Fidelio of overwhelming the (rather light) initial scenes of the opera. Beethoven accordingly experimented with cutting it back somewhat, for a planned 1808 performance in Prague; this is believed to be the version now called "Leonore No. 1". Finally, for the 1814 revival Beethoven began anew, and with fresh musical material wrote what we now know as the "Fidelio" overture. As this somewhat lighter overture seems to work best of the four as a start to the opera, Beethoven's final intentions are generally respected in contemporary productions. While some believe that Gustav Mahler introduced the practice of performing "Leonore No. 3"
Maddalena (opera) Maddalena (opera) Maddalena () is an opera in one act by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, who also wrote the libretto based on a play of the same name by Magda Gustavovna Lieven-Orlov (under the pen name Baron Lieven). That play was in turn based on Oscar Wilde's play "A Florentine Tragedy". Although Prokofiev had already written four operas (the earliest being "The Giant" which he composed at the age of eight and was written down by the composer's mother), "Maddalena" is the first of his works in this genre to which he gave an opus number (op. 13). The