Carl Maria von Weber Der Freischütz opera to libretto by Johann Friedrich Kind. Directed 2018 by Christian Räth at the Wiener Staatsoper. Stars Adrian Eröd (Ottokar), Clemens Unterreiner (Cuno), Camilla Nylund (Agathe), Daniela Fally (Ännchen), Alan Held (Caspar), Andreas Schager (Max), Albert Dohmen (Hermit), Gabriel Bermúdez (Kilian), and Hans Peter Kammerer (Samiel). Tomáš Netopil conducts the Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper and the Chor der Wiener Staatsoper (Chorus Master Thomas Lang). Set and costume design by Gary McCann; lighting design by Thomas Hase; video design by Nina Dunn; choreography by Vesna Orlic. Directed for TV by Agnes Méth. Sung in German. Released 2022, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Richard Wigmore, writing in the April 2022 Gramophone, page 84, praises the orchestra and the singers. But he warns against the deconstructed staging in which Max has given up his career as forester with a gun and taken up composing music at a grand piano. Wigmore complains that the dimly lit “clichés and absurdities fall flat.” William R. Brown, at page 59 of the July 2022 Opera News, calls the production “workable”, but goes on to praise the “glory” of the playing of the Vienna State Orchestra under Tomáš Netopil.
Here’s a clip from C Major showing you some of the aforementioned clichés and absurdities:
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