Act II. The scene is in the dungeon where _Florestan_ is in heavy chains. To one side is the old cistern covered with rubbish. Musically the act opens with _Florestan's_ recitative and air, a fit companion piece to _Leonore's_ "Komm Hoffnung" in Act I. The whispered duet between _Leonore_ and _Rocco_ as they dig the grave and the orchestral accompaniment impress one with the gruesome significance of the scene.
_Pizarro_ enters the vault, exultantly makes himself known to his enemy, and draws his dagger for the fatal thrust. _Leonore_ throws herself in his way. Pushed aside, she again interposes herself between the would-be murderer and his victim, and, pointing at him a loaded pistol, which she has had concealed about her person, cries out: "First slay his wife!"
At this moment, in itself so tense, a trumpet call rings out from the direction of the fortress wall. _Jacquino_ appears at the head of the stone stairway leading down into the dungeon. The _Minister of State_ is at hand. His vanguard is at the gate. _Florestan_ is saved. There is a rapturous duet, "O, namenlose Freude" (Joy inexpressible) for him and the devoted wife to whom he owes his life.
In _Florestan_ the _Minister of State_ recognizes his friend, whom he believed to have died, according to the reports set afloat by _Pizarro_, who himself is now apprehended. To _Leonore_ is assigned the joyful task of unlocking and loosening her husband's fetters and freeing him from his chains. A chorus of rejoicing: "Wer ein solches Weib errungen" (He, whom such a wife has cherished) brings the opera to a close.
It is well said in George P. Upton's book, _The Standard Operas_, that "as a drama and as an opera, 'Fidelio' stands almost alone in its perfect purity, in the moral grandeur of its subject, and in the resplendent ideality of its music." Even those who do not appreciate the beauty of such a work, and, unfortunately their number is considerable, cannot fail to agree with me that the trumpet call, which brings the prison scene to a climax, is one of the most dramatic moments in opera. I was a boy when, more than forty years ago, I first heard "Fidelio" in Wiesbaden. But I still remember the thrill, when that trumpet call split the air with the message that the _Minister of State_ was in sight and that _Leonore_ had saved her husband.