Don Florestan has been falsely imprisoned for threatening to expose the evil Don Pizarro. While he starves to death with other political prisoners his wife, Leonore tries to find him. She disguises herself as the young man, Fidelio, and wins the confidence of the gaoler, Rocco and his daughter Marzelline. Sir Peter Hall’s outstanding 1979 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Fidelio remains remarkably faithful to the way Beethoven intended the opera to be. The stage directions of the original version – completed in 1814 after two revisions – are followed exactly by Sir Peter. Yet he still manages to inject fresh excitement and suspense into Fidelio with John Bury’s original lighting and design providing a perfect framework for the drama and conflicts that centre on political intrigue and repression. Elisabeth Soderstrom portrays the courageous Leonore in such a riveting and outstanding performance that alone is worth the whole show..