Opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven | Libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner, Georg Friedrich Treitschke, and Stephan von Breuning, based on Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Dialogue version by Maike Graf with letters by Maria Kalesnikava
“Inside, I was always free.”
Maria Kalesnikava
More than two years have passed since Leonore’s husband, Florestan, disappeared. The world believes him to be dead, but Leonore refuses to believe it. She is convinced that the power-hungry governor Don Pizarro, whose crimes Florestan threatened to expose, is secretly holding him captive. To find Florestan, Leonore disguises herself as a man and takes a job with the jailer Rocco under the name Fidelio. Courageous and determined, she manages to get close to her husband. Yet she is constantly in danger of being unmasked.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera, *Fidelio*, is a plea for freedom, humanity, and justice—and at the same time an indictment of the arbitrariness of tyrannical rule. It is based on a libretto by Jean-Nicolas Bouilly (Léonore, ou l’Amour conjugal), which is based on a true story.
Kerstin Steeb’s production explores the effects of fear: What does fear do to us? And how can fear give rise to courage and collective resistance? By linking Leonore to the Belarusian resistance fighter Maria Kalesnikava, Beethoven’s opera of liberation becomes a contemporary story about the power of rising up together against oppression.
