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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2011
22 July 1824. Many Londoners had waited years for this night. They thronged to the English Opera House, filling the boxes and cramming the benches in the pit and gallery. It was worth the heat, the expense, the danger from pickpockets. After hearing of its success for three years, after glimpsing snatches of it in concert and sheet music excerpts, and after enduring weeks of advertising for the English Opera House production, they would finally be the first in London to witness the most celebrated German opera of the time: Weber's Der Freischütz.
1 English versions of Der Freischütz renamed the cast. For ease, I use the original names. For the alterations in the English Opera House version, outlined in Table 2, see The whole of the music … in the celebrated Melodrame called Der Freischütz: or, the Seventh Bullet now performing … at the Theatre Royal English Opera House (London, c.1824)Google Scholar.
2 Phillips, Henry, Musical and Personal Recollections During Half a Century (London, 1864), 1: 86.Google Scholar
3 Theatrical Observer, 29 July 1824. A Miss Noel initially played Agathe. When the more celebrated Catherine Stephens began her engagement in mid-August, the management assigned the role to her. Early September brought further changes, as Mary Ann Paton assumed the role of Agathe and William Pearman replaced John Braham as Max. See Literary Chronicle, 21 Aug. and 11 Sept. 1824.
4 Anon., ‘The “Freischütz” in London, 1824’, Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musikgesell-schaft, 11 (1909–1910): 251–4Google Scholar; Kirby, Percival, ‘Weber's Operas in London, 1824–1826’, Musical Quarterly, 32 (1946): 333–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maycock, John, ‘Weber's Operas in England’, Monthly Musical Record, 82 (1952): 39–42Google ScholarMerbach, Paul Alfred, ‘Parodien und Nachwirkungen von Webers “Freischütz”, auch ein Beitrag zur Geschichte einer Oper’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 2 (1919–1920): 642–55Google Scholar ; and William Treat Upton, ‘Max and Agathe vs. Rodolph and Agnes, et al.’, Notes, 4/2 (1947): 217–24Google Scholar . See also Viertel, Matthias S., ‘Zur Wirkungsgeschichte des “Freischütz” im 19. Jahrhundert’, in Carl Maria von Weber: Werk und Wirkung im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Lohmeier, Dieter et al. (Kiel, 1986), 51–62Google Scholar.
5 For only a small sample, see: Christensen, Thomas, ‘Public Music in Private Spaces: Piano-Vocal Scores and the Domestication of Opera’, in Music and the Cultures of Print, ed. Orden, Kate van (New York, 2000)Google Scholar ; Everist, Mark, Music Drama at the Paris Odeón, 1824–1828 (Berkeley, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; and Poriss, Hilary, ‘Artistic License: Aria Interpolation and the Italian Operatic World, 1815–1850’, Ph.D. diss. (University of Chicago, 2000)Google Scholar.
6 Fauser, Annegret, ‘Phantasmagorie im deutschen Wald? Zur “Freischütz”-Rezep-tion in London und Paris 1824’, in Deutsche Meister – böse Geister? Nationale Selbstfindung in der Musik, ed. Danuser, Hermann and Münkler, Herfried (Schliengen, 2001), 245–73Google Scholar ; and Karen Ahlquist, ‘Men's Status and Music's Status: The Mature Male in the Anglo-American Musical Theatre, 1800–1840’, unpublished essay. I am grateful to Karen Ahlquist for making her essay available to me.
7 Various newspapers and publishers brought bits of Der Freischütz to London. The Harmonicon, for example, carried reports of Der Freischütz's performances abroad, descriptions of the opera, a biography of Weber and sheet music excerpts. See esp. the issues for May 1823 and Feb. 1824 and the printed musical excerpts for 1823 and 1824. A score of the work was apparently available in London as well: see Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review (1825): 195, and Busby, Thomas, Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes of Music and Musicians, Ancient and Modern (London, 1825), 3: 100Google Scholar . In addition, a translation of the original tale from Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun's Gespen-sterbuch appeared in 1823 in Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (London, 1823), 3: 141–98Google Scholar . Finally, as I note in Table 1, early in 1824 the Royal Coburg produced The Fatal Marksman, which clearly was based on the Freischütz story but apparently attracted little notice.
8 For the repertoire of the King's Theatre in the early nineteenth century, see: Fenner, Theodore, Opera in London: Views of the Press, 1785–1830 (Carbondale and Edwardsville, III., 1994)Google Scholar ; Hall-Witt, Jennifer, ‘The Re-Fashioning of Fashionable Society: Opera-Going and Sociability in Britain, 1821–61’, Ph.D. diss. (Yale University, 1996)Google Scholar ; and Loewenberg, Alfred, Annals of Opera: 1597–1940, 3rd edn (Totowa, NJ, 1978). Fauser cites evidence that the King's Theatre may have planned to produce Der Freischütz in Italian in 1825, but evidently this fell through. ‘Phantasmagorie im deutschen Wald?’, 246–7. As I note later, the complete opera did not appear on their stage until 1832Google Scholar.
9 For this long history see e.g. numerous articles by Linda Phyllis Austern, esp. ‘“Alluring the auditorie to effeminacie”: Music and the Idea of the Feminine in Early Modern England’, Music and Letters, 74 (1993): 343–54;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLeppert, Richard D., Music and Image: Domesticity, Ideology and Socio-Cultural Formation in Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1993)Google Scholar ; and Rohr, Deborah, The Careers of British Musicians, 1750–1850: A Profession of Artisans (Cambridge, 2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 For the various acts that regulated theatrical repertoire, see: Dideriksen, Gabriella, Hume, Robert D. and Milhous, Judith, Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London, vol. 2 (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar ; Hume, Robert D., Judith Milhous and Curtis Price, Italian Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar ; Liesenfeld, Vincent J., The Licensing Act of 1737 (Madison, Wisc., 1984)Google Scholar ; and Sheppard, F. H. W., ed., The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, vol. 35 of Survey of London (London, 1970)Google Scholar . For contemporary discussion of these laws, see Great Britain Parliament, House of Commons, Report from the Select Committee on Dramatic Literature (London, 1832)Google Scholar . Finally, for modern assessments, see esp. Ganzel, Dewey, ‘Patent Wrongs and Patent Theatres: Drama and the Law in the Early Nineteenth Century”, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 76 (1961): 384–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar , and Moody, Jane, Illegitimate Theatre in London, 1770–1840 (Cambridge, 2000), 10–47Google Scholar.
11 For the repertoire of these theatres, see: Diary of Covent Garden Theatre, 1822 to 1833, British Library, Add. MSS 23156–23162; Fenner, Opera in London; Ledgers of Covent Garden Theatre, 1767 to 1829, British Library, Egerton MSS 2209–2319 and Add. MS 23167 ; Nicoll, Allardyce, Early Nineteenth Century Drama, 1800–1850, vol. 4 of A History of English Drama, 1660–1900, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1955)Google Scholar ; Playbills in the Harvard Theatre Collection; and Receipts of Performances at Drury Lane Theatre, 1772 to 1826, British Library, Add. MSS 29709–29711.
12 Don Giovanni appeared in 1817, II barbiere di Siviglia in 1818, and Le nozze di Figaro in 1819.
13 To avoid confusion, I use melodrama to mean a type of plot, melodramatic music to mean orchestral music that accompanies action or speech onstage. For melodrama during this period, see esp. Booth, Michael R., English Melodrama (London, 1965)Google Scholar ; Brooks, Peter, The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess (New Haven, 1976)Google Scholar ; Moody, Illegitimate Theatre; and Janet Turville Shepherd, ‘The Relationship between Music, Text and Performance in English Popular Theatre, 1795–1840’, Ph.D. diss. (University of London, 1991)Google Scholar.
14 Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review (1824): 402, letter from a ‘very philosophical musician’.
15 A pervasive rhetoric linked melodrama to the perceived decline of the native theatres. One letter to the editor of The Theatrical Inquisitor and Monthly Mirror summarized fears that unless melodrama were ‘checked in time, [it would] tend completely to subvert the respectability, the solidity, and the prosperity of the English stage’ (Feb. 1818): 73–4. See also Moody, , Illegitimate Theatre, 54–5Google Scholar.
16 Phillips, , Musical and Personal Recollections, 1: 81.Google Scholar
17 See Brayley, Edward Wedlake, Historical and Descriptive Accounts of the Theatres of London (London, 1826), 41Google Scholar ; Hume, Robert D. and Jacobs, Arthur, ‘London, §II, 2: Lyceum’, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera Online, ed. Macy, Laura (accessed 12 July 2003)Google Scholar , www.grovemusic.com; and Wilson, A. E., The Lyceum (London, 1952), 28–36Google Scholar . Several performers appeared at the English Opera House in the summer before returning to the majors in the fall. Drury Lane's version of Der Freischütz, for example, featured the same Annchen (a Miss Povey) as the English Opera House, the Covent Garden performance the same Ottokar (a Mr Baker), Caspar (George Bennett), Max (William Pearman) and Agathe (Mary Ann Paton).
18 The Marriage of Figaro appeared in 1823, The Barber of Seville in early July 1824.
19 In the Royal Harmonic Institution printed score, Logan is listed as the poet for all the pieces adapted from the original, Arnold as the poet for all interpolated numbers. The critic for The Drama refers to Logan as the translator (Aug. 1824): 289.
20 Phillips, , Musical and Personal Recollections, 1: 82–3.Google Scholar
21 Further work on English opera is needed, especially in the early nineteenth century. For an overview, see White, Eric Walter, A History of English Opera (London, 1983)Google Scholar . For the early nineteenth century in particular, see Carr, Bruce, ‘Theatre Music: 1800–1834’, in Music in Britain: The Romantic Age, 1800–1914, ed. Temperley, Nicholas, The Blackwell History of Music in Britain, 5 (Oxford, 1988), 288–306Google Scholar . Finally, for valuable studies of eighteenth- and later nineteenth-century English opera, see Biddle-combe, George, English Opera from 1834 to 1864, with Particular Reference to the Works of Michael Balfe (New York and London, 1994)Google Scholar ; Fiske, Roger, English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd edn (Oxford and New York, 1986)Google Scholar ; and Girdham, Jane, English Opera in Late Eighteenth-Century London: Stephen Storace at Drury Lane (Oxford, 1997)Google Scholar.
22 See esp. Dean, Winton, ‘French Opera’, in The Age of Beethoven, 1790–1830, ed. Abraham, Gerald, The New Oxford History of Music, 8 (London, 1982), 26–119Google Scholar ; Dahlhaus, Carl, Nineteenth-Century Music, trans. Robinson, J. Bradford (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), 68–71Google Scholar ; and Warrack, John, Carl Maria von Weber (London, 1968), 213–18Google Scholar . For a discussion of the numerous influences on Der Freischütz, see also Meyer, Stephen C., Weber, Carl Maria von and the Search for a German Opera (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2003)Google Scholar.
23 See e.g. Armondino, Gail, ‘The opera comique in London, or, Transforming French Comic Opera for the English Stage, 1770–1789’, Ph.D. diss. (Catholic University of America, 2000).Google Scholar
24 One of the new solos for Agathe, ‘Say my heart why wildly Beating’, is loosely based on Weber's ‘Lied der Hirtin’, op. 71 no. 5 (1818)Google Scholar . The other added numbers are advertised as ‘founded on an Original German Melody’. I have not been able to locate originals for these.
25 Nicholas Temperley underlines this genre's importance: ‘The ballad is the one element that makes English operas of the period distinctly different from their continental models.’ ‘Ballroom and Drawing-Room Music’, in Music in Britain, ed. Temperley, 121. See also Biddlecombe, , English Opera from 1835 to 1864, 36–7Google Scholar.
26 Harmonicon (Sept. 1824): 172, and Literary Gazette, 24 July 1824. For the equating of Der Freischütz's more complex music with a particularly ‘Germanic’, learned style, see Fauser, , ‘Phantasmagorie im deutschen Wald?’, 256–60Google Scholar.
27 For minor theatres' status and repertoire, see Moody, , Illegitimate TheatreGoogle Scholar . As a recent study of a slightly later period has emphasized, questions of audience are extremely complex, understudied, and resistant to generalization. Davis, Jim and Emeljanow, Victor, Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840–1880 (Iowa City, 2001)Google Scholar . Reviewers of Der Freischütz did, however, clearly distinguish between patrons of the English Opera House and those of other minor theatres. For Arnold's production, the Theatrical Observer critic listed numerous aristocrats in attendance (24 July 1824), while the writer for The Drama noted that ‘Those who were judges of music, as well as those who affected to be judges, thronged numerously to give it the meed of their approbation’ (Sept. 1824): 390. In contrast, a reviewer of the Surrey adaptation rather condescendingly noted, ‘there is a vein of comedy introduced into it which is not in the original piece, but this is probably attributable to … the expediency of catering to the taste of the audience who frequent this theatre. The managers, judging rightly of their resources, threw the strength of the piece into its scenic, rather than operatic attractions’ (Sept. 1824): 398.
28 Edward, [Fitz]Ball, Der Freischutz; or, the Demon of the Wolf's Glen, and the Seven Charmed Bullets (London, n.d.), 31.Google Scholar
29 Amherst, J. H., Der Freischütz; or, the Seven Charmed Bullets (London, n.d.), 14.Google Scholar
30 Ibid., 9.
31 Kerr, John, Der Freischütz; or, Zamiel the Spirit of the Forest, and the Seventh Bullet (London, n.d.), 36.Google Scholar
32 Fitzball, , Der Freischutz, 15–16.Google Scholar
33 Amherst, , Der Freischutz, 4–5.Google Scholar
34 Ibid., 18.
35 I am grateful to Annegret Fauser for suggesting the possible reference to Dr Faustus.
36 The reviewer for the Literary Chronicle, for example, rather unpleasantly remarked ‘we are aware that the music has a redeeming quality, that the liberality and ability of the managers in dishing up this German sourcrout [sic] is praiseworthy, but still we must lament the fashion it enjoys. We fear lest it should prove the prelude to a winter of horrible, most horrible, absurdities’ (23 Oct. 1824). For Londoners' view of Der Freischütz as quintessentially German, see Fauser, , ‘Phantasmagorie im deutschen Wald?’, 250–60Google Scholar.
37 Dr Freischütz, Plays submitted to the Lord Chamberlain, British Library, Add. MS 42868, fo. 183r.
38 Although a score for Dr Freischütz does not exist, examination of the libretto suggests that at least 10 of the parody's 13 numbers were based on the original.
39 For the Surrey, for example, Fitzball lifted exact translations of the opening chorus and drinking song from the English Opera House libretto. Similarly, the anonymous Dr Freischütz featured a parody of an interpolated number at the English Opera House: ‘Now good night! Round each hill, and tower, and tree’ became ‘Now good night Round each smoky chimney top’.
40 Royal Coburg Theatre Playbill, 29 Oct. 1824, Theatre Museum, London.
41 See Harmonicon (June 1824): 119, 124; [Barham Livius], preface to The Freyschütz or, the Wild Huntsman of Bohemia (London, n.d.)Google Scholar ; Kirby, , ‘Weber's Operas in London’, 334–5Google Scholar , and ‘Washington Irving, Barham Livius and Weber’, Music and Letters, 31 (1950): 133–47Google Scholar ; Luquer, Thatcher T. Payne, ‘Correspondence of Washington Irving and John Howard Payne [1821–1828]’, Scribner's Magazine, 48 (1910): 461–82Google Scholar ; and Price, George R., ‘Washington Irving's Librettos’, Music and Letters, 29 (1948): 348–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
42 For these theatres' repertoire, see the items listed in n. 11 as well as my ‘“Adapted and Arranged for the English Stage”: Continental Operas Transformed for the London Theater, 1814–33’, Ph.D. diss. (Washington University in St Louis, 2001), 351–63Google Scholar.
43 Jane Moody emphasizes the significance of Elliston's appointment: ‘In a variety of ways, Elliston's management [of Drury Lane] marked a cultural and social watershed. The patrician, aristocratic world of patent management … was suddenly faced with the prospect of a lessee who had acquired his capital producing illegitimate drama on the Surrey side. Drury Lane was now in the hands of a watchmaker's son, a ruthless modern cultural entrepreneur.’ Illegitimate Theatre, 127–8. By 1824, fears about Elliston seem to have been realized. In a review of Der Freischütz at Drury Lane, one reviewer fumed, ‘The present lessee of Drury Lane has done more than any other man towards corrupting the public taste. He has introduced a system of quackery degrading to the stage, pernicious to its best interests, and destructive to the moral uses for which it was designed.’ European Magazine (Nov. 1824): 461.
44 Previously, an adaptation of Don Giovanni had received one performance at a benefit night in 1818 and Le nozze di Figaro had appeared 12 times in 1823–24. Der Freischütz ran 72 nights in its first season.
45 European Magazine (Nov. 1824): 462.
46 Morning Chronicle, 15 Oct. 1824, reviewing the Covent Garden production. Contemporaries consistently ranked major-theatre audiences above those at minor theatres, with only the King's Theatre clientele more elevated. In reality, however, these audiences probably overlapped considerably. See Davis and Emeljanow, Reflecting the Audience, and my ‘“Adapted and Arranged for the English Stage”’, 22–3, 29–37.
47 The issue of decline obsessed contemporaries, and modern writers have regularly reiterated their views. Although theatre of the time did indeed experience a crisis, and although few if any dramatic works from the period hold the stage today, the issue of decline is too complex and too intertwined with financial and societal concerns to accept at face value. Bratton, J. S. even argues ‘“the decline of the drama” was a concept generated in the press and in critical writing of the period for the particular purposes of a newly ascendant hegemonic faction, the literate (and overwhelmingly male) middle classes, whose project was to recapture the stage … for the exclusive transmission of their own voice.’ ‘Miss Scott and Miss Macauley: “Genius Comes in All Disguises”’, Theatre Survey, 37/1 (1996): 59CrossRefGoogle Scholar . For further discussion, see my ‘“Adapted and Arranged for the English Stage”’, 27–48, and Moody, , Illegitimate Theatre, 10–78, 242–4Google Scholar.
48 The Atlas critic, for example, bemoaned the toll that commercialism, foreign importation and unrefined audience taste seemed to have taken on the national stage: ‘The occupation of the dramatic composer … is now dismissed from the stage; and, instead of his labours, foreign ready made scores are found, and the leader of the band and his journeymen are set to hack them ad libitum. Original music is thus obtained without expense … Music has shared the fate of wit in dramatic exhibitions – while splendid scenery and costly decorations attract the gaping multitude; noise and commonplace will pass for the one, and a sorry jest for the other’ (14 Feb. 1830).
49 The Drama; or, the Theatrical Pocket Magazine (Oct. 1824): 41–3.
50 Livius, , The Freyschütz, 17.Google Scholar
51 Livius, preface to The Freyschütz (unpaginated).
52 Soane, George, Der Freischütz: A Romantic Opera (London, 1825), 33Google Scholar , 35. The overtly religious references in this scene occasioned rare objections from the censor. Soane rewrote the scene, but the original version remains in the printed libretto and probably onstage as well, since managers knew that the censor seldom checked up on productions in performance. For censorship during this period, see Connolly, Leonard W., The Censorship of English Drama 1737–1824 (San Marino, Calif., 1976)Google Scholar and Stephens, John Russell, The Censorship of English Drama 1824–1901 (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar.
53 For perceptions of German music, see Fauser, , ‘Phantasmagorie im deutschen Wald?’, 257–60, 268–70Google Scholar.
54 Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review (1824): 403.Google Scholar
55 Ibid., 402, letter from ‘a very philosophical musician’.
56 The Drama; or, the Theatrical Pocket Magazine (Aug. 1824): 290.
57 Playbills and newspapers advertised enlarged orchestral forces, which even usurped part of the pit at Drury Lane. See e.g. London Magazine (Dec. 1824): 648. For the usual instrumental forces at the major theatres, see Carr, , ‘Theatre Music’, 289–90Google Scholar , and Dibdin, Charles, History and Illustrations of the London Theatres (London, 1826), 31Google Scholar.
58 Livius, preface to The Freyschütz (unpaginated).
59 Only a few numbers from Livius's version appeared in print. For the remainder of the score, I have compared the libretto with the original.
60 An erroneous critical tradition styles Bishop's adaptation as the most egregiously altered, while in fact it is the most faithful. See e.g. Cox, John Edmund, Musical Recollections of the Last Half-Century (London, 1872), 1: 88Google Scholar ; and Maycock, , ‘Weber's Operas in England’, 40–41Google Scholar.
61 Some critics praised Bishop's ‘judicious’ preservation of a score previously ‘mutilated’. Harmonicon (Dec. 1824): 233. Others, however, either did not recognize his fidelity or found it detrimental. The Literary Gazette critic complained, ‘all the characters are musical; an alteration, which at the same time that it may be highly gratifying to the lovers of harmony, is nevertheless disadvantageous … as singers are almost uniformly bad actors’ (13 Nov. 1824). Critics also vacillated on the appeal of fidelity to audiences. Some felt it ‘must prove a source of very considerable attraction’, but others fumed, ‘We are beginning to get very sick of … those who, under the pretence of doing honour to the genius of Weber, and of fostering the musical taste of the country, are paying only the most rigid attention to the galleries, and to the silver that is caught from the lovers of melo-dramatic effect.’ The Times, 11 Nov. 1824, and London Magazine (Dec. 1824): 647.
62 For the repertoire for these theatres, see the items listed in n. 11. Information for the English Opera House is approximate owing to incomplete sources.
63 For details of this change, see my ‘“Adapted and Arranged for the English Stage”’.
64 See Cowgill, Rachel Elizabeth, Mozart's Music in London, 1764–1829: Aspects of Reception and Canonicity’, Ph.D. diss. (University of London, King's College, 2000), 194–249Google Scholar ; and Dideriksen, Gabriella, ‘Repertory and Rivalry: Opera at the Second Covent Garden Theatre, 1830 to 1856’, Ph.D. diss. (University of London, King's College, 1997), 246–7Google Scholar.
65 Ahlquist, ‘Men's Status and Music's Status’.
66 Robert William Elliston to James Winston, 3 Oct. 1825, Harvard Theatre Collection.
67 Carl Maria von Weber to his wife, 31 Mar. 1826. Quoted in Reynolds, David, ed., Weber in London 1826 (London, 1976), 17Google Scholar.
68 Speaking of the period after Der Freischütz and Oberon, George Hogarth lamented, ‘For several years after this time, the English musicians withdrew entirely from the field of dramatic composition, and the stage was supplied entirely by importations from abroad.’ Memoirs of the Musical Drama (London, 1838), 2: 456–7Google Scholar . See also the items listed in n. 21.
69 For Bishop's account of Aladdin and Oberon, see his letter to Richard Mackenzie Bacon, 21 Aug. 1826, Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 6244/8. Bishop's stage œvre shrank from an average of five works per season in the 1810s and 1820s to two or three in the late 1820s and 1830s and ceased altogether after 1840. In addition, the number of adaptations he produced doubled after 1824. Temperley, Nicholas and Carr, Bruce, ‘Henry R. Bishop’, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera Online, ed. Macy, (accessed 12 July 2003), www.grovemusic.comGoogle Scholar.
70 See Biddlecombe, , English Opera from 1834 to 1864, andGoogle ScholarHurd, Michael, ‘Opera: 1834–1865’, in Music in Britain, ed. Temperley, , 307–29Google Scholar.
71 A selection from Der Freischütz appeared on Nicholas Bochsa's benefit concert at the King's Theatre on 22 June 1829, but this was the first full performance. It was not, however, the first German-language production. Here again the King's Theatre had to cede the operatic palm to the playhouses, for a German company had presented selections from Der Freischütz at Covent Garden on 3 June 1829.
