Michael Kraus

Opera in three acts, composed by José Luis Turina for the inauguration of Gran Teatre del Liceu, after a scenic conception by La Fura dels Baus.

Weber was at the forefront of the rise of German Romantic opera and sought to dethrone Rossini from his position as the leading operatic composer in Europe. In his breakthrough and most popular opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) composed in 1821, he succeeded in his aim of establishing a truly German form. Turning to the folklore and folk songs of his native land he took a story of a marksman who makes a pact with the Devil, vesting it with powerful intensity not least in the famous Wolfs Glen scene and an astonishing control of orchestral color and atmosphere.

Comic romance with a philosophical twist? This popular opera combines it all to tell the story of a revoltingly greedy man who tries to get his hands on a young woman's fortune.

An unscrupulous arms dealer pulls a fast one on an imaginary Southern states island, where the cow belonging to the young farm hand Juan is pawned in exchange for a machine gun.