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<h1class="post-title">An opera; International Women's Day</h1>
<timedatetime="2020-03-09T00:00:00+00:00"class="post-date">09 Mar 2020</time>
<p>Somewhat belatedly, on the occasion of Women’s Day - it is refreshing for me to encounter, in literature, a wife saving her husband in distress (instead of the other way round).</p>
<p>I’m referring to Beethoven’s only completed opera, “Fidelio”.</p>
<p>Fidelio is the alias of a character named Leonore, who gets employed by the jailer, Rocco - and even cross-dresses as a man - so that she can gain access to the inner-most section of the jail; she wants to see if her husband, Florestan, is indeed imprisoned there.</p>
<p>I think I’ve revealed enough about the plot, so I’ll stop relating the details here.</p>
<p>Let me end with the (German) words from the finale of the opera:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nie wird es zu hoch besungen, Retterin des Gatten sein.” (Never can we over-praise a wife who saves her husband.) Translator: Lionel Salter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Details for lovers of classical music: I listened to a 1995 recording, featuring Nikolaus Harnoncourt as conductor, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.</p>
<p>I believe well-deserved honour goes to National Library Board (of Singapore)
for stocking both CD and CD-player at the public library known as
Library@Esplanade .</p>
<p><em>this post first appeared in its original form,
