Opera in German The years following the French Revolution of 1789 had been some of the most turbulent in European history. In "Fidelio", Beethoven wanted to express the ideals of that Revolution: liberty, equality and fraternity. He was also inspired by contemporary French works, particularly the "rescue operas" of Luigi Cherubini. Beethoven was arguably not a natural composer of opera and, although "Fidelio" was premiered in 1805, it was not until 1814 that he produced its final version. Nevertheless, Fidelio is widely regarded as a masterpiece and is one of the key works in the German repertoire. In the early years of the
Opera in Azerbaijan a yearly basis (except 1901 and 1913), featuring prominent singers of the time such as Natalia Ermolenko-Yuzhina and Antonina Nezhdanova. The Opera Theater in Baku was built in 1911. The first opera by an Azerbaijani composer premiered three years earlier, in 1908. "Leyli and Majnun" (1908) by Uzeyir Hajibeyov was the first creation in the opera genre not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole Muslim world. It was followed by the operas "Sheikh Sanan" (1909), "Rustam and Zohrab" (1910), "Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu" (1912), "Asli and Karam" (1912) and "Harun and Leyla" (1915) which were written, but