The liberal nobleman Florestan has disappeared. The rumour is that he is dead. His wife Leonore refuses to give up on him and has tracked him down to a prison run by his old enemy, Don Pizarro. How can she save him? By getting inside the walls – disguised as a young man called Fidelio.

Beethoven’s central belief was his faith in humanity. His only opera celebrates the power of love, personified by Leonore’s courage and self-sacrifice. And it celebrates the triumph of freedom over oppression, encapsulated in the unforgettable Prisoners’ Chorus, where the men grope from darkness and chains into the light.

Giordano Bellincampi conducts an all-star cast, led by New Zealand sensations Kirstin Sharpin and Simon O’Neill, in a work where political and ethical concerns are as true and as urgent for us today as they were for Beethoven.