[Musical excerpt—­“Morden!”]

whereupon he revolts, nor is he moved by Pizarro’s argument that the deed is demanded by the welfare of the state.  Foiled in his plan of hiring an assassin, Pizarro announces that he will deal the blow himself, and commands that a disused cistern be opened to receive the corpse of his victim.  The duet which is concerned with these transactions is full of striking effects.  The orchestra accompanies Rocco’s description of the victim as “one who scarcely lives, but seems to float like a shadow” with chords which spread a cold, cadaverous sheen over the words, while the declamation of “A blow!—­and he is dumb,” makes illustrative pantomime unnecessary.  Leonore has overheard all, and rushes forward on the departure of the men to express her horror at the wicked plot, and proclaim her trust in the guidance and help of love as well as her courageous resolve to follow its impulses and achieve the rescue of the doomed man.  The scene and air in which she does this ("Abscheulicher! wo eilst du hin?”) is now a favorite concert-piece of all dramatic singers; but when it was written its difficulties seemed appalling to Fraulein Milder (afterward the famous Frau Milder-Hauptmann), who was the original Leonore.  A few years before Haydn had said to her, “My dear child, you have a voice as big as a house,” and a few years later she made some of her finest successes with the part; but in the rehearsals she quarrelled violently with Beethoven because of the unsingableness of passages in the Adagio, of which, no doubt, this was one:—­

[Musical excerpt—­“sie wird’s erreichen”]

and when called upon, in 1814, to re-create the part which had been written expressly for her, she refused until Beethoven had consented to modify it.  Everything is marvellous in the scena—­the mild glow of orchestral color delineating the bow of promise in the recitative, the heart-searching, transfigurating, prayerful loveliness of the slow melody, the obbligato horn parts, the sweep of the final Allegro, all stand apart in operatic literature.

At Leonore’s request, and presuming upon the request which Pizarro had made of him, Rocco permits the prisoners whose cells are above ground to enjoy the light and air of the garden, defending his action later, when taken to task by Pizarro, on the plea that he was obeying established custom in allowing the prisoners a bit of liberty on the name-day of the king.  In an undertone he begs his master to save his anger for the man who is doomed to die.  Meanwhile Leonore convinces herself that her husband is not among the prisoners who are enjoying the brief respite, and is overjoyed to learn that she is to accompany Rocco that very day to the mysterious subterranean dungeon.  With the return of the prisoners to their cells, the first act ends.