Rescue opera rescue opera; Luigi Cherubini's "Lodoïska" (1791) has also been named a founding work of the genre. Other examples from the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, the period when rescue opera flourished, are Nicolas Dalayrac's "Camille ou Le souterrain" (1791), Jean-François Le Sueur's "La caverne" (1793), and Cherubini's "Les deux journées" (1800). While the rescue opera was primarily a French genre, the two best-known operas in the genre are not French. Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio" is by far the most famous example today, and was also influenced by the German "Singspiel". A work which is similar
Fidelio and Fidelio come to dig his grave. As they dig, Rocco urges Fidelio to hurry ("Wie kalt ist es in diesem unterirdischen Gewölbe!"—"How cold it is in this underground chamber" and "Nur hurtig fort, nur frisch gegraben"—"Come get to work and dig", the "Gravedigging Duet"). Florestan awakes and Fidelio recognizes him. When Florestan learns that the prison he is in belongs to Pizarro, he asks that a message be sent to his wife, Leonore, but Rocco says that it is impossible. Florestan begs for a drop to drink, and Rocco tells Fidelio to give him one. Florestan does not recognize