BEETHOven’s FIDELIO STUDY GUIDE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS BY CARLO DELFRATI 3 Study GUIDE for Secondary SCHOOLS Introduction The plot This guide is intended to introduce students The plot of Fidelio is simple. Set in Spain, it to opera: its language, characteristics, and deals with an episode that some sources conventions. It’s designed for secondary report actually took place during the Jac- schools, whether upper or lower (or middle obin Reign of Terror (1793-94), but there are and high schools in the US) depending on strong doubts about its authenticity. It fol- the topic, and offers a variety of educational lows a genre cultivated in France and Italy suggestions that can be used by teachers in by other composers, such as Pierre Gaveaux, whatever manner works best for their ori- Ferdinando Paer, Simone Mayr, and Luigi entation, course work, or the educational Cherubini. The main theme of “rescue opera” scheme in which they work. or opéra à sauvetage was the rescue of the The historical and musicological essays con- protagonist from danger or even death, with tained in this volume and on the accompa- the inevitable happy ending that featured nying DVD-ROM explore a range of topics the triumph of the ideals of liberty. about the figure of Beethoven, including the At the beginning of the first of two acts into inevitable topic of his deafness, along with which Fidelio is divided, young Jaquino is the changing role of the composer in soci- wooing Marzelline, the daughter of Rocco, ety. They tell the complicated backstory of the jailer of a state prison. Its governor, the Fidelio, his only opera, from its conception tyrannical Pizarro, has unjustly imprisoned in 1803 and premiere in 1805 through its his own enemy in a secret underground dun- final version of 1814. These were years that geon. In order to learn whether the mysteri- dramatically changed world history, leaving ous prisoner is her own husband Florestan, unmistakable traces in Fidelio. his wife Leonore has come to offer her ser- In addition to these essays, others deal with vices as assistant to Rocco—dressed as a man historical and esthetic considerations, such and calling herself Fidelio. Adding to her dif- as the philosophical and literary reception ficulty in gaining access to the prisoner is the of Beethoven in Romanticism, while in the fact that Marzelline has fallen in love with this strictly musical arena the reciprocal “inter- newcomer whom everyone believes is a man, ference” among the theatrical traditions of and she refuses Jaquino’s advances. France, Italy, and Germany will be analyzed. Pizarro arrives and orders Rocco to murder Composed during the period of Napoleonic the prisoner. When Rocco refuses, he decides victories over the Austrians and staged while to carry out the murder himself. He orders Vienna was occupied by the French, Fidelio Rocco to descend into the secret dungeon offers the opportunity to enter into a close to dig a grave to hide the body. Leonore/Fi- study of the Napoleonic period and the reality delio manages to get the prisoners released of Viennese theatrical life during those years. for some fresh air, but Florestan isn’t among These are all valuable contributions that them. Then she convinces Rocco to allow her will allow us to pursue an interdisciplinary to go with him into the prisoner’s cell. course of study that begins with a reading The second act opens in the dark dungeon © 2015 Musicom.it S.r.l. and a collective reflection in class. where Florestan, in chains, deliriously imagines 4 • CARLO DELFRATI STUDY GUIDE FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS • 5 that he sees his own Leonore beside him. After an, Adalgisa. There is also Gilda in Rigoletto, who die of nothing, just like that—of fear, From real life to opera she descends with Rocco, Leonore does indeed who takes the place of the rake she loves when or fright, or sadness, or anxiety. Those As we know, the events in the lives of artists recognize him. She doesn’t dare show it, though, she learns he is to be murdered. Puccini’s who die poisoned, gently; those who are inevitably affect the creation of their works. even to her long-lost husband, and continues Madama Butterfly also shows heroic qualities choked; those who fold in on themselves This is true for composers, as well as for po- peacefully. Violent deaths, lyrical deaths, the pretense. Only when Pizarro arrives to kill when she finds redemption from dishonor in ets, painters, or philosophers. In Leonore, gentle deaths, talkative or silent deaths. Florestan does Leonore reveal herself, threat- suicide. Or might we consider these women Beethoven depicts his own feminine ideal: . You could easily draw up a list of them. ening the tyrant with a pistol. Just when the sit- also as victims of the men in their lives, despite a being we might see as “asexual,” in whose uation is most dangerous, a trumpet signals the their courageous actions? The author, Catherine Clément, is especially story physical love takes second place to arrival of the government minister at the prison. In their way, the plots of these masterworks idealized situations, and is based on sublime attentive to the musical description of these Pizarro is dismayed when his criminal acts are can offer opportunities for deeper reflec- unfortunates who inhabit opera: sentiments and altruistic actions. As Bee- uncovered, and he is condemned by the minis- tions in class on the status of women, both thoven himself realized and mentioned in ter. He invites Leonore herself to remove her hus- in the society of the past and of today. On letters to his closest friends, Leonore was an The words are forgotten. An extraordinary band’s chains, and the prisoners are all liberated. this front, an abyss separates our civilization ideal figure for whom the composer yearned paradox: in a world where the unconscious Poor Marzelline returns to her suitor, Jaquino. from the fanaticism of certain criminal sects, takes up so little room, where so much is his entire life but never met. but we know that we can never let down our made of spoken words, as if they meant In Fidelio the only example of “garden-va- Study Topics guard, even in our own house—as we know what they said, with no past and no roots, riety” love appears right at the beginning: The idealization of women only too well from the daily news. If customs we have the opera, where the conscious Marzelline’s crush on Fidelio. But Beetho- Like any work of art, Fidelio also lends itself and conventions have changed with respect part, the part played by words, is forgot- ven’s attitude towards handling this love is to many interpretations. The most obvious, to those of a couple of generations ago, it is ten. No doubt it is because opera is the immediately evident: “any hint of a piquant repeated by every commentator, is the cele- due in large part to the educational system place for unformulated dreams and secret double entendre, which would have stimu- bration of conjugal love. Leonore is the wife that has made female students aware of the passions ... Consequently, the less one lated Mozart’s dramatic eros, is deliberate- hears the words, the greater the pleasure who risks her own life to save her husband’s. rights they have as compared to their male ly eliminated by the prudish Beethoven.”2 ... These women have the most beautiful The theme is the more powerful because here counterparts. Much more could be done in His very choice of a subject to set to music music; the glitter of spotlights is theirs. the woman fights for the man, contrary to the the classroom with further examples drawn Adoration and sublimation, a formidable confirms this prudishness, which is further most common situation in literature, in which from opera plots. love that must forever be conquered and underlined by his disdain for the other friv- the heroic man confronts the most arduous There are plots that can justly be viewed as danger that is absolute are theirs. And the olous plots that were submitted for his con- challenges in order to save his beloved. “the undoing of women,” as captured in the ti- act of falling, the final gesture is theirs as sideration. As much as he admired Mozart Leonore is a rare case of a heroic woman in a tle of a passionate and comprehensive review well—and the voice in its death agony.1 the composer, he strongly condemned the dramatic opera, alongside Matilda in Rossini’s of female characters in opera, an inexhausti- plots of operas such as The Marriage of Fi- Guillaume Tell (William Tell) or Puccini’s title ble source of material useful for setting up a Fidelio is one of the exceptions: here is truly a garo, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. As for heroine in La fanciulla del West (The Girl of didactic exploration on this topic: woman who fights and wins. Perhaps it is no Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), he would the Golden West), and in her own way, even coincidence that the author doesn’t mention never have set the flirtation between Pa- Strauss’s Elektra. In opera we usually encoun- Dead women, dead so often. There are it in her ample list of operas. Could it be that pageno and Papagena, let alone the childish ter a female victim, who is prey to some kind those who die disemboweled, like Lulu a “victorious” woman would somehow run magical business called for by the librettist.