File:Costume_designs_for_Samiel_and_Caspar_in_'Der_Freischütz'_1821_-_NGO2p297.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Der Freischütz
Sign in to saveGerman opera by Carl Maria von Weber
Key facts
- Translation
- The Marksman or The Freeshooter
- Librettist
- Friedrich Kind
- Language
- German
- Premiere
- 18 June 1821 ( 1821-06-18 ) , Schauspielhaus Berlin
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Genre
- opera
- Screenwriter
- Johann August Apel
- Composer
- Carl Maria von Weber
- Narrative location
- Bohemia
- Librettist
- Johann Friedrich Kind
- Image
- Cacciatore (coro), figurino di Giuseppe Palanti per Der Freischutz (1906) - Archivio Storico Ricordi ICON009381.jpg
Show 13 more facts
- Commons category
- Der Freischütz
- date of first performance
- 1821-06-18
- title
- Der Freischütz
- work available at URL
- www.zeno.org/nid/20005157536
- language of work or name
- German
- inception
- 1817-00-00
- number of parts of this work
- 3
- location of first performance
- Konzerthaus Berlin
- publication date
- 1821-00-00
- copyright status
- public domain
- form of creative work
- opera
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
- opus number
- 77
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Der Freischütz (J. 277, Op. 77 The Marksman or The Freeshooter) is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1810 collection Gespensterbuch. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera.
The opera's plot is mainly based on Apel's tale "Der Freischütz" from the Gespensterbuch though the hermit, Kaspar and Ännchen are new to Kind's libretto. That Weber's tunes were just German folk music is a common misconception. Its unearthly portrayal of the supernatural in the famous Wolf's Glen scene has been described as "the most expressive rendering of the gruesome that is to be found in a musical score".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Der Freischütz” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.