Der Freischütz, op. 77 by Von Weber, Ab (2023/2023), Unter der Regie von Annika Haller,, Dirigat Jakob Brenner, Guillermo García Calvo, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Deutschland

Like hardly any other music theater work, Der Freischütz considered an expression of the German mentality in the 19th century. Romantic feelings about the world and a longing for a cultural homeland come together like in a prism and make the work the German national opera par excellence. Nevertheless, the sphere of original forests and rural life in which the action takes place should not be confused with "perfect world", as it becomes the scene of extremes of human existence and human imagination: On the one hand the elemental forces of the Wolfsschlucht, the attraction of the Abyssal, the unleashing of excluded evil, on the other hand the purity of simple belief in higher powers and in the integrity of a meaningful world. For the hunter's boy Max, his entire life narrows down to an all-important moment. If he hits the test shot, he wins Agathe and the position of hereditary forester. If he misses, he loses everything – a pressure he cannot withstand. In desperation, he resorts to magical free balls that never miss their target. Kaspar, an outsider in league with demonic powers, got it for him. At the test shot, Max only has the seventh and last bullet left. The black hunter steers them wherever he wants. The shot is fired to seal the fate of Max, Agathe and Kaspar... Director Elisabeth Stöppler, who is associated with the Chemnitz Opera through her award-winning Götterdämmerung and Tristan , will get to the bottom of the "German soul" in Der Freischütz in 2023, at a time when political and ideological polarization is putting our society to the acid test where the germ of a breach in civilization is showing itself more and more openly.