Toscanini in his prime was hailed as the ultimate Beethoven conductor. Not everyone agrees today, citing his relentless tempos and hard-driving intensity. But in pieces like the Fifth Symphony, or the present Overture, this style is just what is needed. Beethoven was not naturally inclined to opera and struggled with his only work of this kind, first called Leonora and subsequently retitled Fidelio, for over a dozen years, during the course of which he wrote four overtures for it. This was the third overture of the four, and is so immense and powerful that it threatened to overwhelm the opera altogether.