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Tuomas Katajala as MAX in David Marton‘s production of Der Freischütz Theater an Der Wien, Vienna

Premiere

Theater an der Wien Vienna, Austria. 20 March 2023

Credits

Musikalische Leitung: Patrick Lange
Inszenierung und Bühne: David Marton
Video: Chris Kondek
Mitarbeit Bühne: Charlotte Spichalsky
Kostüm: Pola Kardum
Licht: Miriam Damm
Dramaturgie: Kai Weßler

production notes

David Marton approached me to make with him a live film of Der Freischütz for Theater an Der Wien. His idea was to stage the whole opera for cameras with the result projected on a gauze hanging between the performers and the audience. The singers would be heard through the projection screen, but barely visible. The goal was to create a cinematic version, working with filmic vocabularies, and the immersive qualities of cinema viewing to create a new way of watching an old classic.

Still from the live projection. Kaspar, performed by Alex Esposito, haunted by Samiel who appears as a projection of Agathe in a Laterna Magica.
Still from the live projection. Jacquelyn Wagner as Agathe and Sofia Fomina as Ännchen dissolve into one.
Still from the live projection. Bergmann`s persona influenced the mise-en-scene.

production notes

David Marton made two strong and unusual decisions a bout the dramaturgy of Der Freischütz. First is that the story should centre on the character of Agathe. Everything that happens is part of nightmare of Agathe's. She's ambivalent about her (possibly forced) upcoming wedding. Her doubts about the situation, about her role, as well asMax's character, get worked out in a fever dream version of the story. The second strong decision was that pensive Agathe and the light hearted cousin Ännchen are really two versions of the same woman. These strands of split psychology influenced the Lynchian character of images.

Still from live projection. Sofia Fomina appears in a dream
Still from live projection. Agathe dreams about max who is dreaming about ännchen who appears as Agathe.

press

"In jedem Fall fände der US-Filmkünstler [David Lynch] in dieser Version der romantischen Oper Spuren seiner sich originell an Traum und Albtraum orientierenden, surrealen Rätselästhetik. Wie etwa in Lynchs Klassikern Lost Highway oder Mulholland Drive herrscht auch hier, wo gemeinhin schießwütige Jäger, Jungfrauenchöre und düstere Mächte aufeinanderprallen, die schaurige Atmosphäre des Uneindeutigen. Basis ist gleichsam die Traumrealität der Zentralfigur Agathe. Zusammen mit dieser gefühlsgebeutelten Frau, die Max ehelichen soll, wandert man gleichsam durch ihr Unbewusstes, das in markanten Szenen der Angst und der Sehnsüchte präsentiert wird."

Ljubiša Tošic - Der Standard -23. März 2023

Kaspar lures max to the wolfsshcluchtrr
MAX in the wolfsschluchtrr