Der Freischütz

Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz.

This seminal work stylistically bridges the period between Beethoven’s Fidelio and Wagner’s first success, Rienzi, and is widely regarded as the first German Romantic opera. Weber’s Der Freischütz draws deeply on German folklore and folk music, while also offering moments of striking lyricism and theatrical grandeur. True to its folk origins, the opera unfolds as a dark and atmospheric tale of a young forester who, unknowingly, enters into a pact with the Devil in a desperate attempt to win a shooting contest, the final trial required to earn his beloved’s hand in marriage. Beneath the supernatural drama lie enduring themes of fate and free will, temptation and moral weakness, and the tension between the natural and supernatural, all set against the brooding landscape of the German forest.