Wafts one kiss to all the world!
Surely, o’er yon stars unfurl’d,
Some kind Father has his dwelling!
Fall ye prostrate, O ye millions!
Dost thy Maker feel, O world?
Seek Him o’er yon stars unfurl’d,
O’er the stars rise His pavilions!
OVERTURE TO “LEONORE NO. 3,” OP. 72
The overture is in itself a condensation of what is dramatic in an opera that has commonplace, yes, bourgeois pages. Hearing the overture, one is spared the sight of a bulbous and shrieking prima donna; of a tenor whose throat had been seriously affected by a long confinement in a “dem’d moist” dungeon; of the operetta young man and woman chatting with a flatiron among the stage properties; of four persons, each with an individual sentiment, singing the same tune in an approved scholastic form.
It might be well to play in the same concert the three Leonore overtures in the order in which they were probably written: Nos. 2, 3, 1. A programme composed exclusively of piano sonatas by Beethoven is an invention of the Adversary, and it deserves the attention of the police as a deliberate act against public morals. Nor is an orchestral programme devoted exclusively to the works of any composer to be encouraged, except possibly when the Ninth symphony is given. But with these overtures the case is different, for here is a revelation of Beethoven’s processes of musical and dramatic thought when he was mightily interested in the same subject.... How many composers, after the achievement of a Leonore No. 2, would have the courage or the ability to shape from it a Leonore No. 3? After the three were attentively heard and thoughtfully considered, then No. 3 might be reasonably reserved for concert use and the other two put away ready but surely on the shelf.