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Autograph musical manuscript working score by Carl Maria von Weber for Oberon, comprising the complete chorus and ballet, No. 21, from Act III of the opera, unsigned, one page both sides, 12.75 x 9.25, circa 1826. The manuscript contains 206 measures of music notated in dark brown ink on both sides of a single oblong folio leaf, on 20 hand-ruled staves, mostly in three-stave systems with some two- and four-stave groupings. A true working score, the manuscript includes numerous corrections, deletions, and revisions, with two full measures canceled. Affixed at the corners to a thin window mat bearing a 19th-century German inscription identifying the piece as Weber’s original manuscript (translated): "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." In very good condition, with some small areas of discoloration.
Oberon, with a libretto by James Robinson Planché after Christoph Martin Wieland’s poem, premiered at Covent Garden in London on April 12, 1826. The production was a great success, admired for its lavish settings and spectacular scenic effects, and it remained popular throughout the season. Although Weber died in London less than two months after the premiere, Oberon preserved some of his most enchanting and imaginative music, from the famous horn-call of the overture to its fairy-tale choruses, dances, and brilliant theatrical color.
A substantial and highly desirable working manuscript from Weber’s final opera, composed at the close of the career that made him the leading figure of German Romantic opera. With its extensive corrections and complete Act III chorus-and-ballet section, this leaf offers a vivid view of Weber’s compositional process in a work written for the London stage and admired by later composers including Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Liszt.
