Rescue opera tradition that would influence German Romantic opera and French grand opera. The most famous rescue opera is Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fidelio". "Rescue opera" was not a contemporary term. Dyneley Hussey used the term in English in 1927 as a translation of Karl M. Klob's 1913 reference to "Fidelio" as "das sogenannte Rettungs- oder Befreiungsstück" in "Die Oper von Gluck bis Wagner". David Charlton believes that rescue opera is not an authentic genre, and that the concept was coined to make what he believes is a nonexistent connection between Beethoven's work and French opera. Patrick J. Smith, on the other hand,
Fidelio orders, Rocco has been giving the imprisoned Florestan diminishing rations until he is nearly starved to death. Jaquino and Marzelline are alone in Rocco's house. Jaquino asks Marzelline when she will agree to marry him, but she says that she will never marry him now that she has fallen in love with Fidelio, unaware that Fidelio is actually Leonore in disguise ("Jetzt, Schätzchen, jetzt sind wir allein"—"Now, darling, now we are alone"). Jaquino leaves, and Marzelline expresses her desire to become Fidelio's wife ("O wär ich schon mit dir vereint"—"If only I were already united with thee"). Rocco enters, looking