Opera with guns

Saturday night I decided to be cultural. I got myself a student ticket to theKomische Oper (where I sawMadame Butterfly) production of Der Freischutz (The Marksman) by Carl Maria von Weber. This is a very German opera, a very Romantic opera, which is based on a German legend and drew a lot of musical inspiration from German folk songs. Allegedly a major influence on Wagner's operas. It's mostly about manliness, guns, manly men running around the woods with guns, and gambling with the devil to win the girl of your dreams by winning a shooting contest (during which said dream girl is shot).

The music you most likely have heard is the Huntsmen's Chorus. Here is a sample. I'm not really sure if it works. This is what it looked like at the Komische Oper, though:

I like the opera, and this one was much better and much more fun than Madame Butterfly. There were some excellent performers, and even the set was pretty cool. My only objection was the (apparently obligatory) acid flashback/dream scene. No pictures of that (the third graders saw a different production), but much like the dream scene in Madame Butterfly, it involved grotesque and scantily clad women and Mickey Mouse. I think the artistic director has some issues to work through.