SYNOPSIS

The action is set in a state prison a few miles from Seville.

CD 1 1Overture

Act One

2 The curtain rises on a scene of domestic disharmony in the home of the chief gaoler, Rocco: Jaquino, the gatekeeper, wants to marry Rocco’s daughter, Marcellina, 3 but she is in love with Fidelio, a young man whom her father has only recently taken into his service. What she does not know is that Fidelio is a woman — Leonora — who, disguised as a man, is looking for her husband, Florestan. 4 Rocco, too, values his new assistant and has no hesitation in promising Marcellina in marriage to Fidelio. 5 In his Gold Aria, however, Rocco, warns the couple not to allow their love to blind them to the need for a material basis to their lives. 6 Leonora takes advantage of her position of trust to ask Rocco if she may also be allowed to help him in the deepest dungeons, where she secretly hopes to find her husband.

7 Pizarro, the prison governor, enters. He is handed a dispatch warning him that the minister is planning a surprise inspection. At once Pizarro thinks of Florestan, whom he is holding prisoner illegally, 8 and decides to murder him before the minister arrives. 9 He then orders Rocco to prepare Florestan’s grave.

10 Leonora has overheard all this and decides once again to heed the voice of “true wedded love” and rescue her husband. When Rocco returns, she asks him to allow the less dangerous prisoners out of their cells to enjoy the spring sunshine. ! The prisoners emerge slowly, watched by Fidelio, and sing of the joy of even temporary freedom. Rocco returns with news that Pizarro has agreed to Fidelio and Marzelline’s marriage and that Fidelio will be allowed into the secret dungeon that very day. He also reveals the murder plot. Fidelio must help him dig the grave. Pizarro returns and is enraged by Rocco’s high-handed action. The prisoners are forced back into their cells.

Act Two CD 2

1 Florestan ekes out his pitiful existence in the perpetual night of his prison cell. He expresses his conviction that, in spite of the hopelessness of his situation, he has done the right thing. He is seized by a vision in which he sees an angel, like Leonora, leading him to freedom in the kingdom of heaven.

2 Leonora and Rocco enter the cell and begin to uncover a cistern that is to serve as Florestan’s grave. Florestan, who has hitherto remained motionless, wakes up and asks Rocco for a sip of water. 3 Rocco gives him some wine, and Leonore, recognising her husband in the prisoner, gives him a piece of bread, trembling with the intensity of her emotions.

4 Pizarro enters, reveals his identity to Florestan and announces that the latter is to die. He is on the point of lungeing at Florestan with his dagger when Leonore throws herself between them with the words: “First kill his wife!” So great is his astonishment at Fidelio’s true identity that Pizarro momentarily drops his guard. Leonora halts Pizarro with her pistol, ready to kill him. But at that moment a trumpet is heard from the prison tower announcing the minister’s arrival. Florestan is safe. 5 Husband and wife are overwhelmed by their joy.

6 The parade-ground of the castle fills with prisoners and townsfolk. All celebrate the minister’s arrival. Fernando, the minister, is agreeably surprised to see his friend Florestan, whom he had long believed dead. Leonore is invited to remove her husband’s shackles, and the opera ends with general rejoicing.

Anna Mika Translation: Stewart Spencer