1816, and on the 21st of December, Frederick Augustus, king of
Saxony, appointed him kapellmeister at the German opera at
Dresden. The Italian operas performed at the court theatre
were superintended by Morlacchi, whose jealous and intriguing
disposition gave endless trouble. The king, however, placed the
two kapellmeisters on an exact equality both of title and salary,
and Weber found ample opportunity for the exercise of his
remarkable power of organization and control. He now gave
his close attention to the story of Der Freischütz, which he had
previously meditated turning into an opera, and, with the
assistance of Friedrich Kind, he produced an admirable libretto, under
the title of Des Jägers Braut. No subject could have been better
fitted than this to serve as a vehicle for the new art-form which,
under Weber's skilful management, developed into the type
of “romantic opera.” He had dealt with the supernatural in
Rübezahl, and in Sylvana with the pomp and circumstance of
chivalry; but the shadowy impersonations in Rübezahl are
scarcely less human than the heroine who invokes them; and
the music of Sylvana might easily have been adapted to a story
of the 19th century. But Weber now knew better than to let
the fiend in Der Freischütz sing; with three soft strokes of a
drum below an unchanging dismal chord he brings him straight
to us from the nether world. Every note in Euryanthe breathes
the spirit of medieval romance; and the fairies in Oberon have
an actuality quite distinct from the tinsel of the stage. This
uncompromising reality, even in face of the unreal, forms the
strongest characteristic of the pure “romantic school,” as
Weber understood and created it. It treats its wildest subjects in
earnest, and without a doubt as to the reality of the scenes
it ventures to depict, or the truthfulness of their dramatic
interpretation.
Weber wrote the first note of the music of Der Freischütz on the 2nd of July — beginning with the duet which opens the second act. But so numerous were the interruptions caused by Morlacchi's intrigues, the insolence of unfriendly courtiers, and the attacks of jealous critics that nearly three years elapsed before the piece was completed. In the meantime the performances at the opera-house were no less successfully remodelled at Dresden than they had already been at Prague, though the work of reformation was far more difficult; for the new kapellmeister was surrounded by enemies who openly subjected him to every possible annoyance, and even the king himself was at one time strongly prejudiced against him. Happily, he no longer stood alone in the world. Having, after much difficulty, broken off his liaison with Margarethe Land, he married the singer Carolina Brandt, a noble-minded woman and consummate artist, who was well able to repay him for the part he had long played in her mental development. The new opera was completed on the 13th of May 1820, on which day Weber wrote the last note of the overture — which it was his custom to postpone until the rest of the music was finished. There is abundant evidence to prove that he was well satisfied with the result of his labours; but he gave himself no rest. He had engaged to compose the music to Wolff's Gipsy drama, Preciosa. Two months later this also was finished, and both pieces ready for the stage.
In consequence of the unsatisfactory state of affairs at Dresden, it had been arranged that both Preciosa and Der Freischütz — no longer known by its original title, Des Jägers Braut — should be produced at Berlin. In February 1821 Sir Julius Benedict was accepted by Weber as a pupil; and to his pen we owe a delightful account of the rehearsals and first performance of his master's chef-d'œuvre. Preciosa was produced with great success at the old Berlin opera-house on the 14th of June 1821. On the 18th of June, the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the opening of the new “Schauspielhaus” was celebrated by the production of Der Freischütz. Much anxiety was caused by unforeseen difficulties at the rehearsals; yet, so calm was Weber's mind that he devoted his leisure time to the composition of his Concertstück in F minor — one of his finest pianoforte pieces. Until the last moment his friends were anxious; the author was not; and the result justified his confidence in his own powers. The success of the piece was triumphant. The work was received with equal enthusiasm at Vienna on the 3rd of October, and at Dresden on the 26th of January 1822. Yet Weber's position as kapellmeister was not much improved by his success, though, in order to remain faithful to his engagements, he had refused tempting offers at Berlin and Cassel, and, at the last-named place, had installed Ludwig Spohr in a position much more advantageous than his own.
For his next opera Weber accepted a libretto based, by Frau Wilhelmine von Chezy, on the story of Euryanthe, as originally told in the 13th century, in Gilbert de Montreuil's Roman de la Violette, and repeated with alterations in the Decamerone, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline, and in several later forms. In place of the ghostly horrors of Der Freischütz, the romantic element was here supplied by the chivalric pomp of the middle ages. The libretto is in one respect superior to that of Der Freischütz, inasmuch as it substitutes elaborate recitative for the spoken dialogue peculiar to the German “Schauspiel” and French “opera comique.” It is, in fact, a “grand opera” in every sense of the words, — the prototype of the “music drama” perfected fifty years later by Wagner. The overture — as usual, written last — presents a feature that has never been imitated. During its performance the curtain temporarily rises, to exhibit, in a tableau vivant, the scene in the sepulchral vault upon which the whole story turns. This direction is now rarely carried out; but Weber himself well knew how much the interest of the piece depended on it. The work was produced at the Kärntnerthor theatre in Vienna, on the 25th of October 1823, and received with enthusiasm.
Weber's third and last dramatic masterpiece was an English opera, written for Covent Garden theatre, upon a libretto adapted by Planche from Wieland's Oberon. It was disfigured by the spoken dialogue abandoned in Euryanthe; but in musical beauty it is quite equal to it, while its fairies and mermaids are as vividly real as the spectres in Der Freischütz. Though already far gone in consumption, Weber began to compose the music on the 23rd of January 1825. Charles Kemble had offered him £1000 for the work, and he could not afford to rest. He finished the overture in London, at the house of Sir George Smart, soon after his arrival, in March 1826; and on the 12th of April the work was produced with triumphant success. But it cost the composer his life. Wearied out with rehearsals and performances of the opera, and concerts at which he was received with rapturous applause, he grew daily perceptibly weaker; and, notwithstanding the care of his kind host, Sir George Smart, and his family, he was found dead in his bed on the morning of the 5th of June 1826. For eighteen years his remains rested in a temporary grave in Moorfields chapel; but in 1844 they were removed and placed in the family vault at Dresden, Wagner making an eloquent speech.
Besides his three great dramatic masterpieces and the other works already mentioned, Weber wrote two masses, two symphonies, eight cantatas, and a large number of songs, orchestral and pianoforte pieces, and music of other kinds, amounting altogether to more than 250 compositions.
(W. S. R.)
Weber's style rises, in his three greatest works, to heights which show his kinship with the great classics and the great moderns. His intellect was quick and clear; but yet finer was the force of character with which he overcame the disadvantages of his feeble health, desultory education and the mistakes of his youth. With such gifts of intellect and character, every moment of his short life was precious to the world; and it is impossible not to regret the placing of his training in the hands of Abt Vogler. Weber's master was an amiable charlatan, whose weakness as a teacher was thoroughly exposed, in perfect innocence, by his two illustrious pupils. Meyerbeer wished to be famous as the maker of a new epoch in opera. Weber could not help being so in reality. But he was sadly hampered by his master's inability to teach realities instead of appearances; and to this impediment alone must we assign the fact that his masterpieces do not begin earlier in his career. With extraordinary rapidity and thoroughness he learnt English a year before his death in order to compose Oberon, with the result
