Euryanthe Overture

“I’m waiting in agony for a good libretto…I don’t feel right when I haven’t got an opera in hand.” The sad fact is that Weber, the most gifted opera composer working in Germany before Wagner, only once found a libretto anywhere near worthy of him and, as a direct consequence, wrote only one opera which survives in the regular repertoire of opera houses today. Der Freischütz has its problems, it is true, but it is a masterpiece of the librettist’s art in comparison with works like Euryanthe and Oberon. The ultimate examples of the Weber dilemma, both of those operas are abundant in music of the highest quality and both are virtually unstageable.

The consolation is that Weber’s genius is most succinctly and most engagingly represented in his overtures. He was a brilliant orchestrator and he was a consummate designer of single-movement structures which, while they are intended to set the scene for the opera or play they precede, are entirely convincing in themselves. Above all, he was an inspired melodist whose vocal material sounds just as effective in a purely instrumental context.

The Overture to Euryanthe - the opera was commissioned by the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna as a direct result of the success of Der Freischütz in 1821 and first performed there two years later - features two great themes associated with the knightly troubadour hero Adolar. The first, following a full-orchestral flourish setting the scene amid the chivalry of 12th-century France, is a march-like tune first heard on woodwind and brass. The other, approached by a dramatic intervention on timpani and expressive sighs on cellos, is a lyrically eloquent melody introduced by violins. Apart from a ghostly episode eerily scored for just eight muted violins and tremolando violas, the rest of the overture is based on the introductory flourish and the two main themes, which are most ingeniously combined in a fugal development. In the recapitulation, however, the march tune is omitted to make way for an expansive treatment of the lyrical melody now triumphantly celebrating the reunion of Adolar with his beloved Euryanthe.

Gerald Larner©2002