“A fearsome forest gorge, thickly wooded; two thunderstorms are approaching… a blasted oak, its rotting core gives off a ghostly light.” If that stage description chills, so does the music for the Wolf’s Glen scene in Der Freischütz. Any director taking on Weber’s opera faces challenges. Max, the young huntsman, is lured into supernatural shenanigans to forge magic bullets that will insure victory in the shooting trial – and with it the hand of Agathe. Stage the opera traditionally, it risks coming across as folksy nonsense. Put a modern twist on it, it can just look ridiculous. Sándor Zsóter’s production for the Hungarian State Opera takes risks, with very mixed results.
Bohemia’s woods and fields are far removed from Mária Ambrus’ set, which consists of a mosaic cyclorama, with strong political overtones, over which hovers a giant bicycle wheel roof, tipping and tilting, rising and falling. Zsóter turns communism into the real threat, rather than the supernatural. When Kilian shoots down the target in the opening scene, it is a floral tribute containing a giant yellow hammer… all that’s missing is the sickle. Ännchen uses an identical yellow hammer to nail the portrait of Agathe’s ancestor back to the wall from which it has fallen. When the bridesmaids carry in the bridal wreath, instead of an erroneous funeral wreath being contained within the box, there is the floral tribute to communism again.
Zsóter’s other big idea is to represent the black huntsman Samiel, a spoken role personifying the devil, by a female dancer. Andrea Ladányi often works with Zsóter as his choreographer, and she brought striking presence to the role. When Kaspar allows Max to use a magic bullet and shoots down an eagle, it is Samiel who enters, dressed in feathered costume. Ladányi also brings an eerie, erotic presence when Max relates the story of his exploits to Agathe, unable to stop touching him. In the final scene, Samiel – dressed in the same dove-like bridal gear as Agathe – literally guides Max’s rifle towards his bride, but it is Kaspar who receives the deflected bullet. When Samiel is summoned in the Wolf’s Glen scene, a near naked Ladányi writhes and smothers her body in black paint. It’s a provocative interpretation, but the rest of the Wolf’s Glen scene fell very flat indeed, the choral writhing nearly as risible as the inexplicable presence of non-singing extras – men of a certain age, dressed in green leotards. Flame-throwers tried to add a bit of heat, but the temperature in the auditorium remained cool, the audience nonplussed.