Weber in London
- Tom Richards
- Mar 4
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 5
"The most German of composers," was Wagner's great honour for Weber, at his funeral. But Weber's final opera was in English, premiered in London. And it is now largely forgotten.
He had TB - and he must have known its progress as his mother and sister had died of the dread disease. Concerned for income of his wife and children after his death, Weber accepted a commission from Covent Garden to conduct a performance of Der Freischütz and produce a new opera for the English audience. This most German of composers even learned English for the important appointment. He was far from happy with the libretto provided by James Robinson Planché, who was by then the stock author at Covent Garden. But Weber's time was tight. So he wrote some of his most wonderful music for the weird characters of the chaotic plot.
Oberon premiered in London on 12 April 1826, a great success for Covent Garden, with many performances , but... Weber never saw his family again. He died in London on 5 June 1826. In 1844, Richard Wagner was the driving force behind a movement to return Weber's remains to Dresden. Wagner wrote his Trauermusik (Funeral Music) for a massive wind band (75 players and 20 drums) based on themes from Weber's opera Euryanthe and An Weber’s Grabe (At Weber’s Grave), for a cappella male choir, during the reburial ceremony. And there, Wagner delivered his famous, deeply nationalistic funeral oration, declaring Weber the "most German" of musicians. "Behold, now the Briton does thee justice... but only the German can love thee!".
Since, even the British have largely discarded Oberon from repertoire; it has had far more performances in German translation. As Wiki puts it politely, "While this opera was a commercial success and received a favourable critical response at the time, subsequent critics have not appreciated Planché's libretto." Here's a typical comment about a modern recording:
Although the opera was frequently performed in the early and mid nineteenth century, it eventually fell out of the repertoire, in part because of insoluble problems with the plot. Weber wrote the opera for London, and the libretto (in English, by Planché) is a nearly incomprehensible mishmash of elements derived from Wieland’s late eighteenth-century epic poem Oberon.
Which leaves us a puzzle - why was Oberon such a success in nineteenth century England, then such a flop everywhere?
The music
Well, there was the music. "Die Freischutz" had been a great success in London, and Weber wrote some on his most marvellous music to Planché's "incomprehensible mishmash".
The overture, featuring that magic horn sound, is still an orchestral favourite. Listen here - Bernard Haitink conducts at ROH. The overture entwines themes from the opera, music that depicts a magical, fairy-tale world that contrasts with human scenes - exotic places and naturalistic sounds, emphasizing the magical elements through instrumentation. Reiza's solo addressing the storm, "Ocean! thou mighty monster" has been recorded by many leading sopranos. Here's Joan Sutherland. And Birgit Nilssen in performance. And of course Maria Callas.
That problematic plot
The libretto begins as though retelling Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream - the king and queen of the fairies are in conflict and Puck's sent on a mission. But it's a different mission. The royals won't be reconciled till they find a human couple who are faithful through all perils.
Somehow Puck identifies as the likely couple the knight Sir Huon in Charlemagne's court and - in Baghdad -the Caliph's daughter Reiza. (They haven't met yet). She's about to be married to someone else but he is ordered (why?) by Emperor Charlemagne to kill the bridegroom, then kiss and wed Reiza. In a flashback to Magic Flute, Sir Huon has a vision of this unknown woman and is given a magic horn to blow for help. (Cue great horn music.)
So he goes and does it, kills the bridegroom and abducts Reiza. Now for the perils. Puck conjures a storm, (great storm music) and then pirates, who rescue the occupants of the boat and sell Reiza for the harem of the Emir in Tunis - whose wife falls for Sir Huon and is rejected. The Emir generously declares the now loving couple will be burned at the stake together, and (at last!!) Huon blows the horn. (Remember the horn?) Enter Oberon and Titania , exit dancing then fleeing Tunisians and the lovers are transported somehow to Charlemagne’s court.
As Anna Russell would say, I'm not making this up! More importantly, I've read the entire English libretto and challenge you to do so.
The libretto is here. It's a great read, witty rhyming couplets for the songs, separated by fairly daft dialog, not unlike a comic opera of W.S.Gilbert. Nothing like your average opera libretto, more like a pantomime. As Planché' knew, the English loved pantomimes, and there was endless enthusiasm for exotic eastern tales and "rescue" ones in particular.
Wikipedia has the full gory story as a proper synopsis here.
And the very British librettist?
James Planché was no nobody. A highly successful theatrical writer, he knew his audiences. He excelled in "playful dialog" and his first play was a pantomime. He wrote a total of 176 plays. And one opera.
The themes of his works are highly varied. When Weber arrived in London, Planché was probably best known for The Vampire, or, The Bride of the Isles, which had premiered 1820.
Trivia item: The Vampire introduced the "vampire trap", that stage trapdoor we know so well. (How had the Don gone to hell when Don Giovanni premiered in 1787?)
In later years, moving around increasingly prestigious theatre positions and theatrical circles, Planché introduced the revue to British theatre. Wiki gives as an example of the style of these works, Mr Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe (1854), which includes these words:
"To the West, to the West, to the land of the free"
Which means those that happen white people to be
"Where a man is a man" – if his skin isn't black –
If it is, he's a nigger, to sell or to whack ...
For more on this multitalented and maligned writer, check out Wiki on Planché . Perhaps sparked by the challenges of historical settings in Oberon, he became an authority and campaigner for historically accurate costuming, and for copyright to be extended to dramatic works. His writings have survived better than our opera. (You can buy his plays on Amazon!)
So it seems Planché was aiming for an audience Weber didn't know, with a drama form unfamiliar to him? This essay offers an answer.
Weber received the text of Oberon piecemeal, so he only gradually became aware that it wasn't what he considered an opera.
Precisely.
That is because it isn't. Part of our dissatisfaction with Oberon is the way the libretto fails to match our expectation of a high romantic opera. We need to understand a bit more about what the text was, in fact, trying to achieve.
Wiki quotes an essay on the history of early nineteenth century British theatre: "I am quite certain that such masters of lyrical writing as W. S. Gilbert ... would confirm me in my opinion that the songs and lyrics in the extravaganzas of Planché were as faultless in tone, tact and taste as they were rhythmically perfect. (The converse was also true; Planché approved of, and strongly influenced Gilbert's works)."
Our production
Our performance is available here on YouTube: one of only two I could find in video (and there are no DVDs.) It's from the Edinburgh Festival 1986 directed by Frank Dunlop, sung in English with the star British tenor, Philip Langridge as Oberon. (Off script, he starts quoting Shakespeare - not lines from the Elf King, but from the comic character Quince who introduces the burlesque "mechanicals" performance.) James Robertson is Puck, Elizabeth Connell is Reiza, and Benjamin Luxon won praise for his performance as the comic character Sherasmin. Seiji Ozawa conducts.
The production went first to Tanglewood. New York Times wasn't impressed. "Most of the music calls to mind not the vernal German Romanticism of Weber's earlier "Die Freischutz" but a prefiguration of the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan". Thus the librettist influences the composer.
Lyn 4/3/26
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