The Creatures of Prometheus Overture, op. 43

Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus was Beethoven's only full-length ballet, written for the choreographer and dancer Salvatore Viganò and staged at the Vienna Burgtheater on 28 March 1801. It ran for more than twenty performances, a real success at the time, and then vanished; only the overture kept a place in concerts. The contredanse tune that closes the ballet stayed with Beethoven, who used it again in a set of piano variations and finally as the theme of the Eroica's finale — so that the Third Symphony ends with music first written for a dancing statue.