On June 18, 1821, came the first performance of Weber’s masterpiece, “Der Freischuetz.”  The theater was beseiged for hours by eager crowds, and when the doors were at last opened, there was a grand rush to enter.  The whole house from pit to galleries was soon filled, and when the composer entered the orchestra, there was a roar of applause, which it seemed would never end.  As the performance proceeded, the listeners became more charmed and carried away, and at the close there was a wild scene of excitement.  The success had been tremendous, and the frequent repetitions demanded soon filled the treasury of the theater.  Everybody was happy, the composer most of all.  The melodies were played on every piano in Germany and whistled by every street urchin.  Its fame spread like lightning over Europe, and quickly reached England.  In London the whole atmosphere seemed to vibrate with its melodies.  In Paris, however, it did not please on first hearing, perhaps because it was so thoroughly German.  But somewhat later, when renamed “Robin des Bois,”—­“Robin of the Forest,”—­it was performed some three hundred and fifty times before being withdrawn.

Weber kept ever at work.  Two years after the production of “Der Freischuetz” the opera of “Euryanthe” was completed.  The libretto was the work of a half demented woman, Helmine von Chezy, but Weber set out to produce the best opera he was capable of, and to this story he has joined some wonderful music.  It was his favorite work; he wrote to his beloved wife two hours before the first performance:  “I rely on God and my ‘Euryanthe.’” The opera was produced at the Kaernthnertor Theater, in Vienna, on October 25, 1823.  The composer, though weak and ill, made the long journey to the great city, that he might personally introduce his favorite to the Viennese.  He wrote his wife after the performance:  “Thank God, as I do, beloved wife, for the glorious success of ‘Euryanthe.’  Weary as I am, I must still say a sweet good night to my beloved Lina, and cry Victory!  All the company seemed in a state of ecstasy; singers, chorus, orchestra;—­all were drunk, as it were, with joy.”

The title role was taken by Henrietta Sontag, a young girl, still in her teens, though giving high promise of the great things she achieved a few years later.  Strange to say, a short time after its first appearance, “Euryanthe” failed to draw.  One reason might have been laid to the poor libretto, another to the rumor, started, it is said, by no less an authority than the great master Beethoven, that the music of the opera was “only a collection of diminished sevenths.”

The composer lost no time in laying his score before Beethoven, who said he should have visited him before, not after the performance.  He advised him to do what he himself had done to “Fidelio,” cut out nearly a third of the score.  Weber took this advice, and remade parts of the opera, where he deemed it necessary.