Carl Maria von Weber was thirty-nine when he died in London of consumption. He had aggravated his disease and worn himself out: first, by hard work at the composition of the opera, Oberon, which the Covent Garden authorities had commissioned from him, and secondly, by conducting a series of performances of his operas at Covent Garden Theatre and a number of concerts in London in fulfilment of his contract. Knowing that he had not long to live, he had entered into this contract with the sole object of making provision for his family, since it was to bring in at least a thousand pounds. Never was money more painfully earned. But Oberon is far from being the work of a frail man, and the Overture is a virile piece of music, full of romantic flavour and delicate beauty, and ranks with Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream music as being one of the finest examples of fairy music