SYNOPSIS
Beethoven storms out of a concert hosted by the duke after overhearing whispers that he is a musician who has not composed anything new in years. Angered by Beethoven's arrogant behavior, the duke withdraws his patronage and cancels the scheduled performance. Beethoven's younger brother Kaspar urges him to apologize, but Beethoven refuses to listen.

Toni Brentano asks the duke to give Beethoven another chance to perform, saying that it was wrong to humiliate him. Toni has known Beethoven for many years. She has come to Vienna to settle the estate of her recently deceased father and is handling the inheritance with her sister-in-law Bettina. Beethoven visits the estate to thank her, and Toni gives him a book containing the Ode to Joy, asking him to set it to music someday.

Toni's husband, Franz Brentano, is a banker. His bank, however, is on the verge of bankruptcy. He is interested only in money and property, and tries to sell his father-in-law's estate to survive the crisis, but Toni refuses to agree.

Beethoven strongly opposes Kaspar's marriage. Kaspar's wife is denounced by people around them as a thief or a prostitute, but Kaspar tries to protect her. Beethoven cannot understand his brother's choice, and the conflict between them continues.

Meanwhile, Beethoven is gradually losing his hearing. He struggles to make a living, even performing in taverns, but has been unable to complete a new work for years. He also constantly clashes with aristocratic society. His childhood as a musical prodigy under a father who relied on alcohol and violence has left a deep mark on his personality.

Encouraged by Toni, Beethoven begins to find musical inspiration and leaves for the Bern Woods to devote himself to composition. Yet his hearing problems continue to worsen. He repeatedly makes mistakes while conducting, and the orchestra's concertmaster declares that he can no longer perform under Beethoven's direction.

At the urging of his lawyer, Franz Brentano forges records of his patronage of Beethoven. He adds a clause to a document bearing Beethoven's signature, stating that all copyrights to Beethoven's works have been transferred to him, and even changes the date and the name of the patron. The lawyer tells him that in order to gain the duke's trust and secure control over the duke's assets to save the bank from collapse, Franz needs a record of having supported Beethoven.

Franz shows the forged document to the duke, but the duke reveals that Toni's father's estate already belongs to him. He also explains that Toni's father transferred the estate to the duke in order to protect his daughter's property rights from his son-in-law. The duke summons Beethoven to confirm whether the document is genuine. If it is found to be forged, Franz will go to prison.

Around this time, Kaspar is dying of tuberculosis. Beethoven visits his brother. He says that he has never learned how to love, and confesses that he recently met a good friend and experienced what it felt like to be accepted. He also says that if Franz goes to prison, Toni's children will have to live without their father, while if Beethoven acknowledges the document, it would mean denying his entire life as a composer.

Kaspar tells his brother that he has always loved him. He says he believes Beethoven will make a good choice, asks him to take care of his son, and then dies.

In front of the duke, Beethoven says that he is responsible for the forged document. In other words, he acknowledges it as a document he signed himself. The duke decides not to report Franz, but exiles him from Vienna.

Toni decides to remain in Vienna with her children. She visits Beethoven one last time and tells him of her decision. Having lost his hearing, Beethoven cannot understand her words and asks her to write them down, but Toni is unable to put her feelings into writing. Instead, she tells him that he is a precious friend.

Left alone, Beethoven appears on stage in a tailcoat. He conducts the Ode to Joy before the chorus, and the musical comes to an end.


REVIEW

This season's musical Beethoven has undergone substantial revisions compared with the premiere production. The biggest change is the relationship between Toni Brentano and Beethoven. The love story that once carried the possibility of an affair has almost disappeared, and Toni has been redefined as a friend and muse who understands and supports Beethoven.

As a result, the center of the drama has also changed. It is no longer a story that follows the question of who the "Immortal Beloved" was. Instead, it has become a narrative about how a lonely artist reaches joy through loss and sacrifice. However, by replacing the strong dramatic drive of forbidden love with friendship, much of the tension between the characters has weakened. The work attempts to compensate for this through Franz Brentano's document forgery and villain narrative, but the conflict tends to unfold through events rather than through emotional explosion.

Beethoven in Act One is convincing. His traumatic childhood, resentment toward aristocratic society, and years-long slump caused by hearing loss all help explain why he has become such an eccentric and angry man. The contradictory position of an artist who cannot easily survive without aristocratic patronage yet despises aristocratic society is presented fairly well, as is the loneliness of an artist who has no way to prove himself except through music.

However, once the musical moves into Act Two, the tone of the work and the texture of the character change sharply. The rough artist who snarled at the world in Act One becomes, by Act Two, a man willing to sacrifice his honor and his works for Toni and her children.

The turning point is the death of his brother Kaspar. In his final moments, Kaspar entrusts his son to Beethoven, and Beethoven realizes that he did not lack love, but simply did not know how to express it. Through this, the musical constructs an emotional arc that moves from loss to realization, sacrifice, and finally joy.

Still, it is questionable whether this transformation has been sufficiently built up. Toni remains, to the end, someone who recognizes Beethoven not merely as a genius but as a wounded and difficult human being. Yet their relationship is ultimately defined as platonic friendship. As a result, the emotional weight behind Beethoven's willingness to stake his entire life for her feels lighter than in the previous version.

Moreover, the sacrifice seems less like a decision born of love than an act of resignation. Beethoven, having almost completely lost his hearing, appears to believe that he can no longer compose and that he is already finished. In that sense, his choice to protect Toni's family is understandable. But at the moment when that choice becomes equivalent to giving up his entire musical world, the character's action feels driven more by plot mechanics than by emotion.

The central incident in the latter half is the forged document. Franz Brentano falsifies records of his patronage of Beethoven in order to save his bank from bankruptcy. Beethoven is placed in a situation where revealing the truth would destroy Toni's family, while accepting the lie would mean denying his own artistic world. The structure of the conflict is clear. What is not sufficiently explained is why Franz makes such a choice, and why Beethoven would sacrifice so much for Toni.

Franz's motive for the forgery is especially weak. The musical explains that he needs a record of having supported Beethoven in order to prevent the bank's collapse and gain the duke's trust, but the method itself is far too crude. Moreover, the duke also has a love-hate relationship with Beethoven and has already withdrawn his patronage. If Franz had paid even minimal attention to public opinion in Vienna, it is doubtful whether he would have had any reason to commit such a risky crime.

The hardest part to accept until the end is the copyright-transfer plot. When Franz's crime is about to be exposed, Beethoven takes all responsibility upon himself and transfers his musical rights. Yet this was a period before the modern concept of continuing royalties had been firmly established. More importantly, within the musical, music is not merely a property right. It is the reason Beethoven clings to life even as he loses his hearing, and the only independence he has achieved as an artist standing against aristocratic society.

Therefore, it is possible to understand Beethoven giving up his honor or losing patronage for Toni. But it is difficult to accept a transfer of rights so extreme that it amounts to denying his entire life as a composer. The musical appears to be set around 1810, but it is not even clear whether the forged document applies only to works already published by that time or also to works he will compose in the future.

This creates a strange irony. Beethoven takes responsibility for the forged document and gives up his musical rights in order to protect Toni's family. But from the audience's perspective, the situation feels somewhat amusing. The reason this musical can freely use Beethoven's melodies is precisely that his copyrights expired long ago. The audience listens to music that has already entered the public domain while watching characters on stage suffer over the ownership of that same music.

A musical that uses Beethoven's music almost directly presents a fictional copyright dispute as tragedy. The scene is meant to be tragic, but the contradiction is difficult to ignore.

The musical choices are also a double-edged sword. It would be strange to make a musical about Beethoven without using his famous works, but because almost every number is built from Beethoven's melodies, the entire show feels like a giant jukebox musical. Unlike Mozart!, which places new original numbers at the center while only adopting a Mozart-like atmosphere, Beethoven remains within the aura of the original music in terms of character, score, and theme. The more familiar the audience is with Beethoven's music, the more likely they are to recall the original works whenever they hear the adapted melodies. At times, this can interfere with immersion in the drama.

Even so, the final destination the musical seeks to reach is clear.

Years later, having completely lost his hearing, Beethoven stands on the conductor's podium in a tailcoat. He can no longer hear the music, but the Ode to Joy resounds through the theater.

Within the musical, the Ode to Joy is the piece Toni once asked Beethoven to compose. The two never become lovers, but the final joy still carries traces of friendship and understanding. This scene is accepted more through emotion than logic.

The musical says that Beethoven was a man who chose joy in the end, even after losing everything. This revision ultimately abandons immortal love and chooses the path of loss, realization, sacrifice, and joy.

That ending has power. Still, some of the stepping stones laid down in Act Two on the way to that joy never feel entirely solid.

Hong Kwang-ho, who played Beethoven, sang with firm vocal power and his characteristic emotional resonance, and his acting was also steady. Yoon Gong-joo was very well suited to the role of Toni; her voice was clear, and her diction was strong. Shin Sung-min, as Kaspar, had a clear and warm tone, and his acting was convincing enough that his frail appearance in the latter half felt natural. Yoo Yeon-jung, as Bettina, left a strong impression with her clean, bright voice and stable diction. Lee Sang-jun, as the lawyer Baptist Fischok, played the role with a slyness that was almost irritating in just the right way, fulfilling the function of the villain effectively.