Full of panache and originality, Weber’s grand opera is the work of a composer at the height of his powers – but its plot is a load of nonsense. The conductor of its Proms premiere celebrates its brilliance
Carl Maria von Weber was a great opera composer with a minimal ability to find the right libretto writers. He never made a good choice in any of the three pieces for which he’s still known.
Oberon was his final work. He wrote it in London 200 years ago for Covent Garden theatre and died of tuberculosis shortly after its premiere in 1826, aged only 39. He was buried in the cemetery just north of the Barbican, although his grave today is in Dresden. Some 18 years after his death, Wagner – who adored, and was inspired by, the older composer (there could not have been Lohengrin without Weber’s earlier opera Euryanthe) – raised the money to repatriate his body. A large crowd met the coach at the gates of Dresden and processed through the rain to the city’s old Catholic cemetery where a second funeral was held and Wagner’s specially composed fantasia for wind band based on themes from Euryanthe was performed.
