score could be used on the podium.

This opera, is probably the best opera in the time of Beethoven. This opera is not very long, but her sister Leonore, is longer and much more beautiful, but Fidelio, is much more dramatic. The opera score here, is very good, no dialog, which is pretty hard because the recordings I have, are missing dialog, and I want to see the dialog itself. The opera score contains no table of contents, no instrumentation, and no notes. The opera score which i got, fell apart after two months I have used it, and the scoresmells a horrible smell. do not buy this score, it is cheap, but you get cheap.