Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 | Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in a true classic of the concert repertoire: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 is played as the prelude to a 2006 concert in the Berliner Philharmonie. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) wrote only one opera. The original version of 1804/05, with the programmatic title Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe (Leonore, or the Triumph of Married Love), was rewritten twice by Beethoven before the composer himself premiered it under the name Fidelio in 1814. There are four different overtures to the three versions of the opera, whereby it was the Overture No. 3, Op. 72b, which then began its own career, so to speak. It’s to this day a popular overture for concerts, usually at the beginning of the program. In itself, Leonore Overture No. 3 is an instrumental, abridged version of the opera Fidelio, the plot and moods of which it anticipates in concise form. Fidelio is a ‘rescue opera’, in which the heroine Leonore slips