Weber’s Der Freischütz is the finest neglected opera in or hovering on the edge of the canon. It’s not entirely bewildering why it should be, but there are ways of coping with structural defects, which is what it suffers from. Yet I don’t think there has been a UK performance of it since Edinburgh in 2002 (not counting the Berlioz version last year at the Proms), when Jonas Kaufmann sang Max in a concert performance. Perhaps concert performances are the best idea, since the one last week at the Barbican, under Sir Colin Davis, was thrilling and moving. Yet even it wasn’t entirely convincing on the structural problem, which is that almost all the significant action, and there is a fair amount, occurs in the spoken dialogue, of which there are enormous quantities.
The solution opted for at the Barbican was to have Malcolm Sinclair, actor and frequent participant in musical events, read a narration written by Amanda Holden.
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