That in financial matters Beethoven was quite practical was illustrated by his answer to the Prussian Ambassador at Vienna, who offered to the musician the choice of the glory of having some order bestowed upon him or fifty ducats. Beethoven took the ducats.
Beautiful as the production of "Fidelio" was, it did not escape criticism from an eminent source. Cherubini was present at the first performance at the Karnthnerthor Theatre in Vienna, and when asked how he liked the overture (Leonora in C) he replied:
"To be honest, I must confess that I could not tell what key it was in from beginning to end."
Marcelline (jailer's daughter). Leonora (under name of Fidelio). Florestan (her husband and a state prisoner). Jaquino (porter of the prison). Pizarro (governor of the prison). Hernando (the minister). Rocco (the jailer). Chorus of soldiers, prisoners and people.
Marcelline, the jailer's daughter, had been tormented to death for months by the love-making of her father's porter, Jaquino. In short, he had stopped her on her way to church, to work, to rest, at all times, and every time, to make love to her, and finally she was on the point of consenting to marry him, if only to get rid of him.
"Marcelline, only name the day, and I vow I'll never make love to you again," said the soft Jaquino. This was so funny that Marcelline thought he was worth marrying for his drollery; but just as she was about to make him a happy man by saying "yes," some one knocked upon the door, and with a laugh she drew away from him:
Oh, joy! once again I am free; How weary, how weary his love makes me.
Quite disheartened, Jaquino went to open the door.
There had been a time--before a certain stranger named Fidelio had come to the prison--when Jaquino's absurd love-making pleased Marcelline, but since the coming of that fine youth Fidelio, she had thought of little but him. Now, while Jaquino was opening the door, and she watched his figure (which was not at all fascinating), she murmured to herself:
"After all, how perfectly absurd to think of it! I shall never marry anybody but Fidelio. He is quite the most enchanting fellow I know." At that moment Jaquino returned.
"What, not a word for me?" he asked, noting her change of mood.