Overture to the Opera – Urtext edited by Christian Rudolf Riede

For the new Fidelio Overture, which was written at lightning speed in 1814, there is a copy of the score in the Austrian National Library which offers a reliable basis for a new, text-critical edition.

To this day, the two major Fidelio overtures are still performed from music texts that go back to the imprecise and corrupted first editions of the parts. In the meantime, however, the state of the sources for both works has significantly improved through many new findings.

For the new Fidelio Overture, which was written at lightning speed in 1814 for the reprise of the opera (and was performed with a slight delay), there is a copy of the score in the Austrian National Library which offers a reliable basis for a new, text-critical edition. This manuscript, in which one finds countless indications of corrections and completions in Beethoven's hand, is the only extant source that was examined by the composer himself.