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Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) Overture to Euryanthe (1823) c.9 minutes Weber’s opera Euryanthe is, unfortunately, a flawed work and most critics have blamed its consequent failure on the weakness of its libretto. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the librettist, Helmina von Chezy, also wrote the drama for Franz Schuberts Rosamunde, which was premiered the same year. Schuberts drama also failed as a theatrical experience, and as with Weber’s Euryanthe, the Rosamunde overture remains the only item regularly heard in the concert hall. However, Euryanthe is arguably Weber’s masterpiece and it is very regrettable that some of his greatest music remains locked in this largely unperformed opera. Unlike his two other great operas, Der Freischütz and Oberon, Euryanthe contains no spoken dialogue, although there remain clearly identifiable arias, duets, etc. Various attempts have been attempted at revising the drama to make the storyline more plausible, including by Gustav Mahler in 1903 and then, around the time of the opera’s centenary in 1922, by the musicologist Donald Tovey in collaboration with the playwright Rolf Lauckner and the conductor Fritz Busch. Despite these well-intentioned attempts, the opera has essentially remained in a limbo state, although Richard Jones’s 2002 production at Glyndebourne conducted by Mark Eider was acclaimed at the time. The overture gives an excellent example of the quality of the music that we are therefore unfortunately denied. Rather than presenting an overall view of the drama to come, the overture focuses on the doubting hero of the drama, Adolar, presenting him both as the heroic knight and tender lover, with music taken from Act II of the opera. A central passage for reduced muted strings, starting pianissimo and dying away to triple pianissimo, suggests the ghost element of the drama. A brief fugal passage leads to the recapitulation of this sonata-form movement, culminating in a fortissimo Statement of Adolar’s former tender music, suggesting the eventual happy end to the drama. Hearing the overture can thus be, at the same time, both exhilarating and frustrating: exhilarating because of the sheer quality of the melodic material, and frustrating because there is so much more music in the drama that remains largely unheard. The only Studio recording available was made in East Germany as long ago as 1974, but fortunately it boasts a Strong cast with Jessye Norman, Rita Hunter, Nicolai Gedda and Tom Krause, and the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Marek Janowski. Listening to the complete opera reveals its powerful influence on the young Richard Wagner: it is hard to see how Wagner could have composed Lohengrin without the earlier example of Euryanthe. Indeed, it is Euryanthe that arguably demonstrates greater consistency through the whole score, with its musical quality remaining of the highest Order throughout. Hopefully, as we approach Euryanthe’s bicentenary in 2023, an imaginative director can be inspired to unlock its secrets once again.
