Hamburg State Opera – “Der Freischütz”: Comes time, comes forest

What,” Erich Fried once asked in a poem, “is the forest to us Germans?” – to give several answers: “an ever-green pretext / for defining noises / as noise or as silence,” but also “a cover for feelings of exhilaration / that are no longer covered elsewhere,” “an occasion to feel calmly abandoned.” and “an opportunity / to clear a path and a wrong path in him”, finally “a reason in him to love and in him to shoot”.

Yes, yes, the forest, especially the German one, is a pretext and cover, a path and a wrong path, but above all: an endless reason. Carl Maria von Weber contributed no small part to the fantasies of the German forest landscape of longing a good two hundred years ago with his “Freischütz”, which was quickly to make a career as a “national opera”.

Weber’s romantic opera, premiered in Berlin in 1821, has now premiered at the Hamburg State Opera under the musical direction of Yoel Gamzou in a new production directed by the playful and subtle director Andreas Kriegenburg. Kriegenburg lets the listeners and viewers know through the program booklet whether the “Freischütz” is a so-called national opera or not, that doesn’t interest him that much. But what is then transported from the stage into the audience hall, through the music anyway, speaks a clearly different language.

The “Freischütz” was not only created after the wars of liberation against Napoleonic France, but also takes place in the period after the end of the Thirty Years’ War. The director now moves the action to an indeterminate time between the more or less golden 20s after the disastrous First World War, which the silent film aesthetic of the mask reminds us of, and the days of the economic miracle after the catastrophic Second World War, which the costumes remind us of (Andrea Schraad) remember. In the more civilized periods of history, which go down in the annals as the post-war, or to put it more pessimistically: the interwar periods, archaic traditions that emerged from a warlike world continue to be written down, as Kriegenburg clearly shows.

In “Freischütz” it is the hunter Max who is supposed to fire a test shot before he is allowed to marry Agathe. This compulsory exercise to demonstrate one’s own potency plunges the groom into despair, as his hunting luck has deserted him. But then Kaspar rushes in, apparently to help, and seduces him into making a pact with the black hunter Samiel in the forest gorge. Infallible bullets are cast, one of which is supposed to hit Agathe.

On the one hand, the constraints of performance society are demonstrated in the environment of those wearing traditional costumes and suits, which Max (Maximilian Schmitt) threatens to break convincingly in his singing and play. On the other hand, the traditional test-firing tradition, which is a relic from ancient times, becomes apparent. The martial ritual, the death longed for by Kaspar, the dark figure of Samiel are no less dark than Weber’s composition and than the deep black forest, which is presented to us here (stage: Harald B. Thor) as movable wooden walls.

It is not surprising that in such a world, which remains so uncomfortably stuck in the past, the female characters are also condemned to participate and let things happen. The Hamburg “Freischütz” gently undermines this by casting Agathe (Julia Kleiter) with a powerful soprano and the humorous potential in the character is fully exploited by his confidant Ännchen (Alina Wunderlin). But the fact remains that the role of the ladies is limited to hoping and fearing and twisting the maiden’s wreath.

Kriegenburg takes the fairytale ending that Weber gave us seriously and lets it unfold without irony. The fatal shot is miraculously redirected, Max is purified and the test shot is now over. So society shows itself to be changeable. At least that’s what the music would have us believe.

Next performances: November 27th, 29th and 3.12.

www.staatsoper-hamburg.de