| content |
| Operas by Carl Maria von Weber |
|---|
Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn (1802) |
Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath is a romantic opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber to an English libretto by James Robinson Planche, after a poem Oberon (in German) by Christoph Martin Wieland, which was based on the story Huon de Bordeaux (French medieval tale).
Commissioned by Charles Kemble, Weber undertook the project against his doctor's advice for financial reasons. He travelled to London to complete the music, learning English to be better capable to follow the libretto, before the successful premiere of the opera; however, he destroyed his health in the process and died in London on June 5, 1826.
Contents |
Performance history
First performed at Covent Garden, London on 12 April 1826, with Miss Paton as Reiza, Mme. Vestris as Fatima, Braham as Huon and Bland as Oberon, the composer conducting. The libretto was later translated into German by Theodore 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 died in London before starting work on the revision. Since then, many 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 famous overture for guitar quartet. Also Franz Liszt made an arrangement of the overture in 1843 for solo piano (S.574).
The first performance in America took place on March 12, 1827 in Philadelphia. The Metropolitan Opera premiere was on December 28, 1918, with total of only 13 performances until 1921, with Rosa Ponselle as Reiza, Artur Bodanzky conducting. Especially for that revival Bodanzky himself composed recitatives in place of original spoken dialogues).
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 12 April 1826 (Conductor: Carl Maria von Weber) |
|---|---|---|
| Oberon, King of the Elves | tenor | Charles Bland |
| Puck | mezzo-soprano | Harriet Cawse |
| Titania | soprano | Smith |
| Reiza, daughter of Haroun al Rachid | soprano | Mary Ann Paton |
| Fatima, Reiza's attendant | mezzo-soprano | Lucia Elizabeth Bartolozzi-Vestris |
| Sir Huon of Bordeaux, Duke of Guienne | tenor | John Braham |
| Sherasmin, Huon's squire | baritone | John Fawcett |
| Two mermaids | mezzo-sopranos | Mary Ann Goward and ? |
| Almanzor, Emir of Tunis | bass | Cooper |
| Roshana, wife of Almanzor | contralto | Lacy |
| Hassan | bass | J. Isaacs |
| Namouna, Fatima's grandmother | spoken | Davenport |
| Haroun al Rachid, Caliph of Baghdad | spoken | Chapman |
| Babekan, a Saracen prince | spoken | Baker |
| Abdallah, a corsair | spoken | Horrebow |
| Charlemagne | spoken | Austin |
| Hamet | spoken | Evans |
| Amrou | spoken | Atkins |
Noted arias
The most famous numbers are the overture (passages of which are quoted by Berlioz in his Treatise on Instrumentation) and the aria Ozean, du Ungeheuer (Ocean, thou Mighty Monster).
Selected recordings
- The first commercial recording was conducted by Rafael Kubelík, who directed a star-studded cast featuring Birgit Nilsson as Reiza and Placido 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, notably those by James Conlon (Mahler's version) on EMI, Marek Janowski (a note-complete recording, well-recorded and featuring an excellent cast) for RCA, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner (who records the original English version on period instruments in a thrilling account of the score) for Philips.
References
- Amadeus Almanac, accessed 5 November 2008
- Kobbé, Gustav (1976). The Complete Opera Book. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 160-168.
- Upton, George (1928). The Standard Opera Guide. New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 461-465.
External links
