In 1810 Apel’s “Gespensterbuch” had fallen into his hands and he had marked the story of “Der Freischutz” for treatment.  His mind reverted to it again in the spring of 1817.  Friedrich Kind agreed to write the book, and placed it complete in his hands on March 1, nine days after he had undertaken the commission.  Weber’s enthusiasm was great, but circumstances prevented him from devoting much time to the composition of the opera.  He wrote the first of its music in July, 1817, but did not complete it till May 13, 1820.  It was in his mind during all this period, however, and would doubtless have been finished much earlier had he received an order to write an opera from the Saxon court.  In this expectation he was disappointed, and the honor of having encouraged the production of the most national opera ever written went to Berlin, where the patriotism which had been warmed by Weber’s setting of Korner’s songs was still ablaze, and where Count Bruhl’s plans were discussing to bring him to the Prussian capital as Capellmeister.  The opera was given on June 18, 1821, under circumstances that produced intense excitement in the minds of Weber’s friends.  The sympathies of the musical areopagus of Berlin were not with Weber or his work—­neither before nor after the first performance; but Weber spoke to the popular heart, and its quick, responsive throb lifted him at once to the crest of the wave which soon deluged all Germany.  The overture had to be repeated to still the applause that followed its first performance, and when the curtain fell on the last scene, a new chapter in German art had been opened. {4}

Footnotes: 

{1} Natalia Macfarren’s translation.

{2} “Richard Wagner’s Prose Works,” translated by William Ashton Ellis, Vol.  VII, p. 169.

{3} “Famous Composers and their Works,” Vol.  I, p. 396.

{4} As I write it is nearly eighty-five years since “Der Freischutz” was first heard in New York.  The place was the Park Theatre and the date March 2, 1825.  The opera was only four years old at the time, and, in conformity with the custom of the period, the representation, which was in English, no doubt was a very different affair from that to which the public has become accustomed since.  But it is interesting to know that there is at least one opera in the Metropolitan list which antedates the first Italian performance ever given in America.  Even at that early day the scene in the Wolf’s Glen created a sensation.  The world over “Der Freischutz” is looked upon as peculiarly the property of the Germans, but a German performance of it was not heard in New York till 1856, when the opera was brought out under the direction of Carl Bergmann, at the old Broadway Theatre.

CHAPTER XII

“Tannhauser”

Nothing could have demonstrated more perfectly the