Over a period of nine years, Beethoven composed four separate overtures for the opera that he wanted to call Leonore but which producers insisted on calling Fidelio. These overtures are sometimes performed as orchestral pieces independent of productions of the opera.
Much confusion surrounds the four overtures Beethoven wrote for Leonore / Fidelio:
• For the 1805 Leonore, Beethoven wrote an overture later called Leonore Overture No. 2.
• For the 1806 Leonore, Beethoven wrote a new overture called Leonore Overture No. 3.
• For a planned production in Prague that never took place, Beethoven wrote a new overture in 1807 confusingly called Leonore Overture No. 1 because it was once believed that this was the first Leonore overture that Beethoven wrote. It was published as Opus 138.
• For the 1814 Fidelio, Beethoven wrote another overture called the Fidelio Overture.
The Leonore Overtures Nos. 2 and 3 are often called Opus 72a and 72b respectively, although sometimes these opus numbers are used for the entire Leonore 1805 and Leonore 1806 operas.
As was customary, Beethoven wrote the first Leonore overture (Leonore Overture No. 2) shortly before the opera’s premiere on 20 November 1805. It seems to summarize the entire opera — more like a programmatic tone-poem than a conventional overture.
#Beethoven250 Day 189
Leonore Overture No. 2 (Opus 72a), 1805
Herbert Blomstedt with the Orchestra de Paris. (The video description incorrectly labels it as Opus 72b.)