DER FREISCHÜTZ

Music by Carl Maria von Weber
Libretto by Friedrich Kind

Conceived, adapted and directed by Louisa Proske
Co-Directed by Chloe Treat
Newly arranged and music directed by Daniel Schlosberg
New English dialogues by Michaël Attias and Louisa Proske

A returning veteran brings the stench of war back to his small town. A young man in crisis is unable to live up to his community’s standards of masculinity. Two women’s friendship helps them navigate the macho culture they were born into. Performance anxiety before a brutal test leads to a deal with the devil. A gun goes off...

FROM LOUISA PROSKE:

“The themes of this very German opera find a resonant sounding board in current-day America. I am excited to make a version of Weber’s Der Freischütz that plugs both into the strangeness and otherness of this story set deep in a 17th century Bohemian forest, and that uses it to speak about the here and now - not a literal 2019, but a mythical America, a poetic world where the line into the national unconscious is crossed, and weird, disturbing images are stirred up. We know this small town and we know these characters! With a score that ranges from exuberant folksy tunes to avant garde sound painting, Daniel Schlosberg and I are thrilled to embark on yet another collaboration, picking up on Weber’s choices and pushing them even further with our new Heartbeat arrangement - all while celebrating the beautiful, varied vocal writing that can hold its own with the very best 19th century opera has to offer. This is an opera neglected by larger companies that Heartbeat can breathe fresh life into - with newly translated English dialogues, and a thrilling, immersive staging that transforms Baruch Performing Arts Center into a vertiginous landscape full of sound and fury, retina-burn images and strange, unforgettable encounters.”