gettyO89's video: Weber Oberon Act II Ozean du Ungeheuer conclusion Kirsten Flagstad E Ormandy cond 1937

Kirsten Flagstad with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, 1937. Ozean, du Ungeheuer ("Oberon") HMV DB 3440 Kirsten Malfrid Flagstad (12 July 1895 – 7 December 1962) was a Norwegian opera singer, who was the outstanding Wagnerian soprano of her era. Her triumphant debut in New York on 2 February 1935 is one of the legends of opera. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the longstanding General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera said, “I have given America two great gifts — Caruso and Flagstad.” Called "the voice of the century", she ranks among the greatest singers of the 20th century. Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote of her in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera: "No one within living memory surpassed her in sheer beauty and consistency of line and tone." Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985) was a Hungarian-born violinist and conductor best known for his association with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ormandy's characteristic conducting style resulted in the "Philadelphia Sound," which he brought around the world through recordings, international tours, and guest conducting engagements. This collection contains test pressings and private recordings, mostly of Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Oberon, or The Elf-King's Oath (J. 306) is a 3-act romantic opera with spoken dialogue composed in 1825–26 by Carl Maria von Weber. The only English opera ever set by Weber, the libretto by James Robinson Planché was based on the German poem Oberon by Christoph Martin Wieland, which itself was based on the epic romance Huon de Bordeaux, a French medieval tale. It was premiered in London on 12 April 1826. Against his doctor's advice, Weber undertook the project commissioned by the actor-impresario Charles Kemble for financial reasons. Having been offered the choice of Faust or Oberon as subject matter, he traveled to London to complete the music, learning English to be better able to follow the libretto, before the premiere of the opera. However, the pressure of rehearsals, social engagements and composing extra numbers destroyed his health, and Weber died in London on 5 June 1826 at the age of 39. The autograph manuscript of the opera was donated by Emperor Alexander II to the National Library of Russia, where it is currently preserved. Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (c. 18 November 1786 – 5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic of the early Romantic period. Best known for his operas, he was a crucial figure in the development of German Romantische Oper (German Romantic opera). Throughout his youth, his father, Franz Anton [de], relentlessly moved the family between Hamburg, Salzburg, Freiberg, Augsburg and Vienna. Consequently he studied with many teachers—his father, Johann Peter Heuschkel, Michael Haydn, Giovanni Valesi, Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, and Georg Joseph Vogler—under whose supervision he composed four operas, none of which survive complete. He had a modest output of non-operatic music, which includes two symphonies; two clarinet concertos; bassoon concerti; piano pieces such as Konzertstück in F minor and Invitation to the Dance; and many pieces that featured the clarinet, usually written for the virtuoso clarinetist Heinrich Baermann. His mature operas—Silvana (1810), Abu Hassan (1811), Der Freischütz (1821), Die drei Pintos (comp. 1820–21), Euryanthe (1823), Oberon (1826)—had a major impact on subsequent German composers including Marschner, Meyerbeer, and Wagner; his compositions for piano influenced those of Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt. His best known work, Der Freischütz, remains among the most significant German operas.