The spoken dialogue and huge orchestra present performance challenges but the rewards – the Mir ist So Wunderbar ensemble, the Prisoners' choruses, Florestan's cry of "Gott!" – are unrivalled.
Written to a backdrop of revolution, Beethoven's only opera is a hymn to freedom and marital love. Leonora dresses as a man, Fidelio, to rescue her husband Florestan from imprisonment. The spoken dialogue and huge orchestra present performance challenges but the rewards – the Mir ist So Wunderbar ensemble, the Prisoners' choruses, Florestan's cry of "Gott!" – are unrivalled.