Der Freischutz - Barbican; LSO, c. Davis

[Prommer]

This surely will be recorded for issue but also broadcast by R3?????

[David-G]

I am greatly looking forward to this. It is far too long since Der Freischutz appeared at Covent Garden.

[Prommer]

This was a corker last night....

[David-G]

Absolutely excellent. Sally Matthews as Aennchen and Lars Woldt as Kaspar were especially good. It's such a wonderful score!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Opera Britannia review here:

http://operabritanniauk.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/weber-der-freischutz-barbican-19th-april-2012/

[aeolium]

Oh dear, IGI - doesn't sound too good, especially the use of a narrator which must have been a real distraction. A shame, as it's such a wonderful opera - I saw the ROH production in ?early 1980s with Colin Davis conducting and it was excellent. It is difficult to stage though and perhaps a concert performance can be as effective as any. I would love to see WNO do it, with Koenigs conducting.

[David-G]

An interesting review - but for all that, it was a hugely enjoyable evening. The narration was well done as these things go. I would encourage anyone to go to this evening’s performance.

[ARBurton]

Oh dear, IGI - doesn't sound too good, especially the use of a narrator which must have been a real distraction. A shame, as it's such a wonderful opera - I saw the ROH production in ?early 1980s with Colin Davis conducting and it was excellent. It is difficult to stage though and perhaps a concert performance can be as effective as any. I would love to see WNO do it, with Koenigs conducting.

WNO did it sometime between 1989 and 1991. But a revisit would be welcome! Or Oberon. Or Euryanthe.

[aeolium]

WNO did it sometime between 1989 and 1991. But a revisit would be welcome! Or Oberon. Or Euryanthe.

Yes indeed to any of them! But all of them difficult to stage, especially perhaps Euryanthe. Poor Weber - he was dreadfully let down by his librettists, wasn't he? A pity perhaps that he and E T A Hoffman did not collaborate on an opera. Weber admired Hoffman's opera Undine and although that libretto was not Hoffman's, he did write a libretto for his own Singspiel Die Maske.

[David-G]

Glyndebourne staged Euryanthe in 2002, with the OAE. It was panned by the critics, but I greatly enjoyed it, and saw it twice.

[gurnemanz]

I can't actually see why you might want to do Freischütz as a concert performance. I have only seen it once - in Germany about 40 years ago in a production that made a striking impression on me. I have two classic recordings - Jochum and Kleiber - but they serve to remind me of that theatrical experience that has stayed with me - the visual impact and spatial effects, light and dark, the magic and mystery, sounds and scents of a stage performance which seem to be so quintessential to an appreciation of the piece.

[aeolium]

Well, I'm with you, gurnemanz. I'd love to see it done on stage, but I fear that a modern staging (as with the most recent DVD versions) is more likely to portray an ironic take on the story than to try to recapture its affinities with early German romanticism. I heard an interview with Mackerras on R3 some years back in which he said it was virtually impossible to stage the Wolf's Glen scene now because people would just laugh at the schlock horror, the sort of Gothic effects that have been parodied for decades now.

Incidentally, the Freischütz you saw in Germany 40 years ago was not this one , originally from Hamburg State Opera, was it? I have the DVD of it and it's quite impressive, especially Edith Mathis as Ännchen.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can't actually see why you might want to do Freischütz as a concert performance.

In this instance, because it's the only way (alas) that we're going to hear Davis conduct the score, perhaps? The only reason I can come up with: it is a work that so needs stage effects, I agree.