Originally Posted by
Lokasenna
Luke got there before I did, but I'll give my two cents anyway. I'm a very great lover of Beethoven, but it really is impossible think of him as a great user of voices. Fidelio, his only opera, isn't a bad piece by any means, but it pales in comparison to those of his contemporaries. He, famously, was never satisfied with it either.
Nor are Beethoven's vocal works enjoyed much by their performers - they all have a reputation, Fidelio included, for being overly taxing. I've been told that even Missa Solemnis is unperformable in its original form, needing significant modern editing to be actually match the upper limits of the human voice.