About this edition
Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe, Op. 81, stands among the most ambitious and historically consequential works of early German Romantic opera. Premiered in Vienna in 1823, it was one of the first grand operas to dispense entirely with spoken dialogue in favor of continuous, through-composed music — a structural leap that pointed directly toward Wagner's music dramas, and one Wagner himself openly admired. Though the opera's libretto has long been considered its weakest link, the score is a marvel of harmonic daring and orchestral imagination, containing some of Weber's most advanced writing for the orchestra, including the justly celebrated Overture that remains a concert-hall staple to this day.
This full score reproduces the first published orchestral edition of Euryanthe, issued by the Berlin house of Schlesinger in 1866 — more than four decades after the opera's premiere — under plate number S. 4791. The edition was prepared by Ernst Rudorff (1840–1916), a composer and pedagogue at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik who went on to lend his editorial expertise to the collected works of Mendelssohn, and it was engraved by C.G. Röder of Leipzig, one of the most technically accomplished music-printing houses of the nineteenth century, whose work set the standard for clarity and precision in German orchestral publishing. Schlesinger itself was among the foremost German music publishers of the era, and this handsome first edition of Weber's full score has long served as a benchmark source for conductors and scholars seeking a faithful record of the composer's orchestration.
About this edition:
- Format: full orchestral score
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- Reproduced from a public domain historical source
- Publisher: Purple 4R Publishing
We're glad to bring this historic score back into print. As a public domain work, Euryanthe belongs to everyone, and we hope this faithful reproduction makes Weber's remarkable orchestral writing easy to study, perform, and enjoy.
