Lest you think this is another garden-variety Freischütz, look again: This is a “French” version prepared for the Opéra de Paris in l841, with no less than Hector Berlioz as the composer of the orchestrated recitatives that took the place of the original (German) spoken dialog. Indeed Berlioz’s recitatives, one of them as long as 80 bars, bear the mark of the great French composer, and an essay in the booklet accompanying the CDs nicely points out the similarities between Kaspar (“Gaspard” in this version) and Méfistofeles, etc; but I dare say that it takes very careful listening and analysis to fully notice the true “Berlioz-ness” of the added music. Having said that, what we have here is a French-language Freischütz, and several listens-through have reminded me how closely linked Weber’s music is to the German language.
The softer edge of French is oddly unsuited to this tale of country folk, their shooting contests and woodsy wedding ceremonies. And in a purely musical sense–at least under the direction of this particular Frenchman, Jean-Paul Perin–I missed some of the nice rusticity of, say, the waltz in the first act. Perin’s propensity for fast tempos–Agathe’s third-act aria (“Und on die wolke” in the original) whizzes by at two-thirds the normal speed–also doesn’t help. This Freischütz is just a bit too “charmant”.
With the exception of Jacques Perroni’s finely drawn, snarling Gaspard, and Anne Constantin’s perky Annette, the cast is not particularly distinguished: Cécile Perrin’s Agathe sounds positively elderly, and while I can’t really think of a Maz I’ve ever really liked, François Soulet’s seems especially undernourished. I had a better time listening to this than analyzing it: it whips along well, the Wolf’s Glen scene is nicely done (where is the Act 3 prelude right after it?–it goes straight into Agathe’s aria!), the cast is energetic, and the chorus and orchestra are pretty good. But as a fine representation of Weber’s great opera, it simply doesn’t make the grade. [10/9/1999]
