Against his doctor's advice, Weber undertook the project commissioned by the actor-impresario Charles Kemble for financial reasons.

[1] Having been offered the choice of Faust or Oberon as subject matter, he travelled 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.

Vestris as Fatima, Braham as Huon, Bland as Oberon and the composer conducting, it was a triumph with many encores,[1] and the production was frequently revived.

Since then, other composers and librettists have revised the work, notably Franz Wüllner, Gustav Mahler (who, preparing a new performing version, rearranged some of the numbers and composed some linking music based on material from the existing score) and novelist-composer Anthony Burgess, who wrote a new libretto for Oberon and arranged the overture for guitar quartet.

[citation needed] The opera was soon mounted elsewhere: Leipzig (23 December 1826); in 1827 in Dublin (1 February), Edinburgh (26 August) and Vienna (20 March), Prague in 1828 and Budapest in 1829, with many other performances in western Europe from the 1830s to the 1860s.

[2] A lavish production was mounted in French at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on 27 February 1857, conducted by Adolphe Deloffre, and was praised by Berlioz.

[4] In the 20th century, the Metropolitan Opera premiere was on 28 December 1918 (accumulating 13 performances up to 1921) with Rosa Ponselle as Reiza, conducted by Artur Bodanzky, who also composed recitatives in place of original spoken dialogue.

A vision of Reiza is conjured for Huon and his squire Sherasmin, and they are given a magic horn to summon aid from Oberon if needed.

Comparing the unconventional plot and structure of Oberon with that of The Magic Flute, Gustav Kobbé contends that 'Oberon is musically strong enough to stand on its own merits'.

[5] Grove notes that despite the "unmitigated awfulness" of the libretto, Weber was able to provide musical characterisation for the main characters, at the same time colourfully evoking the mood of the different scenes; the careful recurring use of the horn call motif helps to give the impression of tying the work together.

[1] Indeed, Mendelssohn quoted the descending scale theme from the finale of act 2 ("Hark, the mermaids") in his own overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.