ch comes off to-morrow.
It is the greatest triumph one can have. You cannot imagine what a
lively interest your text inspires from beginning to end. How happy I
should have been if you had only been present to hear it for yourself!
Some of the scenes produced an effect which I was far from anticipating;
for example, that of the young girls. If I see you again at Dresden, I
will tell you all about it; for I cannot do it justice in writing. How
much I am indebted to you for your magnificent poem! I embrace you with
the sincerest emotion, returning to your muse the laurels I owe her.
God grant that you may be happy. Love him who loves you with infinite
respect. "Your Weber."

"Der Freischuetz" was such a success as to place the composer in the
front ranks of the lyric stage. The striking originality, the fire, the
passion of his music, the ardent national feeling, and the freshness of
treatment, gave a genuine shock of delight and surprise to the German
world.

IV.

The opera of "Preciosa," also a masterpiece, was given shortly after
with great _eclat_, though it failed to inspire the deep enthusiasm
which greeted "Der Freischuetz." In 1823, "Euryanthe" was produced in
Berlin--a work on which Weber exhausted all the treasures of his musical
genius. Without the elements of popular success which made his first
great opera such an immediate favorite, it shows the most finished and
scholarly work which Weber ever attained. Its symmetry and completeness,
the elaboration of all the forms, the richness and variety of the
orchestration, bear witness to the long and thoughtful labor expended
on it. It gradually won its way to popular recognition, and has always
remained one of the favorite works of the German stage.

The opera of "Oberon" was Weber's last great production. The celebrated
poet Wieland composed the poem underlying the libretto, from the
mediaeval romance of Huon of Bordeaux. The scenes are laid in fairy-land,
and it may be almost called a German "Midsummer-Night's Dream,"
though the story differs widely from the charming phantasy of our own
Shakespeare. The opera of "Oberon" was written for Kemble, of the Covent
Garden theatre, in London, and was produced by Weber under circumstances
of failing health and great mental depression. The composer pressed
every energy to the utmost to meet his engagement, and it was feared by
his friends that he would not live to see it put on the stage. It did,
indeed, prove the s