BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, January 2, 1823

Today’s Wiener Zeitung at p.4 includes an advertisement by A. Pennauer for the newly published three-act opera Libussa, composed by Conradin Kreutzer, with libretto by Beethoven’s friend (and editor of the Wiener Zeitung) Joseph Bernard. At this time, only act one is available for piano and voice, with the remaining two acts to be available within the next fourteen days.

Here is an aria from Kreutzer’s opera Libussa, “Fest verschlossen, still im Herzen.”