Weber: Stage Works
View all works by Weber in the main appExplore the complete catalog of Stage compositions by Weber. This curated list includes composition years, historical Wikipedia context, and interactive audio to add specific tracks directly to your listening queue.
| Title | Year | Actions |
|---|---|---|
| Abu Hassan |
Abu Hassan (J. 106) is a comic opera in one act by Carl Maria von Weber to a German libretto by Franz Carl Hiemer, based on a story in One Thousand and One Nights. It was composed between 11 August 1810 and 12 January 1811 and has set numbers with recitative and spoken dialogue. The work is a Singspiel in the then popular Turkish style. |
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| Der Freischütz, op. 77 |
Der Freischütz (J. 277, Op. 77 The Marksman or The Freeshooter) is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 collection Gespensterbuch. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera. The opera's plot is mainly based on August Apel's tale "Der Freischütz" from the Gespensterbuch though the hermit, Kaspar and Ännchen are new to Kind's libretto. That Weber's tunes were just German folk music is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf's Glen scene has been described as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score". |
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| Euryanthe, op. 81 |
Euryanthe (J. 291, Op. 81) is a German grand heroic-romantic opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna on 25 October 1823. Though acknowledged as one of Weber's most important operas, the work is rarely staged because of the weak libretto by Helmina von Chézy (who, incidentally, was also the author of the failed play Rosamunde, for which Franz Schubert wrote music). Euryanthe is based on the 13th-century French romance L'Histoire du très-noble et chevalereux prince Gérard, comte de Nevers et la très-virtueuse et très chaste princesse Euriant de Savoye, sa mye. Only the overture, an outstanding example of the early German Romantic style (heralding Richard Wagner), is regularly played today. Like Schubert's lesser-known Alfonso und Estrella, of the same time and place (Vienna, 1822), Euryanthe parts with the German Singspiel tradition, adopting a musical approach without the interruption of spoken dialogue characteristic of earlier German language operas such as Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Weber's own Der Freischütz. The autograph manuscript of the opera is preserved in the Saxon State and University Library Dresden. |
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| Oberon, J.306 |
Oberon, or The Elf-King's Oath (J. 306) is a 3-act romantic opera with spoken dialogue composed in 1825–26 by Carl Maria von Weber. The only English opera ever set by Weber, the libretto by James Robinson Planché was based on the German poem Oberon by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French medieval tale. It was premiered in London on 12 April 1826. Against his doctor's advice, Weber undertook the project commissioned by the actor-impresario Charles Kemble for financial reasons. Having been offered the choice of Faust or Oberon as subject matter, he travelled to London to complete the music, learning English to be better able to follow the libretto, before the premiere of the opera. However, the pressure of rehearsals, social engagements and composing extra numbers destroyed his health, and Weber died in London on 5 June 1826. The autograph manuscript of the opera was donated by Emperor Alexander II to the National Library of Russia, where it is currently preserved. |
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| Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn, J.8, op. 8 |
Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn (J. 8, Op. 8, Peter Schmoll and his Neighbours) is the third opera by Carl Maria von Weber and the first for which the music has survived, though the libretto has not. It was written in 1801–2 when the composer was only 15 and premiered in Augsburg the following year. The libretto is based on a novel by Carl Gottlob Cramer. |
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| Silvana, J.87 |
Silvana (J. 87) is an opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Nationaltheater Frankfurt on 16 September 1810. The libretto, by Franz Carl Hiemer, is a reworking of an earlier, unsuccessful opera by Weber, Das Waldmädchen. Weber also reused music from the same piece in Silvana. It has been characterized as a somewhat unstable combination of emerging individualism with conventional techniques; however, the premiere was moderately successful, and the Berlin premiere was met with an enthusiastic reception. It is the earliest Weber opera to have survived in its complete form; older operatic works are either fragmentary or entirely lost. Weber used a melody from a discarded aria for the opera to compose the popular Seven Variations on a Theme from Silvana for clarinet and piano. He used the same melody for the theme-and-variations first movement of his Sonata No. 5 in A major (from the Six sonates progressives for piano and violin obbligato, J 99-104). |