‘This opera will win for me a martyr’s crown’: Conflict in Beethoven’s Fidelio

The link between Beethoven’s Fidelio and the notion of conflict is inherent in the very inception of this opera. The present article explores this notion by looking at the circumstances surrounding the composition of Fidelio: the relation between Beethoven and the operatic tradition, the theme of the work in the context of the French Revolution, the composer’s struggles with a work that cost him immense efforts, the reception in Napoleonic Vienna that forced him to rewrite the opera over and over again. At the same time, by analysing one central moment of Fidelio – Florestan’s lament and aria at the beginning of Act II – the article highlights how Beethoven expresses the notion of conflict in the choice of instruments, tonalities, and in the requirements made to the human voice.