This episode is a longer format full length lecture on Beethoven and Napoleon. This episode is part one of two parts. This covers in greater depth Beethoven's only opera Fidelio and his 3rd Symphony or the "Eroica," as well as parallels between his life and the work of Napoleon. Political and philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment and the transition into Romanticism are also discussed. Even today, it is scarcely possible to discuss music or politics without some reference to Beethoven or Napoleon who expanded the possibilities of the conceivable in both realms.