- Weber composed Der Freischütz (“The Freeshooter” or “The Marksman”) between 1817-1821. The opera premiered on June 18, 1821, at the Berlin Schauspielhaus.1
- Weber found the Freischütz story in the Gespensterbuch, a book of German ghost stories by August Apel and Friedrich Laun, published in 1810 or 1811.2
- Weber was interested in adapting Der Freischütz into an opera soon after the book was released, but he didn’t find the right librettist to get the project off the ground until 1817, when he suggested the project to poet Johann Friedrich Kind, who completed a libretto in March of that year. Weber completed the music on May 13, 1820.
- Weber’s music for the supernatural Wolf’s Glen Scene was deeply influential to the development of nascent Romanticism in music.
- Synopsis from Encylopedia Brittanica
Sources
- “Der Freischütz, Op.77 (Weber, Carl Maria von),” IMSLP, accessed May 27, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Der_Freisch%C3%BCtz%2C_Op.77_(Weber%2C_Carl_Maria_von).
- Clive Brown, “Weber, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed May 27, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000004022.
Cut IDs
10358 40037 41242 42758 44200 47516