In summer 2020 the SCHLOSSFESTSPIELE SCHWERIN will light up summer evenings with a tribute to one of Germany´s most beloved composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, featuring his only opera FIDELIO in the year of his 250th birthday- the Schwerin contribution to a series of international celebrations marking the life of this national treasure.

Leonore takes a high risk. Under the pseudonym Fidelio and disguised as a man, she gains access to the infamous state prison in which the tyrannical governor Don Pizarro takes action against political opponents with iron determination. Since his machinations threaten to be exposed, he plans to cover up all traces and to let disappear the sharpest adversary Florestan, who vegetates in solitary confinement under inhumane conditions. At the last moment Leonore succeeds in thwarting the murder and the state's power of order puts an end to Pizarro's regime of violence.

As in his symphonies, Beethoven tunes in human music - as a resounding vision of an ideal world community. The rescue and liberation opera FIDELIO, published in its final version at the Vienna Kärntnertortheater in 1814,  contains an emphatic commitment to human dignity, freedom and justice, which are always threatened by despotism.

Even in Beethoven´s 250th year of birth, it proves to be a shockingly topical work.