Although today, Ludwig van Beethoven is judged to have made himself immortal through principally his instrumental music, the composer himself nurtured an unquenchable desire to achieve supreme recognition in the field of vocal music, which at the time was regarded as belonging to a higher aesthetic order. For example, in 1807, a mere year after the premiere of his only opera, Fidelio, he approached the governors of the court theatres, asking for a permanent contract, during the course of which he would undertake to compose “at least one large opera per year.” His applications remained unanswered, which conceivably explains why the disappointed composer – despite continuing in the apparent futile hope of finding a suitable libretto – sort solace by immersing himself in other kinds of stage music. In 1809-1810, Beethoven wrote first the incidental music to Egmont, and in the following year, did the same for The Ruins of Athens and King Stephen.  During this period, artistic inspiration audibly dwindled: while Goethe's drama Egmont (at least, in the overture) inspired Beethoven to give his best, August von Kotzebue's two incidental pieces (ordered for the opening of the Pest National Theatre) extracted only “incidental music” from the great composer's pen. We can also sense this from the speed that Beethoven chose to work at. Beethoven never wrote with the ease of Mozart or Handel, and only received the texts at the end of  July 1811. He posted the two scores to Pest in mid-September, so that the orchestral parts could be copied in time for the planned premiere on October 1st. The theatre postponed the opening until February 9th 1812, but even this did not guarantee Beethoven sufficient time to improve on the music which he had written at such uncommon haste. It is little wonder then, that neither composition has succeeded in finding a niche for itself in the concert repertoire. Having said that, the slow verbunk music of the King Stephen overture is fine, inspired music by any standards and hearing its Hungarian tone, we can only feel regret that one of Beethoven's recurring theatrical plans, to write an Attila opera (based on a text by Kotzebue) was never to progress beyond the ideas' stage.