Max, a young hunter, must win a shooting competition to claim the hand of his beloved Agathe. But on the eve of the competition, seemingly having lost all shooting prowess, Max allows himself to be convinced by his rival Kaspar to make a pact with the devil to use seven magic bullets which never miss their target. Wagner said that Carl Maria von Weber’s early-Romantic gem was the most German of German operas. With touches of the eerie supernatural, Der Freischütz is an irresistible mix of colourful folklore, tender romance, and a passionate struggle between good and evil - all captured in Weber’s tuneful and dramatic score. Successful Russian theatre, opera and film director Kirill Serebrennikov makes his debut in Amsterdam. In his approach to the opera, the struggle for success is transposed from the world of hunters and that of artists.
One of the reasons why Donizetti's Don Pasquale is regarded as a cornerstone of the Italian comic opera tradition is because its characters are no mere commedia dell’arte stereotypes, but complex, vulnerable human beings. This is brought to the fore in Mariame Clément's sensitive and perceptive production, which was hailed by the Financial Times as ‘a Glyndebourne classic’. Acclaimed buffo baritone Alessandro Corbelli sings the title role ‘with just the right degree of lugubriousness’, while Danielle de Niese, one of today's most sought-after sopranos, is an ‘engaging’ and ‘irresistible’ Norina (The Telegraph). Bel canto specialist Enrique Mazzola conducts with flair and panache. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in true Surround Sound.
