p u r p u r: Carl Maria von Weber - Is he really worth listening to?

(18–19 November 1786 – 4–5 June 1826)

Sure! He's not my favorite, because I think the early Romantic period is not my favorite. It's stuck between da capo and more free forms, the harmonies are boring, even though the stories want to say more. The text is also very repetetive in the virtuoso part of the arias, which reminds me a lot of Rossini. Especially the male parts suffer from this syndrome.

BUT, I've worked on 2 roles: Agathe from Der Freischütz and Rezia from Oberon and they are wonderful. The female leads get the better music. All the talking in the middle gets in the way (as always) and must be extremely difficult for a non-native, but "Ozean, Du Ungeheuer" (Oberon) is a masterfully composed aria, easy to sing with the right weight in the voice, and impressive as hell (if you have the extension and if people want to listen to an 8-minute piece during audition). It shows a lot of emotions, which are easier to understand than the worries evoked by bad omens that your hunter-fiancé might lose the shooting match and therefore lose you. Unfortunately Oberon is rarely performed.

I always thought that Agathe's two arias from "Der Freischütz" didn't belong to the same Fach. "Wie nahte mir der Schlummer...Leise, leise" is for a jugendlichdramatische soprano and "Und ob die Wolke" is for a lyric soprano or even high mezzo. And in fact on youtube you can find one or the other, but so far I've found no one singing both. Anyway. I have to listen to the whole opera (which I've seen several times live) to get the right idea again while studying. I must say I am not very excited about learning this, since I would prefer to start with Fidelio. But one has to follow the rule of things.

Hear dear Birgit Nilsson in "Ozean, Du Ungeheuer". She is so sweet in this, her expressions before she starts singing. There is also a great version of Callas singing this in English "Ocean, Thou Mighty Monster", since the original opera of Oberon is in English.