Sinfonia 3.
Op. 55.
This was copied and the original score dispatched to the embassador for
presentation, while Beethoven retained the copy. Before the composition
was laid before Napoleon, however, the great general had accepted the
title of Emperor. No sooner did Beethoven hear of this from his pupil
Ries than he started up in a rage, and exclaimed: "After all, then, he's
nothing but an ordinary mortal! He will trample the rights of men under
his feet!" saying which, he rushed to his table, seized the copy of the
score, and tore the title-page completely off. From this time Beethoven
hated Napoleon, and never again spoke of him in connection with the
symphony until he heard of his death in St. Helena, when he observed, "I
have already composed music for this calamity," evidently referring to
the "Funeral March" in this symphony.
The opera of "Fidelio," which he composed about the same time, may be
considered, in the severe sense of a great and symmetrical musical work,
the finest lyric drama ever written, with the possible exception of
Gluck's "Orpheus and Eurydice" and "Iphigenia in Tauris." It is rarely
performed, because its broad, massive, and noble effects are beyond
the capacity of most singers, and belong to the domain of pure music,
demanding but little alliance with the artistic clap-trap of startling
scenery and histrionic extravagance. Yet our composer's conscience shows
its completeness in his obedience to the law of opera; for the music he
has written to express the situations cannot be surpassed for beauty,
pathos, and passion. Beethoven, like Mendelssohn, revolted from the idea
of lyric drama as an art-inconsistency, but he wrote "Fidelio" to show
his possibilities in a direction with which he had but little sympathy.
He composed four overtures for this opera at different periods, on
account of the critical caprices of the Viennese public--a concession to
public taste which his stern independence rarely made.