The material and cultural influences which engender an era's formal works of political theory are no strangers to the opera house. In this essay, I analyze Beethoven's opera Fidelio as a political text influenced by the republican ideas of the later Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The republicanism of Fidelio lies not so much in its depiction of political institutions. It lies rather in the opera's emphasis on republican virtue. This virtue consists of gendered sets of patriotic habits, attitudes, and practices.
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