Perhaps no opera composer had a better chance of becoming a rich man than had Carl Maria von Weber. The success of 'Der Freischuetz' was immense. The fascinating melodies of this opera were sung, played and whistled everywhere, by musical and unmusical people. It would be difficult to point out a civilized country in which 'Der Freischuetz' has not been performed and listened to with rapture. Before the popularity of the opera was fully established, Weber offered the pianoforte score to the publisher Schlesinger, in Berlin, for sixty Frederick-d'ors (L51). Schlesinger thought the demand exorbitant, and offered two hundred and twenty thalers (L33), which Weber accepted.[42] Nevertheless, in consequence of the many performances of 'Der Freischuetz' in various towns on the Continent, from which the composer derived some pecuniary advantage, the opera proved rather lucrative to him. Still, it was more remunerative indirectly than directly, inasmuch as its universal success induced Charles Kemble, the manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, to engage Weber to compose 'Oberon,' and to visit London for the purpose of conducting the new opera. Thus Weber had an excellent opportunity of exercising his aptitude for business. How he acquitted himself of the task, may be gathered from his rejecting at the outset the terms offered by Kemble,--which were L500, and all his expenses paid,--and proposing his own terms, which, with the help of some one acquainted with the English language, he had penned as follows:-- "At my arrival at London I will first of all preside at the piano in six representations of the 'Freischuetz'; for the first five you will give me every night a pecuniary compensation of two hundred pounds, and the sixth as a benefit for me. During this time we will prepare 'Oberon' and I will preside at the piano also the first six representations at the same conditions. I must be assured that all this be settled in three months, otherwise I should claim an adequate indemnification. The music of 'Oberon' (Partition, and adapted by me for the Piano) is then your property for Great Britain. The poem and the music are mine for all the rest of Europe." According to this proposal Weber would have realized in the course of three months L2,400. But he soon experienced that one may also be too practical. His shattered health rendered the journey to England exceedingly fatiguing, and the trouble, excitement and disappointments connected with the rehearsals and representations of 'Oberon,' and with the necessary preparations for his concerts, accelerated his dissolution. He died in 1826, when he had been about three months in London, and the proceeds of his toil during the time amounted to about L1,100, or less than half the sum which he at first demanded from Kemble.