The Marksman
A Romantic opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber
Libretto by Friedrich Kind
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An old law demands that no marriage and no succession to the position of head gamekeeper can take place without a successful demonstration of marksmanship. Now Max, a young huntsman, and Agathe, daughter of the head gamekeeper, wish to marry. But the closer the day of the demonstration draws, the greater is their fear: Max can no longer hit a single thing, while Agathe is plagued by dreadful premonitions. Thus Max's older colleague Kaspar finds it easy to convince the despairing couple that only dark powers and black magic can save them. As midnight approaches, Max enters the ill-famed Wolf's Glen with Kaspar in order to make magic bullets which cannot miss … »All of The Marksman is excellent«, wrote Heinrich Heine 1822 in his Letters from Berlin, where this Romantic opera enjoyed huge popularity. Weber had touched the raw nerve of his (and our) age: the desire for the terrible, which distracts from day-to-day fears and yet which still strikes the very core of fear in uncertain circumstances.