What made Beethoven dislike Fidelio so much?

[Almaviva]

Beethoven called Fidelio "a shipwreck." He reacted to the opera's struggles with despair and depression. There are numerous citations here:

The Critical Reception of Beethoven’s Compositions by His German Contemporaries
(In 2 volumes)
by Wayne M. Senner (Arizona State University), Robin Wallace, and William Meredith

[MAuer]

This is odd, because I've never heard any stories about Beethoven disliking Fidelio . On the contrary , from everything I've heard , he actually had a very soft spot in his heart for it. The composition of the opera gave him a great deal of difficulty , and it took repeated revisions for him to put it in definitive form .
There have been a few recordings of the earlier versions,called Leonore , conducted by Herbert Blomsted in his only opera recording so far (it's not likely there will be more at his advanced age ,84), with Edda Moser as Fidelio, and John Eliot Gardiner on DG Archiv with his period instrument orchestra, the ORR , and Michel Soustrot and the Bonn Beethovenhalle orchestra. I've heard the Blomstedt and Gardiner recordings, and the differences are fascinating .

I have the Blomsted, a live recording from Bregenz with Dermota as Florestan and the acidic Hilde Zadek as Leonore, and the 2005 live recording by de Billy with Camilla Nylund and Kurt Streit as the two leads. I've had my eye on the Gardiner, and one of these days, I know I'll break down and buy it. The Blomsted is probably the best overall, since it includes the dialogue. However, de Billy includes all of the original music -- Blomsted uses the later version of the march announcing Pizarro's arrival.