Oberon (Weber)

First performed at Covent Garden, London, on 12 April 1826, with Miss Paton as Reiza, Mme. Vestris as Fatima, Braham as Huon, Bland as Oberon and the composer conducting, it was a triumph with many encores,[1] and the production was frequently revived.[2] The libretto was translated into German later in 1826 by Theodor Hell, and it is in this German translation that the opera is most frequently performed. Weber was dissatisfied by the structure of the opera as it was produced in London, and intended to revise the work on his return to Germany, but he died in London before starting work on the revision. It is logical to assume that the German translation would have had the composer's approval (and that it would have been in that language that revisions would have been made), but he heard it only in English, and did not work on a revision or translated version before his death. Since then, other composers and librettists have revised the work, notably Franz Wüllner, Gustav Mahler (who, preparing a new performing version, rearranged some of the numbers and composed some linking music based on material from the existing score) and novelist-composer Anthony Burgess, who wrote a new libretto for Oberon and arranged the overture for guitar quartet. Franz Liszt made an arrangement of the overture in 1846 for solo piano (S.574).

The opera was soon mounted elsewhere: Leipzig (23 December 1826); in 1827 in Dublin (1 February), Edinburgh (26 August) and Vienna (20 March), Prague in 1828 and Budapest in 1829, with many other performances in western Europe from the 1830s to the 1860s.[2]

The first performance of Oberon in America took place in New York at the Park Theatre on 20 September 1826.[3] It was first seen in Paris in 1830 at the Théâtre Italien (in German).[2] A lavish production was mounted in French at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 27 February 1857, conducted by Adolphe Deloffre, and was praised by Berlioz.[4]

In the 20th century, the Metropolitan Opera premiere was on 28 December 1918 (accumulating 13 performances up to 1921) with Rosa Ponselle as Reiza, conducted by Artur Bodanzky, who also composed recitatives in place of original spoken dialogue. The opera was staged at the Salzburg Festival in 1932 and 1934 under Walter, at the 1950 Holland Festival with Monteux conducting, at the Florence Festival in 1952 under Stiedry, and at the Paris Opera in 1953 with Cluytens.[5] Although the opera has been staged intermittently in the 20th century, it has more successfully been given in concert.

The opera is scored for 2 flutes, 2 clarinets (in A), 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in D and A), 2 trumpets (in D), 3 trombones (alto, tenor and bass), strings and timpani. The tunings for clarinets, horns and trumpets are from the overture. For instance, act 1 opens with horn in D.

Comparing the unconventional plot and structure of Oberon with that of The Magic Flute, Gustav Kobbé contends that 'Oberon is musically strong enough to stand on its own merits'.[5] Grove notes that despite the "unmitigated awfulness" of the libretto, Weber was able to provide musical characterisation for the main characters, at the same time colourfully evoking the mood of the different scenes; the careful recurring use of the horn call motif helps to give the impression of tying the work together.[1] The fairy strands of the opera are given in delicate, beautifully orchestrated music that often anticipates the fairy music of Mendelssohn.[1] Indeed, Mendelssohn quoted the descending scale theme from the finale of act 2 ("Hark, the mermaids") in his own overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is not clear whether Mendelssohn planned his entire overture as a tribute to Weber.

The most famous numbers are the overture (passages of which are quoted by Berlioz in his Treatise on Instrumentation) which is played regularly in the concert hall - it is based on themes from within the opera including the magic horn call; and the soprano Reiza's aria "Ocean, thou mighty monster: ("Ozean, du Ungeheuer").

• Act 1: Oberon's aria "Fatal vow!" ("Schreckens Schwur!")
• Act 1: Huon's aria "From boyhood trained" ("Von Jugend auf in der Kampf")
• Act 1: Huon's aria "Ah! 'tis a glorious sight to see" (excluded from the German score)
• Act 2: Huon's Prayer "Ruler of this awful hour" ("Vater! Hör' mich flehn zu Dir!")
• Act 2: Reiza's aria "Ocean, thou mighty monster" ("Ozean, du Ungeheuer")
• Act 2: Fatima's aria "A lonely Arab maid" ("Arabiens einsam Kind")
• Act 3: Fatima's aria "O Araby!" ("Arabien, mein Heimathland!)
• Act 3: Reiza's aria "Mourn thou, poor heart" ("Traure mein Herz")
• Act 3: Huon's aria "I revel in hope and joy" ("Ich jub'le in Glück")

• The first commercial recording was in German, and was conducted by Rafael Kubelík, whose cast featured Birgit Nilsson as Reiza and Plácido Domingo as Sir Huon of Bordeaux (Deutsche Grammophon, Cat.# J306, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herkulessaal, Munich, 1970, studio recording.)
• There have been several other recordings, such as those by James Conlon (Mahler's version) on EMI, Marek Janowski (a note-complete recording) for RCA, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner (the original English version on period instruments) for Philips.

Notes

Sources

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Oberon, 12 April 1826". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
• Brown, Clive (1992). "Oberon". In Stanley Sadie (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Vol. 3. London: Macmillan. pp. 639–642. ISBN 0-333-73432-7. ISBN 1-56159-228-5
• Kobbé, Gustav (1976). The Complete Opera Book. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
• Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). Annals of Opera 1597–1940 (third revised ed.). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-87471-851-5.
• Walsh, T. J. (1981). Second Empire Opera: The Théâtre Lyrique, Paris, 1851–1870. London: John Calder. ISBN 978-0-7145-3659-0.
• Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869164-5.

• Brown, Clive; Warrack, John (2001). "Carl Maria von Weber". In Amanda Holden (ed.). The New Penguin Opera Guide. New York: Penguin Putnam. pp. 1051–1056. ISBN 0-14-029312-4.
• Upton, George (1928). The Standard Opera Guide. New York: Blue Ribbon Books. pp. 461–465.

• Oberon. Weber's autograph in the National Library of Russia
• Oberon, (Weber: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• English libretto
• German translation of the libretto (1826)
• "Oberon, or the Elf-King's Oath" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.