Probably no other composer has dedicated himself to the fight for freedom in life and work as much as the great Bonn music writer, whose 250th birthday the music world celebrated in 2020. But even outside of anniversaries and commemorations, it is worth illuminating the diversity and complexity of this composer titan.
Beethoven's music is always an expression of his lifelong struggle for individuality, for equality, for change, for a self-determined life in freedom. A symbolic figure of this struggle is Leonore - the wife of Florestan, who disguised herself as a man to smuggle herself into prison in order to free her illegally imprisoned husband and defeat the prison governor and his repressive system in the process. The liberation of all prisoners stands at the end of Beethoven's only opera “Fidelio”, a work in the tradition of the French revolutionary operas of the late 18th century, which accompanied the great social upheaval and upheaval in times of storm and stress.
Does it need another revolution today to defend freedom and individuality? This question asks
Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang in his feature-length opera Prisoner of the State – a contemporary
and timely look at an oppressive system and the overthrow of a malevolent
political tyrant. An opera about the fight for freedom in the here and now - inspired by Beethoven's
“Fidelio”.
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