This recording is based on a live stage performance from 2005 at the Theater an der Wien, the original premiere location of Fidelio.
The 1805 version of Fidelio was revived and re-performed in Berlin in 1905 by Richard Strauss, 100 years after its premiere.
Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, exists in three main versions: 1805, 1806, and 1814, which have been extensively researched and discussed.
Beethoven reluctantly revised Fidelio in 1806 under pressure from friends, making cuts that are now considered questionable.
For the 1814 version of Fidelio, Beethoven himself insisted on a radical revision, resulting in the version that became world-famous.
The recording uses 'Rocco's Tale,' a monologue by Walter Jens, to replace the radically cut dialogues of the 1805 version.
The font used in the booklet, Fleischmann Antiqua, is a digital reinterpretation of an 18th-century baroque typeface by Johann Michael Fleischmann.
