“Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man; the gods punished him by chaining him to a rock. For Beethoven, overflowing with genius and desirous of sharing it with humanity, the rock was his deafness.” — Yehudi Menuhin
“Beethoven realized there was no likelihood of cure and saw that his career as a pianist was probably ruined. It was a mental agony all the fiercer in that for the most part he suffered in a silence as proud as that of Prometheus towards his captors.” — Marion Scott
In early 1801, Beethoven got a commission for a ballet score, and he dropped everything to work on it. The ballet was “The Creatures of Prometheus” with choreography by Naples-born dancer Salvatore Viganò, who had come to Vienna by way of Venice. It was unusual for Viganò to use music of a single composer for his ballets. Typically he would patch together a score from existing compositions.
“The Creatures of Prometheus” was Beethoven’s first ballet score since the “Ritterballet” (Day 21) ten years previously, and it was to be his last. The ballet premiered on 28 March 1801, had a total of 14 performances that year, and 9 more in 1802. “The Creatures of Prometheus” was Beethoven’s longest work to date, with over 2000 bars and a performance time of over an hour. Although the scenario and choreography of the ballet was lost, some hints exist of the story’s narrative.
Although ballet was commonly part of operas, standalone ballet scores by major composers were unusual. “The Creatures of Prometheus” seems to be the only example until Tchaikovsky.
In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. He was punished by being chained to a rock and having his liver chewed by an eagle for the rest of time. But over time the myth and the myth’s meaning underwent many mutations.
Goethe wrote a “Prometheus” poem in the 1770’s (set to music by Schubert in 1819), and Shelley wrote “Prometheus Unbound” in 1820. Two years earlier, Mary Shelley’s first novel was entitled “Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus.”
For Beethoven’s ballet score, Prometheus was the original creator of the first man and woman. He then goes on to introduce the first couple to the arts and sciences. Prometheus becomes a civilizing figure and by extension, a kind of Enlightenment icon.
The original playbill called “The Creatures of Prometheus” an “heroic, allegorical ballet.” This is the first use of the word “heroic” in connection with Beethoven’s music. Beethoven later recycled the last part of the score for the 4th movement of his “Eroica” symphony.
The playbill further describes Prometheus as “a sublime spirit, who came upon the men of his time in a state of ignorance, who refined them through science and art, and imparted to them morals.”
Lewis Lockwood writes:
This Prometheus is presented rather as an Enlightenment philosopher and teacher who brings reason and knowledge to the unlettered and ignorant ‘creatures’ — Rousseau’s noble savages on the ballet stage — men and women in a pre-civilized, preliterate state.” Lockwood also suggests that the music “reflected [Beethoven’s] awareness of a connection between Prometheus as mankind’s mythic liberator and Napoleon as modern hero. (Beethoven, pp. 150–1)
Because (spoiler alert!) Prometheus emerges triumphant and unpunished, William Kinderman observers:
This version of the myth thus shifts the dramatic emphasis from the defiant martyr to the reception of humankind of the Promethean gift of culture. In the ballet the cultural gifts of the titan are not initially understood or appreciated by his two “creatures”; consequently, Prometheus’s agony comes to parallel the plight of the misunderstood artist. (Beethoven, p. 96)
Beethoven begins “The Creatures of Prometheus” with an Overture, then an Introduction, followed by 16 movements that range in playing time from 30 seconds to almost 10 minutes. The orchestration has a certain flamboyance appropriate for a stage work but unsuitable for a symphony.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43), 1801
A rare complete live performance accompanied by animations and narration by Stephen Fry.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43), 1801
The Naxos recording of the complete ballet score.
Following the storm portrayed in the Introduction, in number (1), Prometheus creates the man and woman, who awaken but can barely move and know nothing. (2) Prometheus despairs but (3) has a plan.
Act II takes place in Parnassas. (4) Prometheus presents the creatures to Apollo, who teaches them arts and sciences. (5) With a rare use of harp in Beethoven’s music, Eurerpe, muse of music, gives the creatures reason and emotion.
In (6 & 7) the creatures acknowledge Prometheus. Number (8) is an “heroic dance” led by Bacchus, and the creatures take up weapons. [However, Barry Cooper believes that (8) “is more military than heroic” and (12) is the true heroic dance.]
In (9) Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, demonstrates the consequences of militarism by using a dagger to kill Prometheus. In (10), labeled Pastorale, Prometheus is restored to life, and various dances follow. (14) is notable for a duet between solo basset horn and oboe.
The ballet concludes with (16), an English style country dance, later recycled for the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3. (This scenario is highly condensed from the Appendix in Beethoven: Eroica Symphony by Thomas Sipe, Cambridge Music Handbooks)
For an extensive analysis of the background of the Prometheus myth and Beethoven’s music, see the first two chapters of Paul Bertagnolli’s Prometheus in Music: Representations of the Myth in the Romantic Era. (Ashgate, 2007)
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, Overture), 1801
Often the overture is performed by itself, and sometimes with period instruments, like here by the Bruges-based Anima Eterna (@animaeterna).
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, Overture), 1801
Another performance of the overture, this time with young musicians in Stuttgart.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, excerpts), 1801
Trevor Pinnock conducts the youngish Royal Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra in excerpts: Overture (0:10), 1 (5:37), 2 (8:58), 3 (10:17), 5 (12:47), and 16 (20:59)
Beethoven’s use of an English-style country dance for the finale of “The Creatures of Prometheus” conveys an aura of Enlightenment equality. It was a type of dance that everyone could participate in, sometimes (oh my!) even masters and servants together.
In a 1793 letter, Friedrich Schiller wrote
I can think of no more fitting image for the ideal of social conduct than an English dance, composed of many complicated figures and perfectly executed. A spectator in the gallery sees innumerable movements intersecting in the most chaotic fashion, changing direction swiftly and without rhyme or reason, yet never colliding. Everything is so ordered that the one has already yielded his place when the other arrives; it is all so skillfully, and yet so artlessly, integrated into a form, that each seems only to be following his own inclination, yet without ever getting in the way of anybody else. It is the most perfectly appropriate symbol of the assertion of one’s own freedom and regard for the freedom of others.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, excerpts), 1801
From Prague, a rare (and fascinatingly mysterious) staging of the ballet, incorporating the Overture, and Numbers 14, 5, and 16, with some added vocals.
A story is told of Haydn bumping into Beethoven and saying “Well, I heard your ballet yesterday and it pleased me very much!” to which Beethoven replied: ‘O, dear Papa, you are very kind; but it is far from being a Creation!’ alluding to Haydn’s recent oratorio. Apparently Haydn was not quite sure how to take that and countered “That is true; it is not yet a Creation and I can scarcely believe that it will ever become one.”
Nobody seems to have won this exchange.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, Number 14), 1801
Number 14 only, played by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, with the basset horn and oboe soloists brought up front, and something else going on.
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The Creatures of Prometheus (Opus 43, excerpt), 1801
Only a trailer, but a tantalizing glimpse at a staging of the ballet by the Hartig Ensemble in the Czech Republic.
Viganò later restaged “Prometheus” with some other ballets at la Scala in Milan in 1813. Stendhal saw some Viganò productions and said, “His is an imagination in the style of Shakespeare, there is both the genius of the painter and the musician in his head.” But for this revised staging of “Prometheus,” Viganò employed his customary technique and created a patchwork score by combining pieces of Beethoven’s music with excerpts from — yes, that’s right — Haydn’s Creation.