After all, after the constant “butterfly” of the previous two years, the shores of Lake Constance are buzzing again, with the water body playing an important role. Most of the characters continue to wander through the varnishes, which are located between the half-submerged world of the village of “Freeshoots”. Kneipp bars with high quality.
As with “Rigoletto” on the lake stage in 2019/2021, Stölzl is again responsible for the stage design, this time relying on a horizontal rather than a vertical orientation. It’s a crooked, wintry landscape, a world without alliances. At the same time, the supposedly fixed structure holds some surprises during the evening, creating hidden installations and proving unexpectedly diverse in its possibilities. An initially annoying plant in the village, before the audience wanted to get on stage, was extinguished before knocking the miller.
In this setting, Stölzl deploys a structured narrative in Gustav Grundgens’ Mephistopheles with the trained preacher as narrator, whom Moritz von Drunfels sets up as a rhyming master of ceremonies. He initially shows a dark ending to the work, which is more inspired by August Apel’s “Ghost Book” than the original “Freischütz”. The actual opera is then presented as a flashback.
Stölzl approaches the work in a very postmodern and ironic way, breaking it up by constantly going meta through the use of prose. He breaks up the theater of illusion with static commentary and adds cynical comments to the Christian style of the libretto. There’s a little Esther Williams water ballet and a lesbian romance between Agatha and Ansen.
The only problem with this devilish play is that this approach to staging is more familiar from ambitious opera houses than summer festivals, which usually focus on light, airy material. Yet there can be no question of missing the title, as the self-reflexive approach to “Freescots” seems perfectly coherent in 2024, as it avoids most of the difficulties the opera has in store for today’s audiences.
How often do you see a “freeshots” where brave singers struggle and fail at speaking passages that go beyond the nativity play level? Thanks to Moritz von Drunfels as the narrator, but also the powerful team around Nicola Hillebrand as Agathe, Katharina Rakkeber Ännchen, Casper as the sidekick of the brutal Christoph Fischer Samuel and Mauro Pieter’s loyal Lake, the real musical evening Max . And the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Enrique Mazzola escapes the trap of providing a soundtrack to the action, but instead delivers a robust, highly nuanced “Freischütz.”
Anyone who wants to see this “Freischütz” store-bought powder for themselves has 27 chances until August 18th – in theory. After all, several shows have already sold out, totaling 199,000 tickets. It’s like the devil…
(By Martin Fichter-Wöß/APA)
(Service – “Der Freischütz” by Carl Maria von Weber by Bregenz Festival in the Lake stage. Production/Stage: Philipp Stölzl, Costumes: Gesine Völlm, Lighting: Philipp Stölzl/Florian Schmitt : with Enrique Mazzola (Premier Cast): Ottokar – Livue Hollander, Kuno – Franz Havlata, Agatha – Nicola Hillebrandt, Ansen – Katharina Rakkeber, Kasper – Christoph Flamesser, Max – Mauro Peter, Samiel Trey Moritzon – Moritzon – Wolf, Kilian – Maximilian Krummen, Bridesmaids – Theresa Kaw/Sarah Kling July 19- 21, 23-28 and July 1-4, 6-11.)
