Vestas Feuer, Unv. 15

Vestas Feuer ("The Vestal Flame") is a fragment of an opera composed in 1803 by Ludwig van Beethoven to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The plot involves a romantic intrigue in which the heroine temporarily becomes a Vestal Virgin (a keeper of the Vestal Flame in Ancient Rome). Beethoven set to music only the first scene of Schikaneder's libretto, then abandoned the project. The fragment (about ten minutes of music) is rarely performed.