Carl Maria von Weber - Der Freischütz

Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)

Der Freischütz - J. 277 (1817-21)

Maximilian Schmitt (Max), 

Polina Pasztircsák (Agathe), 

Kateryna Kasper (Ännchen), 

Dimitry Ivashchenko (Kaspar), 

Yannick Debus (Kilian), 

Matthias Winckhler (Kuno), 

Christian Immler (Hermit), 

Max Urlacher (Samiel)

Freiburger Barockorchester

Zürcher Sing-Akademie

René Jacobs

Release Date: 29th Apr 2022

The Belgian conductor's restoration of the original libretto's prologue lends a wonderful symmetry and coherence to Weber's supernatural Singspiel, whilst German actor Max Urlacher is properly spine-chilling in the expanded role of the demon Samiel.

Delving into black magic and folk culture, Weber created with Der Freischütz a new aesthetic that was to nourish the imaginative world of a whole generation of composers. René Jacobs has gone back to the sources of the initial project and here offers us a completely new reading of the very first german Romantic opera: the prologue initially conceived by the librettist is restored to its original place, giving due symbolic and structural weight to the character of the Hermit. A fascinating rediscovery!

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"the outstanding Freiburg orchestra remains centre stage, consistently showing how suited Weber’s vivid score is to the rich palette of colour and nuance obtainable using period instruments...Vocally, too, the overall standard is high...Like his magnificent Beethoven Leonore, it suggests that Jacobs’s greatest legacy may well turn out not to be the Baroque operas with which he was so long associated."

Opera