BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, April 29, 1826

In London, a seriously ill Carl Maria von Weber attends the premiere of the opera Aladdin by Henry Bishop (1787-1856) at Drury Lane Theatre. Bishop had intended it to compete with Weber’s Oberon, which was playing at Covent Garden. Upon Weber’s entrance, the house rose. During the “Hunter’s Chorus,” the audience whistled Weber’s chorus of the same name from Der Freischütz. Aladdin failed, and it brought Bishop’s career as an operatic composer to a close.