A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Prometheus
PROMETHEUS. Beethoven's only Ballet (op. 43); designed by Salvatore Vigano; composed in 1800, and produced, for Mlle. Casentini's benefit, March 28, 1801, in the Burg-theater, Vienna, under the title of 'Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus.' It contains an overture, an 'Introduction,' and 16 numbers. The title of the first edition, an arrangement for the piano (Vienna, 1801, numbered in error op. 24), is 'Gli Uomini Prometeo'; English edition, 'The men of Prometheus.' If Boyle—who under the name of Bombet wrote the famous letters on Haydn—may be trusted, the representation of Chaos from the 'Creation' was interpolated by Vigano into Beethoven's Ballet at Milan, to express 'the first dawn of sentiment in the mind of beauty' (whatever that may mean).[1]
No. 5 is a very early instance of the use of Harp with the Orchestra.—The Introduction contains a partial anticipation of the Storm in Pastoral Symphony.—The Finale contains two tunes which Beethoven has used elsewhere; first of these, in E♭, appears as a Contretanz, No. 7 of 12; as the theme of 15 variations a fugue for the PF. in E♭ (op. 35, composed 1802); and as the principal theme in the Finale to the Eroica Symphony. The second—in G—appears as a Contretanz, No. 11 of the first mentioned. Such repetitions are rare in Beethoven.—The autograph of Prometheus has disappeared, but the Hofbibliothek at Vienna possesses a transcript with Beethoven's corrections.
- ↑ Lettres sur Haydn, No. 18; May 31, 1809.