was manager and librettist for Baron von Braun, and he became Beethoven’s collaborator.  The revision of the book was completed by March, 1814, and Beethoven wrote to Treitschke:  “I have read your revision of the opera with great satisfaction.  It has decided me to rebuild the desolate ruins of an ancient fortress.”  Treitschke rewrote much of the libretto, and Beethoven made considerable changes in the music, restoring some of the pages that had been elided at the first overhauling.  In its new form “Fidelio” was produced at the Theater am Karnthnerthor on May 23, 1814.  It was a successful reawakening.  On July 18 the opera had a performance for Beethoven’s benefit; Moscheles made a pianoforte score under the direction of the composer, who dedicated it to his august pupil, the Archduke Rudolph, and it was published in August by Artaria.

The history of “Fidelio,” interesting as it is, need not be pursued here further than to chronicle its first performances in the English and American metropoles.  London heard it first from Chelard’s German company at the King’s Theatre on May 18, 1832.  It was first given in English at Covent Garden on June 12, 1835, with Malibran as Leonore, and in Italian at Her Majesty’s on May 20, 1851, when the dialogue was sung in recitative written by Balfe.  There has scarcely ever been a German opera company in New York whose repertory did not include “Fidelio,” but the only performances for many years after it came were in English.  A company of singers brought from England by Miss Inverarity to the Park Theatre produced it first on September 19, 1839.  The parts were distributed as follows:  Leonore, Mrs. Martyn (Miss Inverarity); Marcellina, Miss Poole; Florestan, Mr. Manvers; Pizarro, Mr. Giubilei; and Rocco, Mr. Martyn.  The opera was performed every night for a fortnight.  Such a thing would be impossible now, but lest some one be tempted to rail against the decadent taste of to-day, let it quickly be recorded that somewhere in the opera—­I hope not in the dungeon scene—­Mme. Giubilei danced a pas de deux with Paul Taglioni.

Beethoven composed four overtures for “Fidelio,” but a description of them will best follow comment on the drama and its music.  Some two years before the incident which marks the beginning of the action, Don Pizarro, governor of a state prison in Spain, not far from Seville, has secretly seized Florestan, a political opponent, whose fearless honesty threatened to frustrate his wicked designs, and immured him in a subterranean cell in the prison.  His presence there is known only to Pizarro and the jailer Rocco, who, however, knows neither the name nor the rank of the man whom, under strict command, he keeps in fetters and chained to a stone in the dimly lighted dungeon, which he alone is permitted to visit.  Florestan’s wife, Leonore, suspecting the truth, has disguised herself in man’s attire and, under the name of Fidelio, secured employment in the prison.  To win the confidence of Rocco, she has displayed so