Ticket to Weber's Last Concert, Signed and Numbered by the Composer

Original printed ticket to Carl Maria von Weber's final concert appearance, numbered and signed by the composer. The concert, given at the Argyll Rooms, Regent St., London on May 26, 1826, included the overture to his final opera, Oberon, a song written for the occasion called "From Chindara's warbling fount I come," sung by soprano Catherine Stephens, and his Jubel-Cantate in an English version. After one other public appearance on May 30, Weber died on June 4, 1826. The ticket has been numbered 85 at the lower left and signed by Weber at the lower right. Some staining to the ticket which is laid down to a rigid card together with an albumen photograph of a portrait of the composer (photograph torn in several places).  Clipped signatures of contemporary singers and conductors (including Charles Halle, John Sims Reeves, Charles Santley, Erminia Rudersdorf etc.) are affixed to the verso of the sheet. The ticket measuring 10.8 x 7.5 cm; sheet overall 22.5 x 16.5 cm. 

Weber traveled to England in February 1826 for the premiere of Oberon and several other engagements, not knowing that it would be there that he would die (at the age of only 39). "With the Oberon performances behind him, Weber conducted once more at the Oratorio Concerts, participated in three more benefit concerts and made preparations for his own concert at the Argyll Rooms on 26 May, for which he wrote his last composition, a song for the soprano Catherine Stephens (j308). The concert, which also presented the Jubel-Cantate in an English version entitled The Festival of Peace, netted only £96 11s. 0d. In May plans were broached to mount Der Freischütz at Covent Garden on 5 June as a benefit for Weber, but the composer’s health ultimately did not permit this. Following his last public appearance at a concert given by Mary Anne Paton on 30 May, he decided to forgo the Freischütz production in order to leave London on 6 June. But he did not live to see his homeland again, as he died alone and quietly in his room at Smart’s during the night of 4–5 June, succumbing at last to tuberculosis." (Michael C. Tusa, Grove Online.) (14600)

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Ephemera

Classical Music

Opera

Signed Document/Item

• Sold