Oberon. Autograph musical manuscript working score of the complete chorus and ballet, number 21 from the third act of the opera. Ca.1826

Oblong folio (236 x 322 mm.). 2 pp. 206 measures of music notated on 20 hand-ruled staves in dark brown ink on both sides of a single leaf. Mostly on 3-stave braces, but also on 2- and 4-stave braces.

With numerous corrections, deletions, and corrections; 2 entire measures canceled.

Browned, but on good quality laid paper and in very good condition overall.

Attached at corners to thin window mat, at the foot of which is an inscription in an unknown 19th century hand in German identifying the manuscript as follows (in translation): "Original manuscript by Carl Maria von Weber. The present piece is the first draft of the chorus and ballet from the third act of Oberon. Thanks to its bouncy, exquisite melody, it became a favorite of the German people even before the opera's first performance, based solely on the piano-vocal score. The draft has English text because Weber composed Oberon, which was destined for London, with English text to get as close as possible to the spirit of the nation. This prompted him to a most serious study of the language in his final years. August 1847 [Signed with Initials] [? Etw] ... Berlin." For an account of various manuscript sources of Oberon, see Jähns 306, p. 391.

Oberon, to a libretto by James Robinson Planché after Christoph Martin Wieland's eponymous poem, was first performed in London at Covent Garden on 12 April 1826. "The première ... was a great success, with lavish settings and spectacular scenic effects that impressed even Weber, and the opera remained popular throughout the season. ... It contains some of Weber's most delightful music, which has assured the work a permanent, if peripheral, place in the repertory. ... The brilliant overture opens atmospherically with Oberon's horn-call, which acts as a motif throughout the work.

With the overwhelming success of his opera Der Freischütz in 1821 [Weber] became the leading exponent of German opera in the 1820s and an international celebrity. A seminal figure of the 19th century, he influenced composers as diverse as Marschner, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Meyerbeer, Berlioz, and Liszt." Paul Corneilson, Clive Brown, et al. in Grove Music Online.