airy partner, vows
never to be reconciled to her till he shall find two lovers constant
through peril and temptation. To seek such a pair his 'tricksy
spirit,' Puck, has ranged in vain through the world. Puck, however,
hears the sentence passed on Sir Huon of Bordeaux, a young knight,
who, having been insulted by the son of Charlemagne, kills him in
single combat, and is for this condemned by the monarch to travel to
Bagdad to slay him who sits on the Caliph's left hand, and to claim
his daughter as his bride. Oberon instantly resolves to make this pair
the instruments of his reunion with his queen, and for this purpose he
brings up Huon and Sherasmin asleep before him, enamours the knight by
showing him Reiza, daughter of the Caliph, in a vision, transports him
at his waking to Bagdad, and having given him a magic horn, by the
blasts of which he is always to summon the assistance of Oberon, and a
cup that fills at pleasure, disappears. Here Sir Huon rescues a man
from a lion, who proves afterwards to be Prince Babekan, who is
betrothed to Reiza. One of the properties of the cup is to detect
misconduct. He offers it to Babekan.

On raising it to his lips the wine turns to flame, and thus proves him
a villain. He attempts to assassinate Huon, but is put to flight. The
knight then learns from an old woman that the princess is to be
married next day, but that Reiza has been influenced, like her lover,
by a vision, and is resolved to be his alone. She believes that fate
will protect her from her nuptials with Babekan, which are to be
solemnized on the next day. Huon enters, fights with and vanquishes
Babekan, and having spell-bound the rest by a blast of the magic horn,
he and Sherasmin carry off Reiza and Fatima. They are soon
shipwrecked. Reiza is captured by pirates on a desert island and
brought to Tunis, where she is sold to the Emir and exposed to every
temptation, but she remains constant. Sir Huon, by the order of
Oberon, is also conveyed thither. He undergoes similar trials from
Roshana, the jealous wife of the Emir, but proving invulnerable she
accuses him to her husband, and he is condemned to be burned on the
same pile with Reiza. They are rescued by Sherasmin, who has the magic
horn. Oberon appears with his queen, whom he has regained by their
constancy, and the opera concludes with Charlemagne's pardon of Huon.

The overture, like that of "Der Freischuetz," reflects the story, and
is universally popular. Its