"Leonore" is a proper noun and does not require translation. It remains "Leonore" in English as well. If you need further assistance or context regarding this name, please let me know!

At the invitation of Emanuel Schikaneder, Ludwig van Beethoven took up residence at the Theater an der Wien, where he was to carry on the great legacy of Mozart. Here, infused with Enlightenment and idealism, as well as outraged by Napoleon's self-coronation and the occupation of Vienna, the composer, who had previously been inexperienced with opera, set about adapting the "rescue and liberation opera" Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal, which had become popular in the wake of the French Revolution, into a German singspiel. The story of a woman disguising herself as a man to rescue her imprisoned husband encountered the symphonic power that the increasingly deaf Beethoven wanted to oppose to the arbitrariness of power. Like Leonore's struggle for love and justice, Beethoven's only contribution to the opera genre reflects his struggles with music theater and the world itself. Before the well-known final version premiered under the name Fidelio at the Kärntnertortheater, the composer presented two bold original versions at the Theater an der Wien. Now this Leonore returns to the stage of the Theater an der Wien in today's tension between the art of freedom and the freedom of art.

With kind support from Martin Schlaff

In German with German and English surtitles

Introduction to the work 30 minutes before the start of the performance