So
strongly did he feel about it that he seems to have thought almost any
libretto would do, provided the moral sentiment contained in it were
sufficiently prominent. Later, the experience which he gained with
Fidelio showed him that the libretto of an opera is indeed a very
important matter; then he went to the other extreme, and was unable to
find anything which would satisfy him, although many libretti were
submitted to him at various times during the remainder of his life. A
quantity of them were found among his papers after his death. Bouilly's
libretto Leonore, which had been set to music by two different composers
before Beethoven took it in hand, was finally selected, and Sonnleithner
was employed to translate it from the French. The name of the opera was
changed to Fidelio, but the various overtures written for it are still
known as the Leonore overtures.
Beethoven took up his quarters in the theatre again as soon as the
libretto was ready for him and went to work at it with a will. But he
was not at his best in operatic writing,--this symphonist, this creator
of great orchestral forms.
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