her fairyland with her. Arindal grants his mortal kingdom to Morald and Lora. Everyone rejoices; even Zemina and Farzana are happy now that Ada remains immortal. The music As a German Romantic opera, Die Feen imitated the musical style of Carl Maria von Weber. According to Danilo Prefumo's notes to one of the recordings available, it also showed the influence of Italian opera, grand opera and opéra comique. On the other hand, Alan Blyth, Gramophone's regular Wagner reviewer, sees both Weber and Marschner as influences but says that, by avoiding the aping of Italian opera in Das Liebesverbot and of grand opera in Rienzi, the result was an opera more stylistically unified than its successors. "The later works may contain individual passages that are more 'advanced' than anything in the youthfully imitative ways of Die Feen, but as entities they are less satisfying." In The New York Times, critic John Rockwell acknowledges the presence of passages imitative of Weber and Marschner but says that there are "wonderfully original passages too... Some of the instrumental writing is exquisite. And especially in the final two acts, there are ensembles and scenes of undeniable strength of personality. This is not some quaint antiquarian resurrection, but an opera that can work for today's audiences on stage." Blyth is less wholehearted in his support. In 1984, he wrote "The libretto is impossibly awkward, its language stilted, many of its musical structures ill-considered, but much is enjoyable in its own right as much as for the enjoyment in discovering seeds of future triumphs." The Weberian overture in E major, the key in which the opera begins and ends, includes many of the opera's principal themes. The work as a whole does not have the complex chains of melody and chromatic harmony that distinguished the composer's mature works. However, there is already a tendency in the opera to move away from a strict numbers form and to present the singers with long challenging passages. Recurring themes or simple leitmotifs associated with characters and situations already show a tendency towards something that Wagner would later use in a far more sophisticated manner in his mature works. Another anticipation of the composer's mature manner is how orchestra often carries the tune while vocal parts are declamatory. Of the various arias, Blyth picks out Ada's "huge act 2 scene, which calls for a genuine dramatic soprano" noting that Birgit Nilsson