Napoleon was a regular opera-goer and an admirer of Italian vocal music in particular. He was impressed by Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and famously described The Marriage of Figaro as ‘the Revolution in action’.
Beethoven was vehemently opposed to repression of any kind. He initially dedicated his Third Symphony to Napoleon, whom he saw as a great hero and an upholder of democracy. But when he heard that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor, he angrily scratched out the dedication. The concert opens with La Reine, one of Haydn’s Paris Symphonies and a favourite of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette.